Magenta and black refuse to print

[pdfman]

Hi All,
I have a Brother DCP-115 MFC that I have been using for 5 years.Believe it or not the refill Ink I had purchased back in 2006 just ran out.Never experienced clogged head or any thing.Good enough photo print quality for me.The Ink brand was called Singink bought in Singapore.
As I am posted in Iraq and there is no way to purchase anything online,I visited the computer mall and only found Non branded INk,so with not much choice ,bought what was available and headed back to the base.Refilled the carts as usual and left them overnight and tried printing the next day, only to find out that magenta and black are not printing.tried cleaning the head for several times to no avail.There is no utility for cleaning the nozzles.
I am pretty technical and can take it a part if this helps.
Desparate for help in the middle of no where in Iraq.
Please help and advice what to do?the repair guy told me to add glycerine to the INK and try cleaning the head??Could yhis help pls?
Cheers

 

[ruffin]

pdfman: doubt you will find much info this forum on cleaning Brother's printhead. You might click this link
for info on Canon printheads.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3969

Lots of info on cleaning solutions & procedures. Have no idea whether pertinent to Brother's machines.
Good luck with it.

 

[The Hat]

Hi All,
I have a Brother DCP-115 MFC that I have been using for 5 years.Believe it or not the refill Ink I had purchased back in 2006 just ran out.Never experienced clogged head or any thing.Good enough photo print quality for me.The Ink brand was called Singink bought in Singapore.
As I am posted in Iraq and there is no way to purchase anything online,I visited the computer mall and only found Non branded INk,so with not much choice ,bought what was available and headed back to the base.Refilled the carts as usual and left them overnight and tried printing the next day, only to find out that magenta and black are not printing.tried cleaning the head for several times to no avail.There is no utility for cleaning the nozzles.
I am pretty technical and can take it a part if this helps.
Desparate for help in the middle of no where in Iraq.
Please help and advice what to do?the repair guy told me to add glycerine to the INK and try cleaning the head??Could yhis help pls?
Cheers

One thing I suggest you try first is to dribble a dozen drops of some window or visor cleaner
on to the bottom outlet of your cartridges and see if that will clear the blockage.

The next thing you should do is completely clean out all of your cartridges of any ink let them dry and refill with the new ink.
Third party inks when mixed together have a tendency not to be very compatible and this may have happened to you..

 

[pdfman]

Thanks for your suggestion Hat.I think this is actually the printer head witch is clogged.It is of piezo electric type and therefore can not be immersed in boiling water or any solvent.But i will try few drops as you adviced if it doesnot work,I will take it apart and will do a total wash.
will update the result in case it may benefit someone.

 

[llama_91]

Okay a couple of things, 1st order of business.Do not pull the printer apart!

What you need to do is get a syringe full of window cleaner or preferably watered down isopropyl alcohol.
next, take out the problem cartridge and flush some solution through the tube (that leads to the printerhead) then put the cartridge back in and do some nozzle tests, if you get even the slightest amount of ink come out on the paper then it is a good sign, if nothing comes out at all then you most likely have a dead printerhead, which most likely costs more to replace than the printer and it won't come with a warranty. Goodluck!

P.s. If flushing the solution through the printerhead gets any results at all, repeat until it is printing normally again. I hope this helps.