need help with my mx850

[drutort]

Ok so I like my mx850, and have been using refilling and chip resetting on oem cartridges since i bought the device (bought it right when the mx860 was replacing the mx850) I bought the ink and resetter combo from http://inkfilling.com a while ago

all was great for maybe a few months, I dont know what happened but suddenly started to get lines on black text or normal/draft setting (fast) the strange thing is that on high setting the printer still prints fine, so I have been doing that since im refilling the ink I dont really mind if people print on high at home.

Well I got around to trying to clean the head with the solution that they gave me, and nothing the first time around, still the same results.

So i tried with many ways alcohol (91), Windex and I got tired of do it, had it soaking, and it dripping from other side (like backwashing) and to my surprise I had one successful print (third print) of the nozzle check page that did not have any of the lines missing BUT and I noticed my Cyan on the top has a lighter shade and that has not changed

My question is my printhead really badly clogged even though I have spent a lot of hours cleaning it were I had no ink at all coming through the printhead. Or is the printhead just toast? and should I hit craigslist and look for compatible model (iP4500, iP5300) that has the same printhead?

in the past Have tried to do a lot of cleaning cycles which none ever helped with this issue hence the high printing setting and me finally trying to do something now about it. I am wondering if doing too many or often those clean cycles caused my issue with the large PGBK and the Cyan to be worse? (cant see how it could be).

When cleaning I noticed the flow on the Cyan compared to the others was a low lower, the PGBK seems to be ok, and regardless of how well i was cleaning when I would stop and let printhead dry and then did the cleaning again i had some very mild ink show up...

I'm just wondering what to do and were to look, ill try more extensive cleaning methods or approaches if needed IF its possible to get it to work so I can print on normal (standard)

I cant really tell if the cyan lighter streak that shows only on the first bar is an issue in basic printing, but still would like to get it working properly if possible.

It seems there might be some hope, I think after more frequent use of the printer the prints are decent, but if you dont use the printer and wish to print off few pages they are horrible and forcing to go to the "high" setting to get around the issue. The second cleaning did seem to improve things a bit, and now even on fast I did a text print and no lines or anything missing, though having graphics still requires "high" setting to get it to show up normal, im getting a light streak in some colors probably due to the Cyan issue above?

 

[ghwellsjr]

When you are having problems with printing like this, it is not a good idea to continue to use your printer until you get the problem resolved or else you run the risk of permanently burning out some of the nozzles in your print head. You should only print nozzle checks until you clear up the problem.

It would be most helpful to us if you could print a nozzle check, scan it, and upload it here for us to see. Use the Upload link at the top of this page.

I think you have an electrical problem with your cyan which probably cannot be fixed. The problem with your pigment black may be due to ink flow problems or it may also be electrical. You should do nozzle checks after each attempt at cleaning and compare them to see if the same nozzles don't print.

 

[drutort]

I have another question, the ink refill kit didnt specifically give instructions (if i remember correctly) on my type of ink cartridge, so i went with the generic one what they had shown, and that was to pop out the ball which im assuming regulates the flow/air for the ink? and i plug that after filling with a rubber plug they provided, now im wondering if i should have left that plastic ball and drilled a filling hole instead? wondering if this could be causing the large black cartridge to be missing lines at times, they are random btw

here is the nozzle check print out

 

[ghwellsjr]

You refilled one of the correct ways. You could also have left the ball in place and drilled another hole. The important thing is that the hole be absolutely air tight when you're done. If it's not, the ink will leak out of the cartridge and be all over the inside of you printer after a few hours or overnight. This problem generally will not cause random clogged nozzles like you have in your pigment black.

When you say the pigment black is missing lines at times and that they are random, do you mean that if you do a second nozzle check right after the first, you get a different random set of missing segments? What if you do a cleaning and then a nozzle check?

I also see a small section of your dark cyan that seems to be missing. Is this a constant situation or does it change with each cleaning. Is this what you meant by the lighter shade in the top cyan?

 

[drutort]

the lines are random for the black, and yes the cyan has been consistent, I just did a basic clean (not deep) and the PGBK has all the lines, but the cyan is the same so the PGBK seems to be random, I waited like 10 min and did another nozzle print and the black had one small line missing cyan exactly the same

I just looked at the print out and Magenta has very very faint skipping line in the middle of the shades

 

[ghwellsjr]

The reason why you get better printouts in the high quality mode is because the printer advances the paper a smaller amount and overscans the same area more times so that a missing nozzle gets overprinted by other (hopefully) working nozzles.

You can probably get your pigment black to work perfectly with a lot of cleaning work but it appears that your cyan has an internal electrical problem which cannot be fixed. This will affect all of you color printouts. I would look for a replacement print head. You may be able to get a free one from Canon--see this thread. If that doesn't work, you can probably buy one from Canon or on eBay, or, as you suggested, find another printer with the same print head, but make sure it has a perfect nozzle check before you buy it.

 

[drutort]

thx for your help and advice, seems that my black is fixed I can print on standard just fine, and the color your right I get a lighter line on most graphics but i can live with that for the time being as i can print on high setting and that goes away for anything important

I guess ill be hunting for a used printhead if not ill shell out later down the road for a refurb/new printhead and go with higher quality ink from the recommended sites on here, i still have a bit of ink left so i will use it up and do the upgrade down the road.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Did you try the link in post #6 to see if you could get a free print head from Canon?