No yellow on nozzle test. Maybe clogged Y ink inlet on printhead.

[websnail]

No problem Joe'...

Glad it was of some help...

 

[joseph1949]

To: websnail
To: all

websnail, thank you for the note.

We have a problem Houston!!!!!!

This will be short because I am about to go to bed. I performed the clog test and nothing happened. Let me explain. I removed the printhead from the printer and placed the tubes on the magenta inlet and the yellow inlet. I filled each tube with isopropyl alcohol. I then waited for 15 minutes to see what would happen. After the 15 minutes the two levels in the tubes did not drop!!!!!!! One should remember that the reason for the test was because I had no yellow on a nozzle test. Note: I need not place the printhead in a shallow bath of alcohol. I did place the printhead on two pieces of wood so as to keep the bottom of the printhead from touching the container. I will be sending a picture of the set-up tomorrow.

Could someone please tell me what is going on? Why did not the magenta drop? Note: good nozzle test except for no yellow--again.

My reply will not be until sometime in the afternoon. I am having some work done on one of my cars and I need to spend time with the car and the mechanics.

Thank you.

 

[Grandad35]

If the bottom surface of the print head is perfectly dry, it can take several psi to get the liquid to flow because surface tension wants to keep the ink in the nozzles. If the bottom surface of the print head is wet (e.g. by wetting the bottom surface or by placing the print head on a wet paper towel) this surface tension effect is broken and liquid can exit from the nozzles with low pressure.

Sorry if I forgot to mention this previously.

 

[joseph1949]

To: Grandad35
To: all

Grandad35, I read your #11 reply so there is no need to apologize. I thought it would be prudent to not place alcohol against the printed circuit board/slots.

Well, something unexpected happenedI got the yellow back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not sure what happened, but I performed a nozzle test this morning and what do I see but yellow. In fact, some of the other colors did not show up very well on the nozzle test. Because of low ink warnings on the PGBK (large black), C, and Y carts I replaced the carts with carts in my stock of carts. I filled the carts right before I went to bed. The three used carts had not been filled for over a year. In fact, the Y cart was a used cart that had never been filled. When I did the nozzle test in the morning the yellow showed up nice and bright, but the PGBK and the C were off. I performed a number of cleanings and the PGBK and C came back with a normal view. Note: At the end I had to give the PGBK a deep cleaning to get it back to a normal view. Newbies, listen upif you rotate your stock of carts the PGBK cart will give you a problem. You will need to do a number of cleanings/deep cleanings to get the PGBK to look normal on a nozzle test. I have rotated a number of PGBK carts and they ALL had to have cleanings/deep cleanings.

Question: What caused the yellow to come back? The short answer is I do not know.

The long answer:

We have a boatload of variables here so I will do a S.W.A.G.

1. The biggest change is that I performed a clog test on the yellow inlet with the magenta as a control. The isopropyl alcohol levels for the two inlets showed no drop over a 15 minute period. When I removed the tubes from the inlets some of the alcohol spilled out and covered the two inlets. I removed most of the alcohol with cotton swabs. After I cleaned up the alcohol I performed a nozzle test and the test showed no yellow. Because of the low ink warnings I proceeded to replace the PGBK, Y, and C carts with carts from my stock of carts. I then went to bed.

Note: See below for picture of clog test set-up.

2. The time period from when I went to bed and when I performed the nozzle test would be about 12 hours.

Conclusion: I believe that alcohol had some effect on the Y inlet. The amount of alcohol was small, but the time period for the alcohol to work was long12 hours. In my opinion changing out the carts had no effect on the outcome. The original Y cart showed that it was a good cart in another printer. In the past I have stated that one should wait after one has performed a procedure. I believe that my waiting (12 hours) helped to unclog (if I had a clog in the first place) the printhead. You naysayers may want to disagree with me, but my habit of waiting helped to unclog the printhead.

In short, alcohol and time unclogged the printhead.

Thank you.


This is my clog test set-up:

 

[Grandad35]

The important thing is that you now get a good nozzle check and (I assume) good color. On my i9900, I had a partial clog that would pass enough ink to get a good nozzle check after a cleaning cycle, but the PM would fade out as a photo was printed because the clog wouldn't pass enough ink for normal printing. Subsequent nozzle checks were poor until an additional cleaning cycle was run.

Your SWAG could be correct that the alcohol got to the clog as the print head set overnight.

 

[joseph1949]

To: Grandad35
To: all

The information below may be a bit obtuse so I will cut to the chase:

If you are having troubles with your carts like I did with my Y cart and C cart (see below) the best course of action may be to place one drop of isopropyl alcohol on the printheads ink inlet and place the cart into the printhead and run a nozzle test no need to wait but it would not hurt to wait overnight to do the nozzle test. The problem that Grandad35 faced in reply #25 may also be resolved with a drop of alcohol.

The long story:

I thought I had resolved my problems with the Y cart and I did, but I found out last night that I had a problem with the C cart. Let me explain. Last night I ran a print and the print had problems. I ran a nozzle test and the test showed no C cart. This is just like the problem with the Y cart.

I performed a cleaning and did a nozzle test. The C cart was back. I did a print and the print was bad!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmmmmm This is like what happen (more or less) to Grandad35 in his reply #25. I spent an hour trying to fix the problem with cleanings and deep cleanings. I would get a good nozzle test and then a bad print. The results were all over the place. So, what to do?! Thinking back to the Y cart I decided to place a drop of alcohol on the Y carts ink inlet in the printhead. With no waiting I ran a nozzle test. Good test. I ran a print and the print was good. I kept making nozzle tests and printsall good!!!! This morning I did more nozzle tests and printsagain all good!!!!!

Conclusion: Doing cleanings and deep cleanings may be a waste of ink and time. A drop of alcohol may be all you need!!!!!!!!

If you are a newbie you may be confused about what has happened with my topic and what you should have learned.

Let me clear the air:

About six months ago I decided to rotate my stock of used carts. In the past I had used the same carts to fill. I would remove the cart from the printhead, fill the cart, and place the cart back into the printheadover and over again. I decided to use the unused carts in my refrigerator. I used up the carts. I decided to fill the now used carts. I would rotate the carts as they became empty (ink reservoir showed empty). Well, when I stated to rotate the carts I started to have problems. I was having bad nozzle tests, bad prints, etc. I ran some cleanings and deep cleanings and this solved the problemswell, almost all my problems.

This topic was based on the fact that I was having problems with the Y cart. I thought that the printhead was clogged. The Y cart was a stockpile cart that was unused, was used, and then filled. I thought that the printhead had gone bad. The Y cart checked out O.K. on another printer. So, I thought the printhead was at fault and not the Y cart. Well, I think now the Y cart was playing games. It seems that the stockpile carts can be good in one moment and bad the next moment.

Note: One should understand that the stockpile carts were all over a year old when I started to use them. It looks like the older the cart the more problems you will havebig time!!!

What can you expect from an older cart:

Note: The following expectations are based on an unused cart that was over a year old. The cart was used with no problems for the most part. The now used cart was placed in a rotation to be filled with other used carts. So the problem cart is an older used cart that was filled.

If you are having problems (bad nozzle test/bad prints) with an unused cart I would use the alcohol on the printheads ink inlet before performing cleanings/deep cleanings.

1. The cart can work O.K. from the start and work O.K. until it is replacedsweet!!!

2. The cart can show problems from the very start. Use the alcohol to fix the problem.

3. The cart can be sneaky and work good at the beginning, but be bad later ona la Y cart. The cart can hide its sneakiness my being bad in one printer, but placed in another printer it shows up to be a good little cart. Use alcohol to fix the problem.

4. Just to add to the confusion the printhead can actually have a clog and the cart is O.K. Again, use alcohol to fix the problem.



Grand conclusion: If you have a problem with a printhead and/or cart place a drop of isopropyl alcohol on the printheads ink inlet and see what happens. If the alcohol does not work go on this site and ask for help. You can use cleanings/ deep cleaningsyour call but it would be better to ask for help first. DO NOT FLUSH THE PRINTHEAD WITHOUT ASKING FOR HELP FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you.

 

[fotofreek]

Good post! I used to have lots of refilled carts in rotation. I found that some didn't get used for quite a long time, so I cut down the number of backup refilled carts to the bare minimum that would keep me printing for a usual session and the carts rotating into the printer with less numbers of months sitting idle.

 

[Emulator]

joseph1949

What strength isopropyl alcohol did you use, I note my current bottle is undiluted at 99.9%?

The effect is similar to the problem I had with the "Pro 9000 II colour shift in greys" posting, with the light cyan cartridge. There appeared to be a build up of "something" on the printhead inlet filter. I removed it with a cotton bud soaked in window cleaner. It returned after use until I used a new batch of light cyan, which cleared the problem.

I examined a drop of the old ink on a microscope slide but could not see any obvious contamination. I think it would take an "expert" to determine the cause, which might be invisible to the eye. Some talk of fungal growth.

I agree with your comment about not flushing the printhead. I think posting history illustrates that that is where real problems start!!

Maybe we should store spare carts flushed and dry?

Regards Ian

 

[barfl2]

In addition to the carts in the Printer, I keep a further set REFILLED ready to go. All other spares are flushed/stored in airtight box. I do sufficient printing to change C/Y/M ever few weeks PGBK lasts longer because of its greater capacity. I prefer to have a refilled cart ready to ensure print head is only exposed to the air for a few seconds. Which is what would happen if you were using new OEM's.

Your information re isoproponol are very interesting and if the necessity arises will try that method. I lost a HP print head after warm water washing and soaking in Window cleaner. In that case I had no colours at all and I was lucky HP gave me a new one. So far my MP620 has been faultless. Say I crossing everything. I print something every day, leave it switched on, only do a nozzle check if the printout looks off, if so it is usually magenta a head clean sorts it out.

Of course this my 3rd Printer would not be in its current happy state without the tireless help of the many wonderful contributors to this forum.

 

[joseph1949]

To: fotofreek, Emulator, barfl2

Thank you for your replies. I will be sending a detail reply tomorrow.

Note: Emulator, my isopropyl alcohol is 99.9%.

Thank you.


P.S. I thought I sent this post last night!?!?!?