Please help interpret this IP6700 eeprom print test

[PeterBJ]

What information is included on the extended nozzle check "Service Test Print" page?
I Googled your term, but couldn't find anything, so I'm confused.

The service manual is a better source of information than Google in this case. See pages 1-28 and 1-29. All nozzles checks produce grid patterns so all nozzles can be verified, but the patterns (rectangles) are small, so a magnifier is a good help. Here is the dark regular cyan rectangle enlarged to show the grid lines:

The print quality, at least for the black printed on the eeprom test page, looked fine.

The regular and extended nozzle check is much more important than a text print. Can you tell from this EEPROM print if this printer is OK?

But the Service test print reveals a serious defect:

And so does the regular nozzle check from the driver's maintenance tab in normal user mode:

The print head was perfectly OK, until all regular magenta nozzles were clogged by "The Killer Fungus". I have not been able to unclog the print head, so I think the printer is a write-off in spite of the low D-value.

Price? Too high, let's put it that way. I don't know why these things tend to command such a high price on eBay, Amazon, etc. Yes, they're darn good printers, but 50% of retail cost after they're used and 10 years old ?!?

Greed is the explanation. The price is a function of supply and demand. But printers of this age can fail for no apparent reason. the print head can fail and nylon parts tend to become brittle with age. I would consider 10 to 20 Dollars US or Canadian a reasonable price. You are gambling when buying a 10 year old printer.

How difficult/annoying is it to clean or change the waste reservoir sponges on the IP6700/IP6600 in case I have to do that?

Very difficult, especially if you haven't tried it before. This model is more difficult than the other iP models because of the panel and display on top of the printer. Be very careful not to damage ribbon cables and their connectors. Washing the absorbers is a very messy job, good rubber gloves are recommended. I recommend to study both the service manual and the druckerchannel.de instruction.

Is there anything other than the print head and the sponges that wears out on these models?

A print head that is damaged electronically can damage the logic board, making the printer a total loss. Nylon gears, bearings and other parts become brittle with age and can break and become worn. Rubber rollers can harden and lose their grip. The purge unit can also fail. The purge unit keeps the print head in good condition. IF it fails, the print head stops working. There are more parts that can fail, but I think these are the most likely to fail.

This printer model is not on top of my wish list. The photo cyan and photo magenta inks are diluted versions of the regular cyan and magenta. The printer uses a lot of these photo or diluted inks. I prefer printers that do not use these photo inks.

Don't buy the printer unless the nozzle checks are perfect. I think a new print head is nowhere to be found.

 

[Hogwild]

Peter:

That is a whole lot of really great info. Thanks Peter. As for the price, well, I wish you tell all the folks on eBay, who are listing these at $USD 130 or 145.00 and up.

One lady I spoke with online changed her mind, and instead of selling to me, as agreed, listed her (new) IP6700 for USD $250.00 . And she got it, too.

These seem to be rather hard to find. Any suggestions as to where I might find one in Toronto, Canada?

 

[PeterBJ]

I wonder, are you looking for a printer to be used for photo printing or are you looking for a collector's item? There are better Canon photo printers available. The Pro-100 has occasionally been sold for as little as 50 USD after rebate. Could you import one of these printers next time they are offered at that price?

 

[Roy Sletcher]

These seem to be rather hard to find. Any suggestions as to where I might find one in Toronto, Canada?

There is always Kijiji. Link below. Usually very slim pickings and the bottom feeders of the online buy/sell community seem to be the main participants. With six million or so people in the Greater Toronto Area, it is probably your best bet.

From time to time you will see bargains - six months ago a Pro 1 lightly used. Or so the ad said for CAD$500 in Huntsville.

Usual caveats apply six-fold.

http://www.kijiji.ca/
http://www.kijiji.ca/
rs


PS - You are also close enough to Buffalo, NY to try their Craigs list.

 

[Hogwild]

PeterBJ:

No, no masochistic need to overpay. But this was the only series of printers I found which

1. Were reliable
2. Printed directly on optical discs.
3. Are less likely to clog ink so easily
4. In my price range

A lot of the newer printers, let's face it, are mostly garbage in terms of reliability until you get into the 300 or 400 dollar price range, plus tax. They just don't have the reliability. Only Canon and Epson print to optical, so that rules out 50% of inkjets right there.

Yes, the Pro-100 is nice, but twice the size, for which I don't have room and more than twice the weight. I'm downsizing to an apartment and I already have too much stuff (not that much, but rentals are expensive).

The Pro-100 only goes on to huge discount in the US. I live in Canada. I checked here. The cheapest it ever seems to get retail is about $350.00, so unless you have another model that will do all three of the above...

Roy:
Craigslist for Buffalo is out. I have mobility issues and can't just hop into a car to drive 100 miles. It was a good idea, though.

Thanks for the idea, though.

 

[Hogwild]

Someone else has another IP6600D. Does this page look bad enough to avoid buying or should I investigate further?

She can't figure out how to do the eeprom test, in spite of my explaining it to her. (Man, whatever happened to peoples' ability to follow simple instructions ?) I'd have to travel there to do the eeprom print myself.

I can't ask people to do too much on the phone, and unfortunately, these people all are a little far away to just run over. But I'm thinking considering what this test pages shows when the printer hasn't been used in a while, it might do okay in further tests.

 

[PeterBJ]

The extended nozzle check from this service test print looks OK to me, but it should be examined using a magnifier. But I don't like that the D-value is 000.0. It could mean that the printer is new out of the box or more likely that the ink absorber counter or the EEPROM was reset, accidentally or deliberately.

CD printing has not always been allowed on Canon printers in all the regions that Canon has divided the world into. It is only recently Canon printers are allowed to print CDs in the US. I don't know about Canada. You could circumvent this blocking by changing the region in the printers firmware for instance to "EUR" and obtaining a CD tray from Ebay or somewhere else. In some cases you also needed to remove a part blocking the CD tray and replace it with another part.

It looks suspect to me that the test print shows "US" region and the printer should be capable of CD printing. If it had been modified to print CDs it should show another region than US. It might be that the iP6600D was the exception to the rule and sold with CD print capability out of the box, but I think this is highly unlikely. See the service manual page 1-26 for a list of Canon regions in 2005 and where CD printing was allowed. It was not allowed in the US according to the service manual.

I also wonder how the seller made this test print but is unable to make an EEPROM print. But maybe it is not the same person.

iP6600 was a reliable printer, but so were a lot of other Pixma printers of the same PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridge generation. Many of these were able to print CDs if they were sold in Europe or other region where CD printing was allowed.

Tendency to clog depends more on the ink used than the printer make and model.

 

[The Hat]

@Hogwild, I reckon you’d be better off dropping this notion you have of getting one of these old printers, as @PeterBJ said the test print looks suspicious in several ways, so go for a Pro 100, at least you know what you’re getting for your money and it won’t let you down, make the printer fit somewhere, even under your bed !

 

[Hogwild]

Peter:

I'm guessing the D-value could still be 0 if only half a dozen pages were printed? I'm pretty sure that's what this orgnization did. They're a non-profit. The people there are afraid to even go near the printer. They claim they printed about 6 pages and never used it again before the test page I requested. I know you may all disagree, but I'm gonna at least go look at it, and maybe pick it up. A Pro-100 is nice, but way out of my price range and way too big for a small apartment. Too bad Canon feels they can offer huge rebates in the US but not in Canada.

Thanks again. Will let you know how my little adventure turns out.

 

[The Hat]

I'm guessing the D-value could still be 0 if only half a dozen pages were printed? I'm pretty sure that's what this orgnization did

Please beware you may be falling into the illusion of, if it’s too good to be true.....

The D value on any printer must show some % of waste, it can never show “0”, useless it’s been deliberately altered, because the very first thing a printer always does on first start-up is to run a head clean !...