Problem printing with Pro-100/PC Inks - Printhead or cartridge issue

[mikling]

Even when the inks are run commercially there is no problem at all. Until the high standard of the cartridge is not maintained and the printer continues to print.
The Canon printhead DEMANDS high standards be maintained at all times. Slippage of that standard will lead to clogs if not caught. The simplicity of the cartridge is very deceptive.

Always understand that no matter how well you refill, eventually a point will be reached when the cartridge will no longer be good enough not to cause problems. There are too many variables involved in determining the flush schedule. It is not a simple process.

Here is a rough guideline.

Have banding that always comes back... Flush the errant tanks

If you have been able to refill your tanks more than 20 times...and still have no problems. Time to think about scheduling a flush.

Refilled less than 20 times but the tanks have never been flushed in two years but is still printing good. Time to think about flushing.

Flushing is preventative measures to printhead problems. They are not set in stone.

Understand that the above does not hold for the Pro9500 or Pro-10 or Pro-300 tanks. They do not breathe nor degrade with use like the sponge tanks. If you can afford one of the previosuly mentioned printers they are actually better for the casual user for that reason. Sponge tank printers ALWAYS require that their tanks be of a high standard.

As an aside, I take the pains to mention to users about maintaining their tanks and like the Hat says 99% of the problems come down to tanks. But users for some reason just like their cars users never read the maintenance manual.

 

[deejay]

Quick update in case anyone else runs into the issue where all colors start failing the nozzle check at the same time.

I took the printhead out of the printer and thoroughly cleaned it (multiple soakings and flushings). I refilled a set of freshly refurbished cartridges with PC inks and reinstalled everything. Running the nozzle check showed all colors printing but all had the same pattern as the images I posted previously.

I then installed the new printhead and moved the cartridges over. Nozzle check was perfect.

It looks like the printhead was the issue all along, as I suspected.

 

[The Hat]

It looks like the printhead was the issue all along, as I suspected.

Print heads don’t last for ever, but if you suspect a problem it’s much better to seek advice before doing anything drastic, run a nozzle check and by posting it here so we can give good sound advice, there’s no point of bolting the door after the horse has got out.

I don’t suppose you still have one of these bad nozzle prints that shows your issue ?, poorly preforming carts can kill a print head very quickly..

 

[deejay]

I posted images of the bad nozzle checks on the very first post in this thread and provided all the background to the issue: Up until the issue with the nozzle checks I was printing every 2-3 days with no problems (post #5). The fact that all colors went bad at the same time, a couple of days after being completely fine, pointed to a printer or printhead issue (at least by my logic).

You seemed to be hung up on the bad cartridges theory so to test that out I flushed and refilled a cartridge. There was no improvement. Replacing the printhead solved the issue.

Other than some (well-received) advice around being more pro-active with cartridge rejuvenation, the advice people posted on here in relation to the issue I was having was about as far from good sound advice as it's possible to be! I don't understand your hard-on for OEM inks and I think you let that cloud your judgement and allowed you to ignore the facts. You never did have any answer that could explain why the use of aftermarket ink would cause the bad nozzle checks across all eight colors at exactly the same time. If I had followed your advice I'd be sitting here with a complete set of OEM inks and still have bad nozzle checks. With all due respect, your troubleshooting was pretty bad in this case.

Just to re-iterate a previous point we covered...no-one is claiming that aftermarket inks are as good as OEM. Yes, they require more maintenance, and yes, they clog more frequently than OEM, but OEM isn't clog-free in my experience.

I hope this thread might be useful for others who experience a sudden, across the board, issue with the nozzle checks. If things suddenly go from perfect printing to all eight nozzle checks being bad, then the issue is more likely to be related to the printhead than the cartridges.

 

[The Hat]

@deejay, Up till now I have given you very sound advice for which it has fallen on deaf ears, so come off your high horse and stop blaming me and others for your own stupid mistakes.

You came here with a problem, and please remember we didn’t come to you, we tried to solve your many issue but you won’t heed or listen to what’s been said on this thread, we have seen it before and your no exception, but you reckon you know it all and have solved your current problems all by yourself.

If you knew anything about OEM cartridges, inks and Canon print heads you wouldn’t have got yourself into the mess you found yourself in, refilling is a science and has many drawbacks and if not studied and followed to the letter then trouble will be your new friend.

No one here is blaming your choice on using 3rd party inks because they are very good, if not better than most inks on the open market today, and no they don’t clog more often, it’s the cartridges that have the problems and this is something you fail to get to grips with, (Poor maintenance) now are you sure you got it.. This time, again “Poor maintenance”..

Now if you don’t like the good advice your been given here, then feck off and go somewhere else and insult others on whatever forum you happen to land on, we give our time and advise free to those that wish to listen and we have made thousands very happy, sadly you’re the exception.

P.S. I asked you to post a nozzle check up here in post#13 and you couldn’t even do that properly, so I wish you well in your future printing endeavours because you’re going to need it..

Quote” Honest people don’t hide their deeds”… E Bronte.

 

[deejay]

@deejay, Up till now I have given you very sound advice for which it has fallen on deaf ears, so come off your high horse and stop blaming me and others for your own stupid mistakes.

You came here with a problem, and please remember we didn’t come to you, we tried to solve your many issue but you won’t heed or listen to what’s been said on this thread, we have seen it before and your no exception, but you reckon you know it all and have solved your current problems all by yourself.

If you knew anything about OEM cartridges, inks and Canon print heads you wouldn’t have got yourself into the mess you found yourself in, refilling is a science and has many drawbacks and if not studied and followed to the letter then trouble will be your new friend.

No one here is blaming your choice on using 3rd party inks because they are very good, if not better than most inks on the open market today, and no they don’t clog more often, it’s the cartridges that have the problems and this is something you fail to get to grips with, (Poor maintenance) now are you sure you got it.. This time, again “Poor maintenance”..

Now if you don’t like the good advice your been given here, then feck off and go somewhere else and insult others on whatever forum you happen to land on, we give our time and advise free to those that wish to listen and we have made thousands very happy, sadly you’re the exception.

P.S. I asked you to post a nozzle check up here in post#13 and you couldn’t even do that properly, so I wish you well in your future printing endeavours because you’re going to need it..

Quote” Honest people don’t hide their deeds”… E Bronte.

My apologies. I must have missed your sound advice that would have gotten me up and running. What was it? Switch to OEM inks?

Any advice around regular cartridge flushing, though well received, is surely a preventative measure and not a solution to the issue we were discussing. Had it been a solution, then the old printhead would have worked with the newly-rejuvenated cartridges, no? Seems like basic troubleshooting.

I didn't blame anyone for any mistakes I may have made, and still don't. I'm not sure how you got that from any of my posts. If my mistake was poor refilling technique then I'm in no position to disagree. Maybe I'm not perfect at refilling, but I followed the Jose Rodriguez videos and it was working just fine for 18 months. I have no idea if that's what caused my printhead to fail, and I don't think you can be sure of that either. As you said, printheads don't last for ever.

I did see where you asked me to post nozzle checks in post #13. The very first line of my next post (#14) was this: "I posted images of the bad nozzle checks on the very first post in this thread". Was there an issue with those images? They look like they posted ok on my end, but if you couldn't see them, or there was some other issue with them, then you should have mentioned that sooner. They were pretty relevant to the discussion. Artur5 saw them ok. I don't think you looked for them because you saw 'nozzle check issue' and 'aftermarket inks' and you had a rush of blood to the mickey.

I don't doubt that you've helped many, many people and that many issues can be traced back to the use of aftermarket inks and poor technique related to that. All I was saying that in my case, based on what we knew, the testing I performed pointed to the printhead as being the issue.

You seem upset that I didn't take your advice, but your advice seemed like it was a shot in the dark because you had no explanation for all eight cartridges going bad at the same time. I think that the fact that the new printhead fixed the issue bears that out.

In hindsight I think the right advice would have been: "yer printhead's fecked and that's most likely caused by poor maintenance of the cartridges. Be more careful in future".

I'll absolutely be more careful going forward. I send my cartridges out to a third-party company for flushing/rejuvenation so it looks like any feck-ups in the process are likely happening on my end.

Quote: "When you're in a hole, stop digging". W Rogers.

cheers.
dj