Red Banding on Pixma MP810

[mobilelawyer]

I am debating on wether to order a new print head, or a new printer.

I get uniformly- spaced red banding on all prints. It looks like jail bars:

(sorry. had to delete the link to the photo, new member) The jail bar description should tell you what I see.

If I run a nozzle check, I get this result:

(sorry. had to delete the link to the photo, new member) The first magenta bar has a much- darker lower half. No issues seen in the others.

I have several deep cleanings to no avail. The problem replicates itself every time. I have also let the printhead soak in windex. Same result.

All of my cartridges, including the magenta are fresh: the banding existed with the old magenta cartridge, too.

If the banding was white, I would be ordering a new printhead. Not sure about this, though.

Advice, please and thanks in advance.

 

[PeterBJ]

There is a 24 hour quarantine period before new members can post links. But from your description it looks like the printhead has developed an electric fault. If that is the case, only a new printhead will help. Clogged nozzles show a more random distribution, a regular pattern means an electric fault.

Does your nozzle check look like this, but with the problem in magenta instead of cyan? http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6747 . In that case the problem was solved by installing a new printhead.

 

[mobilelawyer]

Many thanks for the reply. Yes, the cyan strip on the link you sent looks exactly like the magenta strip from the nozzle check print out on my printer.

Now I have to consider the cost of a new print head vs. replacing the printer, as well as the risk that replacing the print head does not solve the issue!

But I just bought about eighty dollars worth of consumables for the MP810, and that fact alone would mitigate in favor of a new printhead if that is the problem.

Many thanks for your kind and quick reply.