Problems with Magenta... and Yellow... (and a little with Cyan) and now Black

Okay, gentlemen, here's the promised update. Sorry it took so long, but I've been working too hard and also travelling a bit and haven't had time to mess with the printer.

The news is not good: Now the only color that's working is Yellow. And that's with a brand-new OEM Magenta cartridge in the printer. The Cyan cartridge is top-filled with recently purchased Octoinkjet ink, and was fully flushed and dried before being filled. I have another Durchstich-filled Cyan cartridge, also recently flushed and refilled with recently purchased Octoinkjet ink, and it doesn't work either. Ironically, the ink in the Yellow cartridge is from the "old" batch, and it's working.

There was a short period there where all colors were printing, but now I'm down to Yellow only.The other day I had to print a scan of my ID card, which has red and blue stripes, and it started out printing fine. But as I watched the page come out of the printer, the blue suddenly stopped working. Now, today, the (new OEM) Cyan has stopped working too.

The only bright spot is that Black is working fine.

But I'm not unhappy, <irony alert> because I've figured out what the problem is: Canon, who of course follow this forum faithfully, have singled me out and traced my IP address and hired Chinese anoraks to hack into my printer's firmware and cause random ink-flow stoppages. Whenever I report a problem here, they start the flow on the non-functioning cartridge and stop it on another. It's very much like what a character in a novel by Peter de Vries did as a practical joke on his neighbor, who was obsessed with tracking his car's gas mileage: He'd sneak over to his neighbor's and siphon some gas out of his tank, causing his mileage results to drop unexplainedly and much consternation, then later sneak over again and pour gas INTO the tank, causing the mileage results to shoot up. Driving his poor neighbor crazy. But of course Canon aren't doing it just as a practical joke. They're determined to dishearten any prospective new refillers who read this forum. A kind of reverse industrial sabotage... The kind of thing the US shadow government does all time, of course. Think of the Iranian nuclear sites. In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Canon and the CIA are in cahoots. <end of irony>.

As usual, any and all suggestions are welcome. I now have more or less all the parts I need to try the Freedom Method, but I'm just too disheartened to look at another bottle of ink. The only other thing I can think of to do, having robbed the print head from my backup stored i4950 and tried that, is to now keep the same print head, but switch PRINTERS and see if that makes any difference (that last sentence was a bit ironic too).

Cheers
Les

websnail said:

One thing that can happen with the German method is seperation between or shifting of the sponges within the cartridge in a way that reduces ink flow through and/or between the sponge and the outlet.

I'd definitely be thinking about an OEM cartridge as a start point to stop the printhead being burned out at this point, then start over on the refilling maybe?

Appreciate I'm starting the whole Top Fill vs' German discusson again but the issue above is one that hasn't been touched on but seems like a possible culprit..

Click to expand...

Indeed, when you drill the hole between the 2 P's the needle passes between the lower sponge and the small round one in the ink outlet (don't know the technical name), as it can be seen when you remove it.
So I doubt the lower sponge will get damaged over time by the Durchstich method as sometimes is suggested.
But the needle could indeed separate the ink outlet sponge from the lower sponge, causing ink feed problems.
I suppose this is why you should tap the cartridges on the table.

I've been tapping them like crazy on a marble mantlepiece. Sometimes it starts the flow, but it stops again.

By the way, I'm not receiving notifications of responses. Canon at work again...

You won't believe me, but I'm not paid by Canon .

I started refilling the 525/526 dye cartridges about a year ago with the Durchstich method without reading too much.
Intuitively I even drilled the hole at the side to avoid interrupting the ink path as much as possible.



Converted to the prescribed location afterwards (difficult to find the hole to the reservoir), but never had any ink flow problem after at least half a liter of ink (and I own several of the printers in that series).

I would recheck your cartridges by blowing through the vent hole, place them in the printer (wich does a cleaning anyway) and LEAVE them for some time.
Changing carts too often can insert air in the ink channels.

Don't understand how you can drill the hole to the side and get the refill needle to go all the way into the reservoir chamber. There is a baffle on the bottom of the cart just before you go into the reservoir. There is a small hole in the baffle right in the center. So you would have to angle your needle when inserting it and then it would be pot luck if you get through the baffle hole...
Oh yeah I tend to agree with LESTRAD, the Canon control idea. I went through the same type of thing about a year or so ago tried everything like you are doing. Hat tried to help me also and also suggested to take a look at the way I was refilling. Someone else also suggested I buy new OEM carts and start from scratch which I did without resolving the problem. Then I dis-assembled the whole printhead and flushed and cleaned til I was blue in the face. Still nothing. When I was about to give up I called Canon for some help because the printer was still under warranty. They decided to send me a new printer(a newer model) which I didn't like as much as my original. Well guess what just before the new printer arrived the old one started working. All colors AOK... Everything was fine for about a year and then whamo it started all over no rhyme or reason. Im now using the newer printer that Canon sent me and Im keeping my fingers, my eyes, my arms, and even my legs crossed. Im starting to cramp up a bit these days but Im hanging in there and I say a prayer to the GREAT CANON GODS EACH NIGHT asking to please leave my printer alone.... Hang in there maybe the Canon gods will decide to ease up eventually...

NOTICE TO ADMINISTRATORS: I am STILL not getting notifications of responses.
__________________________________________________
Thanks.

Palomian: I'll try the blow-job approach at my earliest opportunity.

Pearlhouse: Well, as I pointed out, I bought an OEM cartridge as a test and it too has stopped working.
Just out of curiosity, are you refilling the cartridges in the new printer? Are they the all-black kind?

@Lestrad, Notifications can be switched on or off by clicking on you Name at the top right corner of the task bar and scrolling down to ALERT PREFERENCES and in there you can alter your own personal Alerts..

The Hat said:

@Lestrad, Notifications can be switched on or off by clicking on you Name at the top right corner of the task bar and scrolling down to ALERT PREFERENCES and in there you can alter your own personal Alerts..

Click to expand...

Thanks, but it is set up that way and I've verified the setting several times. More of Canon's shenanigans...

Lestrad said:

The news is not good: Now the only color that's working is Yellow. And that's with a brand-new OEM Magenta cartridge in the printer.

Click to expand...

The Cyan cartridge is top-filled with recently purchased Octoinkjet ink, and was fully flushed and dried before being filled.

Click to expand...

Have you tried priming the cartridge using the flush clip to push ink in and out of the outlet port?

Try this approach to see if things improve on your top-filled cart
- Seal the vent with some electricians tape
- Orient the cartridge to it's right side up
- Leave fill hole open
- Attach flush clip & syringe with roughly 15ml of ink
- Gently push the ink into the cartridge
- Reverse and draw ink out of cartridge
- Repeat push/pull a couple of times then fill properly
- Re-insert fill plug and remove vent tape
- Turn cartridge over and dribble a little ink into outlet sponge

That should help develop the link between sponge and spongeless parts of the cartridge, especially if there's any air between the two.

There was a short period there where all colors were printing, but now I'm down to Yellow only.The other day I had to print a scan of my ID card, which has red and blue stripes, and it started out printing fine. But as I watched the page come out of the printer, the blue suddenly stopped working. Now, today, the (new OEM) Cyan has stopped working too.

Click to expand...

Sounds like the ink is starving itself but the problem is that once problems start reducing flow to the printhead, they have a habit of self-perpetuating...

The only other thing I can think of to do, having robbed the print head from my backup stored i4950 and tried that, is to now keep the same print head, but switch PRINTERS and see if that makes any difference (that last sentence was a bit ironic too).

Click to expand...

To be brutal, I really wouldn't do that... The printer itself can't really affect the ink flow... About all you could hope to achieve would be to rule out poor contacts with the printhead, plastic warping in the printhead holder or some magical bit of luck blocking the gremlins from crossing over.

I'd say go with the freedom fill approach... take your time and try not to get too frustrated with it. Easy to say, near impossible in practice, as my printhead graveyard gives testament to.

Keeping the fingers crossed.

Lestrad said:

Palomian: I'll try the blow-job approach at my earliest opportunity.

Click to expand...

Was this a Google translation? Exquisite if so. Karmic nippl ripples.

(Sorry Lestrad for interrupting your post, but it was too fortuitous to pass up. My post is a reference to a fuss over elbows on another thread.)