Pro9000 Mark II photomagenta Lines

I would much appreciate your recommendation. Here is the pro9000MarkII service test print. The normal nozzle check is so faint as to not be helpful. Please ignore the missing Cyan block as it came back and is now perfect. Problem is solely with Photo Magenta. I've bought a new Canon genuine CLI8 PhotoMagenta to eliminate the cartridge as cause. I've done many cleaning cycles (deep & regular). I've printed 30 sheets of 4x6" glossy photo papers with solid light cyan in an attempt to flush (result: unsightly horizontal lines). I've used a syringe to gently inject some warm water and windex through the photo magenta. I've done auto and manual alignment of the printhead.

None of my efforts made it better or worse!

The only thing I have not done yet is the overnight Windex soak and rinse with distilled water. That is my likely next step, even though I am fearful that it might ruin my 7/8ths perfect printhead.

Also a very distinctive phenomenon occurs when I do the head alignment print: the top half of the photomagenta blocks is much lighter. I know when half is missing people think of electrical problems but then again the nozzle check & service test print do not show half missing area. I am puzzled.

I very much hope the attached scans can lead to a good recommendation. The other 7 colors are so perfect and I invested in a resetter and precisioncolors ink bottles so I would like to get some more use out of this printer before going to my pro100 in storage.

PS: I am in the USA, but set printer to EUR to print discs.

Thank you.

Followup with the abovementioned alignment print where half of PhotoMagenta is faint. Plus a 4x6" full photomagenta with the lines I am trying to get rid of. I hope it is OK that I cross-posted this topic to the Canon Inkjet subforum to maximize exposure.

@guho, firstly, it doesn’t help us one little bit or you for that matter when you use almost duplicate posts to describe your print problems.

You have uploaded several different test pages but not the one we asked for, which is the standard nozzle check, that’s the big casino.

But without seeing your current nozzle check I can say without a dough that your print head has had ink starvation problems and overheated, which has caused your photo magenta to partially and permanently fail.

When you get a problem like this, it is imperative you stop all printing action until you can rectify the issue before it become harmful and burns out any of the nozzles.

The first thing you should check is your cartridges, because 99 times out of a hundred that’s where all the problems stem from, usually one or more of your cartridges have developed ink flow problems, which then looks very much like a clogged print head, but in fact, it’s not !

The only safe printing you can do is a nozzle check, before, during and after your inspection of your cartridges, what starts out as a minor issue, can if you continue to do printouts quickly develops into a full-blown disaster, one damaged print head.

You can still purchase a new head for the 9000 but at a higher cost than a new Pro 100 will cost, the choice is yours, but please remember the same thing can happen to any Canon printer that develops a little problem and is left unnoticed or ignored, regardless of the age of the printer.

Sorry for the bad news...

OK I will upload the regular nozzle check when I get home. I had trouble discerning lines on the standard nozzle check and saw problems more clearly on the service mode test print, that's why I posted it. Do you think my head is already toast or is there still a chance of dissolving clogs using Windex? What do you think about the half brightness of the alignment page's Photo Magenta blocks?

To eliminate the cartridge as a problem, I installed a brand new genuine Canon cli8 PhotoMagenta from Amazon. The issue did not go away. While I understand my old cart may have caused the issue by starving the head, installing a brand new one has not helped unfortunately.

Many thanks for your assistance.

I read everywhere that these printheads are discontinued. eBay prices are $100. But now I just called Canon Parts USA and they sold me a Pro9000MkII head QY6-0076 for only $68+tax+shipping, or $80! So I figured I'll just order another head, especially because I just got a full cli8 pack brand new as well.

Going forward to protect the printer from problems, should I
- leave the printer on all the time
- do at least a nozzle check weekly
- not keep refilling cartridges but start using a new set? How often can I refill an OEM cartridge (I use the Durchstich method with a tiny hole far from the ink chamber crossing the sponge with my needle). Should I use a time limit (e.g. new carts every two years) or a count limit (e.g. new carts after 10 refills)?

Thanks,

Hugo

guho said:

Do you think my head is already toast or is there still a chance of dissolving clogs using Windex? What do you think about the half brightness of the alignment page's Photo Magenta blocks?

Click to expand...

As I said above, your head is already toast, so no amount of soaking or cleaning will make any difference to it now, you’re still thinking it was a clog when clearly it was not, whatever chance you had of rectifying the problem was lost, when you continued to print while you had this ongoing issue.

Guho said ...

- leave the printer on all the time.... No need

- do at least a nozzle check weekly... most certainly

- not keep refilling cartridges but start using a new set?

There is no need to stop refilling and your old carts are good for a very long time.

The Durchstich method is as good as any other method but you do need to give the carts a purge at the first sign of ink flow problems, and always refill once the reservoir has no visible ink or the low ink warning appears.

P.S. I will fix up your duplicate post later...

@The Hat : Thank you for your insight. Now I know I did the right thing buying a new printhead. I will not bother with soaking my current printhead.

Just wanted to followup: the new printhead arrived from Canon, and I installed it yesterday. Now the printer prints flawlessly again. Doing the test prints with the new Canon CLI8 PM made it clear that the PhotoMagenta is quite different from my PrecisionColors PhotoMagenta. It is lighter and less red. Do you think it is because my PrecisionColors ink is a few years old? Is there a shelf life on refill ink? I know some difference is to be expected and that is why PrecisionColors makes profiles available but this is more than some subtle difference.

Edit: just checked PrecisionColors.com and guess what: new versions of Magenta and PhotoMagenta for cli8 since Jan. 2015 (C6120TD & C6121TD). I guess these new versions will be closer to Canon OEM ink colors.

OEM ink is carefully matched to each other colors. Third party inks pretty much come from only a few sources. Most sellers sell a set composed of the basic ink colors that are available quite often will appear to physically look different than their OEM counterparts. PC as far as I know does a bit more than most if not all other sellers.
I am not going to discuss any details as that is for PC to discuss and not I.
However I will say that they are a closely matched in color rendition to anything else I've tried to date.
Don't expect all PMs to match other PMs.