canon i9950 won't print C M Y

[jogdial]

Hi,

I hope someone can give me some advice here. I've been trying to get my i9950 to print for a month or so now and I have had no luck at all.

I clean it, deep clean etc but when I print the check patern it only prints the

BK
R
G
PC
PM

Colours. These are on the left column of the nozzle check print out. The CMY colours on the right hand side never print.

I have taken the print head out and cleaned it according to dozens of different articles I have read. Nothing has ever changed, Last ditch attempt I used methalated spirits - I'm sure some people are shaking their heads at this, but hey, nothing to lose at this point and as I say, nothing gets better nothing gets worse... I haven't tried paint thinner yet... it just seems to me like it is not printing these colours. I have changed the inks I have check everything, I've been working on this on and off for at least a month and just not getting anywhere.

So, what do I do next? Is it the print head? how can I be sure? Print heads are fairly pricey and I don't want to buy one and it doesn't fix the problem, could there be something else wrong or does it have to be the print head at this stage?

Appreciate any and all advice.

thx.

 

[Grandad35]

Your i9950 has 10 sets of nozzles, broken into 2 banks of 5. The left 5 print PM/R/K/G/PC and the right 5 print C/M/Y (with 2 unused sets at the right end). Obviously, it is possible that the electronics on that bank of nozzles has failed. Unfortunately, there is no test for this.

You will note that your cleaning routine allows you to request separate cleaning of each bank individually. If you open the lid on your printer and look under the cover to the far right, you will see separate "parking stations" for each bank - this is where the head cleaning occurs. It is also possible that the purge unit for C/M/Y is clogged or that the suction tube has come off and that there is no suction on that bank, resulting in no cleaning action.

There are others on this forum with experience in repairing the purge unit - hopefully, they will chime in. You can also use the "search" feature to look for "purge unit".

 

[dan_uk_1984]

I had the same issue when I bought my i9950 on ebay for 99p, the CMY wasn't printing. This as Grandad has suggested was caused by the tube coming off the purge unit, the pump that sucks the ink out of the head when cleaning and priming.

I popped the cover off and stuck the tube back on the pump and its been fine ever since.

 

[pharmacist]

Granddad35,

thanks for your comment about the Canon i9950 printhead, which according to you has 2x5 rows of print nozzles, making my suspicion even greater, that this is the same configuration used in the Canon Pro 9500 10 colour printhead.

I once tried to use pigment ink in my Canon i9950 printer (magenta: a mixture of Epson K3 pigmentink and small amount of dye Hobbicolors UW-8 ink) and actually: it does work, but not in high speed mode (ink cannot be sprayed fast enough in high speed), and there is some ghost printing of very tiny ink droplets from magenta. There where no clogs, but I think my mixture was not optimally balanced to be used in conjunction with my printer.

So I think with the proper ink (maybe IPF5000 compatible pigment ink or HP 9180 pigment ink) it should be possible to have your Canon i9950 print with pigment ink.

 

[Smile]

Did you try overnight soak in 10% ammonia? It should work.

 

[dan_uk_1984]

I do hope the original poster comes back and replies with what the problem was.... all to often people ask for help and then never follow it up.

 

[jogdial]

Hello, thank you for all the advice, Have only just got back to working on this again...

I've spent the morning getting the covers off... well the right and left hand bits and the main body cover so it's mosly expose.

I can't see any tubes for purge unit, can anyone point me in the right direction?

I didn't mention, I have used this printer very little. I've probably printed 100 pages at the most.... about half and half photos and plain paper. This is part of the problem in that I don't really print very often and I know that inkjets don't like that... but I want a good photo printer.

Anyway, this is really bugging me. I'd like to make sure this purge tube is connected, but can't find it.

Could anyone take a pic of it or something? there are two pads on the right that have lots of ink on them, I assume that is the cleaning position and would assume the tube must be somewhere around there - i tried lifting up the pads and pushed the two plastic bits that obviously retain it... promptly breaking one tab off :-( well one is left anyway, that should retain it, but obviously need to proceed with more caution... though this thing is going to be heading for the junk pile soon as it's really p*ssing me off.

 

[drb_52]

Jogdial, I just reconnected one of my purge tubes on my i9900 yesterday. You need to remove the carriage to see the tubes. They're just under the purge pump.