MP560 - PGBK completely missing (purge ok, cleaning consumes ink)

[NJS]

Hi,

I would appreciate some advice before I shell out money for a new printhead...

My MP560 recently completely stopped printing PGBK (not a trace in the test pattern) I have tried multiple deep cleanings over several days and also tried removing and thoroughly cleaning the printhead with warm water with no change. I also tested the purge and water pools on the long narrow PGBK pad and is drawn away ok (although ironically it does not pool on the color pad, even though color is printing fine).

Since ink is being consumed by cleaning, I am wondering how it could be clogged. Does this indicate it is being sucked through the head by the purge but the head itself is dead?

Thanks.

 

[The Hat]

Hi and welcome, first a few questions for you, what type of cartridges are you using, OEM carts, aftermarket carts or 3rd party refillable ones, are you using OEM inks or are you refilling any of your cartridges ?

The most usual cause of the print head failing to print is the cartridge itself, so when you first noticed your problem did you continue to try to print something.

When you removed the head to clean it did you remember to dry it thoroughly first before putting it back into the printer, for now don’t print anything other than a nozzle print till you can resolve this issue.

It may be too late to save your head but we can but try to bring it back to life if it is possible, get a hold of another good PGBK cartridge and try printing a nozzle check and see if you can see any signs of ink on the test pattern and report back to us..

 

[Łukasz]

Hello!

Trying some external cleaning is OK.

There is chance of electrical failure if ink is consumed. Lack of signal for single pin called "Heat enable PGBK" can be the cause, or even some other defect across PGBK (sub)printhead electronics.

Even with defective PGBK, MP560 can do all printing task, but slower.
There are 3 known methods to overcome lack of PGBK in MP560 (use any of it):
- set auto double-sided print for plain paper
- set borderless printing on plain paper (can be defined in printer driver and saved to default set)
- set photo quality mode on matte photo paper

Please note, that if you wish to say "bye bye" to PGBK, it is necessary to disable its heating capability by sealing some contacts with electrical tape:

Ł.

 

[NJS]

Hi and welcome, first a few questions for you, what type of cartridges are you using, OEM carts, aftermarket carts or 3rd party refillable ones, are you using OEM inks or are you refilling any of your cartridges ?

The most usual cause of the print head failing to print is the cartridge itself, so when you first noticed your problem did you continue to try to print something.

When you removed the head to clean it did you remember to dry it thoroughly first before putting it back into the printer, for now don’t print anything other than a nozzle print till you can resolve this issue.

It may be too late to save your head but we can but try to bring it back to life if it is possible, get a hold of another good PGBK cartridge and try printing a nozzle check and see if you can see any signs of ink on the test pattern and report back to us..

Thanks for the help.

I'm using aftermarket cartridges. A couple months ago I replaced one (probably PGBK, but I don't recall for sure) and forgot to remove the tape and it took me a while to figure it out (tried several cleanings and test patterns before it dawned on me what the problem was. It had been working okay since, up until until a few days ago, but maybe trying to print with the tape on the cartridges a couple months ago damaged the head.

I did replace the PGBK before posting this (the last one went dry doing repeated cleanings, which is how I know that it is still consuming ink) but it still is not printing a single dot.

I don't really want to put a lot more effort into trying to bring the printhead back to life, I just want to verify that the problem likely is the printhead before I drop $50 on a new one.

Does it make sense that the printhead is bad if the cleaning still consumes ink but it doesn't print a drop?

 

[PeterBJ]

I think your explanation makes perfect sense. I think the fact that pigment black ink is consumed during cleaning indicates that the pigment black nozzles are not clogged. This indicates an electronic failure to the print head.

Canon print heads need a steady supply of ink to cool the nozzles, else they risk burning out, but if you only made test prints before finding out about the tape, I don't think that is the cause of the problems.

Canon print heads can fail electronically for no apparent reason, and totally missing pigment black is one symptom of electronic failure.

You can verify that the pigment black nozzles are not clogged by doing a nozzle clean and then remove the print head and press the underside of the print head against a soft paper handkerchief or similar to make a stamp test. If both the rectangle with dye colours and the longer stripe with pigment black are present in the stamp, then the print head is most likely damaged electronically.

You could try cleaning the golden contact points on the back of the print head and the contact springs in the print head carriage with a rag moistened with an electronics cleaner or isopropyl alcohol. There is a small chance that the problem is caused by dirty contacts.

 

[NJS]

Thanks. I ordered the printhead. Hopefully it will fix it. I could get a newer and better printer for less $$ but not one that uses economical cartridges...

 

[Smile]

Thanks. I ordered the printhead. Hopefully it will fix it. I could get a newer and better printer for less $$ but not one that uses economical cartridges...

Good choice, keep the printer as long as you can, nowadays printers are becoming worse and worse (smaller ink carts, chips etc.).

 

[NJS]

Well, I received and installed the new print head this weekend and it is working perfectly again.

 

[PeterBJ]

Nice to hear that the new print head brought the printer back to good working order Thank you for the feed-back.