MP610 printing problem

mercurius

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Sod's law and both Pixma MP610s in the house (mine and my son's) have decided to pack up just as I need to print off a load of travel documents.

My printer won't print at all and my son's only prints part of the text. We have both had these printers for 6-7 years. We only use Canon ink cartridges. He has used his relatively infrequently, though I use mine most days. I think I'll have to give up on mine. I'm trying to print from a PC running Windows 7, 64 bit.

So focusing on my son's printer which is the closest I've got to one that works, I have run cleaning and deep cleaning several times, I have also deleted and re-downloaded the printer driver. The nozzle print pattern is fine apart from the fact that the top of the grid and the top half of the letters PGBK are cut off. I have replaced the cartridge CLI-8BK, but that makes no difference.

Is there anything I can try to get the pesky thing working for my trip documents?
 

PeterBJ

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The error with one half of the PGBK grid missing is a typical symptom of an electronic print head failure. No amount of cleaning can eliminate this error, only a new print head might help. But when a Canon print head fails in this way there is a risk that it damages the logic board, and a damaged logic board might damage a new print head. So replacing the print head is a gamble, and I cannot tell your odds for success. I think no new print heads are available, only some used print heads from the far east that are being sold as new. Avoid these.

If you need to print an important document, you can choose "Matte photo paper" as media, and print on normal plain paper. This will force the use of dye (photo) black instead of pigment black (PGBK). The printing will be slower due to fewer and smaller nozzles though.
 

mercurius

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The error with one half of the PGBK grid missing is a typical symptom of an electronic print head failure. No amount of cleaning can eliminate this error, only a new print head might help. But when a Canon print head fails in this way there is a risk that it damages the logic board, and a damaged logic board might damage a new print head. So replacing the print head is a gamble, and I cannot tell your odds for success. I think no new print heads are available, only some used print heads from the far east that are being sold as new. Avoid these.

If you need to print an important document, you can choose "Matte photo paper" as media, and print on normal plain paper. This will force the use of dye (photo) black instead of pigment black (PGBK). The printing will be slower due to fewer and smaller nozzles though.
PeterBJ: many thanks for your advice and suggestion to use the matte paper setting. I'll definitely give that a go and let you know what happens. I suppose I have been lucky to have had a printer that lasted so long.
 

mercurius

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Meant to say that I will now have to replace my reliable old MP610. Any suggestions as to what to replace it with? I want a multifunction printer that can also print high quality photographs.

Apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong forum...
 

The Hat

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I’m not much into AIO inkjet printers, but my grandson seem quite taken by the Maxify that I bought him, and is very happy with it, and for those that want Wi-Fi, ADF and Fax, its got something for everyone including pigment inks.;)
 
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