My poor Pixma ip3000

[ip3000 fan]

Ron, I'm in the process of filing off the low hanging fruits right now. I figure there is still plenty of good flange to support the printhead.

The left tab was still hanging on to the holder (barely). I super-glued it back. Don't know if it will hold. You said your printers worked anyway even with the tab broken. Hopefully I'll be able to report a good as new printer in just a little while. Don't touch that dial.
ip3000 fan.

 

[ip3000 fan]

Any maintenance I can do?

 

[Ron350]

At this point all I would do is make sure that both clear wiper blades are in place on the purge assembly.
Make sure that the little white piece of plastic is in place behind the second wiper.

Do not be crushed if the printer does not print properly when you reassemble every thing. I have read about several iP3000, iP4000, and iP5000 printers having damaged main circuit boards after a print head failure.

Good luck.

 

[ip3000 fan]

Ron. The good: No error messages, carriage movement smooth and normal.

The bad.: I've got zero ink flow from any of the 4 tanks. I've done many many regular and deep cleaning cycles
Question: can one damage the printer or printhead by doing many regular or deep cleaning cycles? Another question is am I wasting ink if there is no ink flow?

I've dabbed at the nozzles and at the incoming ink screens, ant at the openings on the tanks with a paper towel soaked in windex.

What else would you recommend I do.? Would a main circuit board problem cause what I am experiencing or would I get different symptoms? Thanks.
ip3000 fan

 

[Ron350]

This does not sound good.

First thing to do is make sure the purge pump is working.

Hope you still have the top off.
Remove the print head and have a refill syringe and needle with Windex and water in it.

With the printer plugged in and the power light off hold the Resume/Cancel button down and then the power button.
Release the Resume button but still hold the Power button down.
Now press the Resume button 2 times and then release the Power button.

Now squirt water on both purge port rocks.

Now press the Resume button 6 times and then press the Power button once and the pure cycle will start.
If purge pump is working it will suck the Windex water through both rocks.
After the purge cycle stops you can press the Resume button 6 times again and hit Power and it does it again.

You can also carefully remove the 2 rocks with tweezers so you will have 2 small rubber tubs to fill with water before and while purging.

This will show you if the pump is working and clean thick ink out of the hoses.

To get out of service mode just presses the Power button or unplug the printer.

 

[ip3000 fan]

Yikes. I didn't want to hear that. Does the fact that during a deep cleaning I hear what seems to be a slow pumping sound coming from the purge unit not necessarily mean that it is working? Also please opine on whether continual cleaning cycles including deep cleaning could hurt the printer ... or additionally waste ink even though there seems to be no flow. What about the main circuit board issue? Is that relevant here? BTW yes I put the case back on, but I'm an expert case puller/reassembler now.

 

[Ron350]

Just because you hear the pump does not mean it is sucking at the pads (rocks).
Several things can go wrong and prevent suction at the pads.

Running the Service Mode deep cleaning as I described above with the print head out is safe.
Just dont get your fingers in the way. LOL

If you have good suction at the pads it sounds like a bad circuit board.

 

[ip3000 fan]

Hi Ron. I've done the purge test a few times. With the rocks taken out, I filled the two tubs with Windex/H2O. During purge, the forward most holes at the bottom of each of the two tubs seemed to suck well. However the rear most holes of each of the two tubs was still covered with liquid (I guess the tubs incline slightly toward the back?) When I put the rocks back in, and filled the tubs again and did the purge thing again, the liquid seemed to get sucked down quite readily. Incidentally, when I tried to purge again by pressing resume/cancel 6 times and then the power button, the printer just shut off instead. Then I did about 4 regular cleaning cycles and 2 deep cleaning cycles. There is still absolutely zero ink flow from any of the tanks.

Please assess me of my status.

1. Does the failure of any ink to come through indicate the problem is not a clogged printhead?

2. If the purge unit is working, and a clogged printhead is not likely the problem, ... what are my options?

ip3000 fan

 

[Ron350]

I could be wrong but it sounds like your iP3000 has a damaged circuit board.

If you really liked the iP3000 find a used i560 or a used iP3000 and use the old printer for spare parts.

Where are you?
There may be a forum member near you that will test that head.