Problematic Canon Pixma IP5000 free to good home

[zack23]

Hi all -

I have a Pixma IP5000 printer which has given me a series of problems - do a quick forum search for my username if you want the gory details. Basically, the problem has been erratic magenta performance. It's not a cartridge problem (I've switched in new OEM carts, with no luck), and it doesn't seem to be a clogged printhead problem - I tried every trick in the book (or at least, in this forum) to clean the magenta nozzles and nothing helped. Installing a new printhead DID fix the problem, but after a few months of light usage the exact same problem returned with the replacement printhead (this has happened now with two replacement printheads). My best guess is that there is an electronic problem in the printer which eventually causes something to fry in the printhead circuit that controls the magenta nozzle. But that's just a guess.

The bottom line is that I've given up on this printer, and recently purchased an MP610 to replace it (thanks, IGExpandingPanda!) I know that the IP5000 is a classic, easy to refill, great print quality (in theory), and I'd hate to just chuck it in the landfill. If there is anyone on this list who thinks they can fix it or use it for spare parts, I'd be happy to give it to them for free (though I would need to be reimbursed for the cost of shipping). The total packed weight is about 28lbs, and it would ship from zip 10012.

Note that the text (pigment black) printing is fine, and the non-magenta colors seem to print ok. I've modified the printer to print CD's, and will include an OEM Canon type B CD tray, the OEM Canon rollers that guide the tray, roughly 2 ounces each of old Hobbicolor Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta ink, and a bunch of empty carts for refilling (8 third party, 5 oem).

I hope I'm not violating any forum rules by posting this - I'm not trying to profit, just would like to give something back to the list (and keep a potentially usable printer out of the wastestream). And if you manage to fix the printer, I'd ask that you post the details of what you found to the list!

Email me if interested.

Thanks,

Zack

 

[mikling]

I've noticed a similar trait in the BCI-6 generation of printers. Sometimes the main board goes defective and then proceeds to burn out the printhead.
That's an ugly situation because a new printhead then quickly gets decimated again. I don't know how common this is but it turns out to be an expensive problem.

 

[zack23]

Just bumping this thread to let folks know that the printer is still available. If I don't hear from anyone by the end of the day Friday, I'll assume there's no interest and will put some bits up on ebay and take the rest to the local electronics recycling organization.

Inkling may well be right about the motherboard. There's no brave soul out there who wants to do some cool investigative work tracing down the problem?

Zack

 

[ghwellsjr]

Well, I'm the brave soul and I received the printer today.

The first thing I did with the printer was a nozzle check. There was no pigment black grid. There was no magenta. The top half of the dark cyan was about as light as the photo cyan. Was this the way it was before you sent it?

I removed your cartridges and discovered a lot of ink inside the print head where the cartridges go especially around the cyan cartridge. I removed the print head and found a lot of ink around the contacts, around the nozzles, around the circuitry and around other areas. I figured that maybe this must have happened during shipping. I'm concerned that maybe some of this ink may have electrically damaged the top half of the dark cyan. I probably shouldn't have powered it up until after I cleaned it.

I started doing several cycles of the process described below with no improvement. At this point I decided that I might be damaging the printhead with all that ink on it so I cleaned it up as best I could, then I continued to do my normal process for unclogging nozzles which is:

I removed the pigment black and magenta cartridges and replaced them with empty cartridges.
I close the lid to get the printer to recognize these empty cartridges.
I remove the empties and deposit Windex on the screens that the cartridges connect to.
I put in full cartridges, except that I use a magenta cartridge with head cleaning solution in it (not Windex).
I put Windex on the two purge/park/cleaning pads off to the right.
I do a nozzle check. Because of the presence of the empty and now full cartridges, this causes a cleaning cycle to be performed before the nozzle check is done.
I repeat a bunch of times.

The pigment black starts printing and eventually is complete.

I start seeing some magenta in the dark magenta nozzle check pattern.

There is no change is the dark cyan (upper half lighter than it should be).

To be continued...

 

[Ron350]

Ghwellsjr I sure am glad to see you have the iP5000.

Can you teach me a little more about your cleaning process?

I close the lid to get the printer to recognize these empty cartridges.

Is this step to let the printer know that there is an empty cartridge installed or just to let the purge pump cycle?

I put in full cartridges, except that I use a magenta cartridge with head cleaning solution in it (not Windex).

Whose brand of head cleaning solution are you using at this step?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, the purpose of cycling between empty and full cartridges is to get the printer to do a cleaning (purge/prime) cycle without having to connect the printer to a computer (which would be a lot easier if you already have that connection). This allows me to also do a cleaning cycle on just the pigment black or the colors. You can also turn the printer off and on to get it to do a cleaning cycle on all cartridges.

I get my cleaning solution from:

http://www.inkjetsaver.com/tools.html

 

[Ron350]

Thanks that helps.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I believe I have found what was the problem with this printer. It was caused by the compatible cartridge not having a serpentine grove in the top of the cartridge from the air vent to the inside of the cartridge. See this link for a discussion about this:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1976

As a result of not having this air path, the ink in the cartridge eventually got thicker and thicker until it caused the clogs that were very hard to clear up. To confirm this theory, I did a viscosity check on the magenta ink in the bottle you sent me with the printer and with the magenta ink from the cartridge in the printer. The way to do this is to put some ink in a syringe without the plunger and let it drip out and see how fast it flows. The fresh ink was almost as fast as water but the ink from the cartridge was significantly slower. In fact, it even took awhile to start flowing.

Here is a picture of the compatible cartridge:

And here is a closeup of the air vent which goes straight into the cartridge:

Here is a picture of the last nozzle check I did:

When I first got the printer, there was no pigment black and no magenta. Note the top half of the cyan is lighter than it should be. I was able to get the pigment black to work correctly and the regular magenta to work partially. I think only half the nozzles for the magenta are working as it appears quite light.

Unfortunately, the print head got damaged during some of my work on it while it was outside the printer (I wasn't following my own advice to leave it inside the printer), but I believe the cyan was already damaged so I don't feel too bad. But I believe I have achieved my goal of trying to diagnose the problem.

Bottom line: use only Canon cartridges.

 

[zack23]

Hi George -

Thanks for the detailed report! To answer some of your questions:

1. I did not check the condition of the printhead immediately before sending the printer, and I had stored the printer for a month or two before getting around to offering it on this forum. However, when I put the printer away prior to storage the printhead was clean, and there was no excess ink slopping around the printhead intakes. The leakage may well have happened during shipping.

2. The too-light upper half of the dark cyan band on the test pattern is NOT a problem I had previously seen with this printer. I suspect that the excess ink contaminating the printhead contacts may have caued this, as you suggest.

3. Very interesting speculation about the lack of serpentine groove on the thirdparty carts causing the magenta ink to thicken and clog the printhead. You may well be right about this, though it's odd that it would effect only the magenta ink, and not the cyan and yellow ink (though, come to think of it, this may explain why I had frequent clogs with the black pigment ink carts, though at least these cleaned up quickly using the regular 'clean printhead' function). But if this is the cause of the problem, several things don't make sense to me. First, LOTS of people have used third party carts with these printers and not had the same problems I did (and I was careful not to contaminate the carts, used only Hobbicolor ink, etc). Second, I don't understand why, after you thoroughly cleaned the printhead, the light magenta band still didn't print and the dark magenta band still showed the very regular 'checkerboard' alteration of lighter and darker densities. This makes me think that there was/is an electronic problem with the cart.

Incidentally, if you wanted to pursue this further replacement printheads were reasonably cheap (I was able to find them discounted last I looked, though that was some time ago). If you are correct about the problem being the carts, it might be worth it to have a working printer (and test your theory!)

Best wishes,

Zack

 

[ghwellsjr]

Hi George -

Thanks for the detailed report! To answer some of your questions:

1. I did not check the condition of the printhead immediately before sending the printer, and I had stored the printer for a month or two before getting around to offering it on this forum. However, when I put the printer away prior to storage the printhead was clean, and there was no excess ink slopping around the printhead intakes. The leakage may well have happened during shipping.

My advice from now on when shipping a printer is to remove the printhead and cartridges so this won't happen again. It occurred to me that since the printhead was locked in place, I had to power up the printer to get the printhead out to clean it up.

3. Very interesting speculation about the lack of serpentine groove on the thirdparty carts causing the magenta ink to thicken and clog the printhead. You may well be right about this, though it's odd that it would effect only the magenta ink, and not the cyan and yellow ink (though, come to think of it, this may explain why I had frequent clogs with the black pigment ink carts, though at least these cleaned up quickly using the regular 'clean printhead' function). But if this is the cause of the problem, several things don't make sense to me. First, LOTS of people have used third party carts with these printers and not had the same problems I did (and I was careful not to contaminate the carts, used only Hobbicolor ink, etc).

Keep in mind that it will take a long time for enough water to evaporate out of a cartridge before it becomes a problem. You indicated in your first post that the printer had "a few months of light usage" before the problem happened again after you replaced the printhead. (You didn't indicate, but you may have been using the same cartridges that you were using with your older printhead. Also, not all of your cartridges were of the problem type.) If you had been using your printer often, it probably would have kept the problem from happening. Also, there are not too many people using the iP5000 which has nozzles that are smaller than all of the other printers that use the BCI-6 cartridges. And there have been reports on this forum of people having problems with magenta on iP5000 printers. It may just be a combination of factors that makes the problem show up first on magenta. Of course, once the problem shows up on one color, the cleaning action will keep the problem from showing up on other colors.

Second, I don't understand why, after you thoroughly cleaned the printhead, the light magenta band still didn't print and the dark magenta band still showed the very regular 'checkerboard' alteration of lighter and darker densities. This makes me think that there was/is an electronic problem with the cart.

The nozzle check pattern that I uploaded was the first time the dark magenta showed anywhere near a solid pattern and the first time any ink showed in the light magenta (at the very bottom). I then removed the printhead and tried to shake some ink out of it but instead I think I shook some ink into the electronics because the printer would no longer recognize the printhead. I agree that there was probably also an electronic problem with the dark magenta, but I think it was caused by the ink contamination during shipping. I have since soaked the printhead in Windex and water and will let it dry for a week before attempting to use it again in the hopes that maybe the printer will at least recognize the printhead and maybe even correct the problem with the dark cyan and possibly other problems if there are any.

Incidentally, if you wanted to pursue this further replacement printheads were reasonably cheap (I was able to find them discounted last I looked, though that was some time ago). If you are correct about the problem being the carts, it might be worth it to have a working printer (and test your theory!)

I do plan after I'm sure the printhead cannot be rejuvenated to buy a replacement. I'll keep you posted.