Unclogging Canon Printheads

[JimDandy]

Might make sense to do the reverse - try your friend's printhead in your printer. Redbrickman seems to know more about this. I didn't know you could really risk printer damage with a bad printhead.

Yes that would be correct.

The only risk is if your printhead has an electrical fault it could damage the other printer

 

[stratman]

Might make sense to do the reverse - try your friend's printhead in your printer. Redbrickman seems to know more about this. I didn't know you could really risk printer damage with a bad printhead.

Yes that would be correct.

The only risk is if your printhead has an electrical fault it could damage the other printer

The risk for damage works both ways. As unusual as it is, unless you are sure the print head or the printer do not have electrical issues, one should not swap print heads or printers. Cartridges are a different matter and can be swapped into a different print head, even into a different printer.

 

[The Hat]

Might make sense to do the reverse - try your friend's printhead in your printer. Redbrickman seems to know more about this. I didn't know you could really risk printer damage with a bad printhead.

Yes that would be correct.

The only risk is if your printhead has an electrical fault it could damage the other printer

The risk for damage works both ways. As unusual as it is, unless you are sure the print head or the printer do not have electrical issues, one should not swap print heads or printers. Cartridges are a different matter and can be swapped into a different print head, even into a different printer.

Sounds like a lot of Print Head banging to me..

 

[stratman]

Sounds like a lot of Print Head banging to me..

And here I thought you were more a bangers and mash kinda guy.

 

[The Hat]

Sounds like a lot of Print Head banging to me..

And here I thought you were more a bangers and mash kinda guy.

You got that all wrong thats websnail territory, Spuds and Buttermilk boyo..

 

[stratman]

Simmer down, uncle. Just a play on words. Not like I was insulting your blood pudding.

 

[inkoholic]

Might make sense to do the reverse - try your friend's printhead in your printer. Redbrickman seems to know more about this. I didn't know you could really risk printer damage with a bad printhead.

Yes that would be correct.

The only risk is if your printhead has an electrical fault it could damage the other printer

The risk for damage works both ways. As unusual as it is, unless you are sure the print head or the printer do not have electrical issues, one should not swap print heads or printers. Cartridges are a different matter and can be swapped into a different print head, even into a different printer.

So the white stripes on my nozzle check print (see previous page) could also be caused by electrical issues? This thing is getting more complicated :/ I don't want to mess up my brother's printer as well. Don't really know what to do now: repair my MP610 and risk spending a lot of money, or ditch the 610 (which is still working OK but not great) and get a new printer. I could get an MG5150, or an HP Officejet 8500 (seems to have the lowest OEM ink costs by far).

 

[JimDandy]

If you really love the printer and are willing to spend money and time on it (or, like me, can't see putting something in a landfill unless it's unredeemable), get yourself - one at a time - a new printhead, purge unit, and maybe pad set. If all of those things fail, you've wasted time and money, but probably gotten to the end of the line with what you can do to fix it (anyone else feel free to correct me, but that's all I could figure out).

If you think others here can help you diagnose your problem, post some print patterns.

Otherwise, if you feel ok about trashing or recycling the thing, you'll have the least amount of headaches (and not spend significantly more or maybe even less) buying a new printer. My MP610 cost I think $69 brand new, and I certainly put more "time-money" into fixing it than it originally cost.

So the white stripes on my nozzle check print (see previous page) could also be caused by electrical issues? This thing is getting more complicated :/ I don't want to mess up my brother's printer as well. Don't really know what to do now: repair my MP610 and risk spending a lot of money, or ditch the 610 (which is still working OK but not great) and get a new printer. I could get an MG5150, or an HP Officejet 8500 (seems to have the lowest OEM ink costs by far).

 

[stratman]

So the white stripes on my nozzle check print (see previous page) could also be caused by electrical issues? This thing is getting more complicated :/ I don't want to mess up my brother's printer as well. Don't really know what to do now: repair my MP610 and risk spending a lot of money, or ditch the 610 (which is still working OK but not great) and get a new printer. I could get an MG5150, or an HP Officejet 8500 (seems to have the lowest OEM ink costs by far).

If you want to keep your MP610 running, then there are a few things you can try.

1) Buy new OEM Canon cartridges to replace the problem cartridges from your nozzle check. Alternatively, you could take your cartridges and put them in the other printer you mentioned to see if they work without issues. No harm should occur from cartridge swapping -- unless you let the printer print without ink in the print head, which would cause print head failure. From your abbreviated nozzle check images, I don't see complete ink starvation yet, so you should be safe for this test procedure. The idea is to isolate the problem(s). This test will help determine if the cartridges are wholly or partially at fault.

2) You can try one or more of the various methods found on the forum for unclogging the print head. Time and patience are virtues here. Cost is negligible.

3) For completeness, you can test the purge system, though I doubt it is your problem. Use Windex with Ammonium D, isopropyl alcohol, or water to fllood the purge pads. These pads are seen to the extreme right when you look into the printer. The print head parks above the pads when the printer is idle or off. When you open the lid the print head moves to the center and parks for several minutes. Using a flashlight and needle and syringe, or other suitable device, flood both purge pads until fluid pools, then close the lid and do a cleaning cycle. Then open the lid and look to see if the pooled fluid is gone or not. If gone, you might even notice one or both pads to seem a little bit "whiter". Report back your experience and findings. Caveat - the print head parks in the middle for only several minutes. Maybe the first time you try this procedure you should pull the electrical plug once the print head parks in the middle to give yourself ample time to complete the task comfortably.

4) Whenever I see straight lines like yours on a nozzle check, I lean towards print head malfunction rather than clog. Nature doesn't do perfect straight lines. Clogs aren't usually perfectly spaced to cause such straight interspersed decreased ink output bands. But you never can be sure, so we try unclogging sometimes before spending $50 plus on a new print head. Then again, sometimes you just get the new print head and be done with it.

5) I doubt this is a problem with any other part of the printer, but stranger things have happened.

Let us know what happens.

 

[ganguy]

My 1p 5000 which is about 5 years old stopped printing all colors during a DVD print. I tried all suggested methods, washed the printhead, soaked 2 nights in distilled water, then head cleaner, did the cleaning, deep cleaning and nozzle check. No color, and a poor black grid, many nozzles plugged. I tried a print head realignment, and all it did was shoot out the paper and go to flashing orange.
Any thoughts? I'd hate to give this baby up - I use it about equally for color (photo), DVD and text printing. I refill with Hobbicolors inks.
ganguy