Unclogging Canon Printheads

[JimDandy]

I'll answer my own question. A Canon rep told me that the two numbers probably just refer to two different kinds of packaging (one with a box and one without). FWIW, Canon sells a refurbed printhead for under $18, which is what I'm trying out.

 

[yupkime]

Where can you order these refurbished printheads from?
Better than buying used printers over and over again.

I'll answer my own question. A Canon rep told me that the two numbers probably just refer to two different kinds of packaging (one with a box and one without). FWIW, Canon sells a refurbed printhead for under $18, which is what I'm trying out.

 

[JimDandy]

Call Canon support and ask for Parts.

 

[JimDandy]

So, I have to follow-up again, now that I'm stymied with my MP610. It's about a year-and-a-half old, and not heavily used (which I guess is part of the problem). I have a cartridge resetter and some decent aftermarket ink I've been using from early on. A few months back, I began getting bad standard text prints, so finally I decided to try cleaning the printhead, something I'd done in the past with my old i850 with some success. After one or two tries at that, I ended up with test prints that had no black grid whatsoever. I tried and tried and tried cleaning the printhead again with various solutions proffered here and elsewhere. Finally, I gave up and got a new/refurbed printhead from Canon as well as a new pigment black filled cartridge. No change. I still have no grid at all when I do a test print, and B&W documents all print a blank sheet. Colors all print, and i think the dye black is working, too. I can't even figure out how to force the printer to print B&W text using the cartridges that are working. All cartridges, BTW, register fine in the ink level dialogue and are constantly lit, so the resetter is not the problem.

Am I right that this is a problem with the pigment black (if the test grid is just blank), and does anyone have any ideas about what the problem might be now, or how I might solve it? I figure I might need to invest in a full, new cartridge set and maybe really clean out the machine if ink refilling has been part of the problem, but it seems like something else is up, since the other cartridges seem to be working correctly.

TIA for any advice.

 

[ghwellsjr]

You can get your printer to use the dye black ink by telling it that you are printing on matted photo paper.

There is a good chance that the purge system for your pigment black is not working. To determine if this is the case, open the cover and using a syringe, eye dropper or pinched straw, deposit some Windex or other window cleaner on the rectangular pad off to the right where the print head parks. Then do a cleaning and see of the liquid has disappeared. If it is still there, your purge system is not sucking the ink through the bottom of the print head to get it flowing.

 

[JimDandy]

Thanks for the printing trick and advice the purge system. I neglected to mention that I did that once before (put ammonia-based window cleaner on the purge pad), but I'll try it again and report back.

 

[JimDandy]

I seem to be at a dead end, although I'll keep trying on and off. New PH, new pigment black cart, I've put a significant amount of window cleaner on both purge pads and run several clean cycles (on the pigment black only, to save other inks) and I'm still getting basically no black grid nozzle test pattern. A couple of times I got something faint, and then AFTER running a clean or deep clean cycle on the pigment black, the grid totally disappeared again, which seemed counterintuitive. I'm really wondering if there's a system problem with the printer. The contacts between the printer and printhead look fine, but it almost seems like the printer has stopped sending signals just to the pigment black cart. Anyone else have any ideas? TIA.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The question is: when you put window cleaner on the pigment purge pad and do a cleaning cycle, has all the liquid disappeared off the pad or is it still pooled on there?

 

[JimDandy]

Well, I know it's gone now (about 18 hours later), and that's the 2nd time I've done it. I don't think it's just evaporating, but if it'll help, I'll try again and see what happens immediately after running a clean cycle.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, that's what you need to do.