Severe Smudging with MX922

[Charles218]

In trying to resurrect one of my MX922's that has been sitting unused for about a year, I am getting quite severe smudging which you can see in the attached files. I've run both the Bottom Plate and Roller Cleaner procedures, neither seems to make any difference. Any suggestions on what is causing this?

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Charles218
From your first image, the upper portion of the PGBK print head is not working correctly, while the lower portion is. I am not the expert yet I believe these are the nozzles for the pigment black ink. This is consistent with the smeared portion of the text being on the top portion of the print of text and not the bottom portion of the text in your second image.
Following is an image of the MX922 printhead I have pointed to the line of nozzles for the PGMK ink (to the best of my knowledge) and believe those are the culprit of the issue:

You want to ensure the PGMK ink cartridge is not low in ink. Change that first if it is.
Several options exist if you have followed the complete set of cleaning procedures.
- retry the cleaning procedures and see if improvement continues. Repeat until resolved or no improvement is seen
- remove the printhead for a soaking. Canon has not published an approach yet. Many follow this procedure, and there are YouTube videos on it. So, your mileage may vary. It's a judgment call to go the route not officially supported by Canon, yet it works for many if you want to save the expense of a printhead replacement or servicing of the printer. Here is a link on how to remove the printhead for inspection, washing, or replacement:
https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/s/article/ART143853?utm_source=chatgpt.com
The removal process is not difficult, yet more involved than just changing ink cartridges

- you could also remove the printhead and replace it as an option. The risk is that money is going down the drain if it is not a printhead issue. So that is a tradeoff versus having it sent for servicing.

The root cause is likely just a clogged printhead, yet it could also be a failure of the cleaning process.

OEM printheads are expensive, and there are aftermarket versions at a fraction of that cost.
In my earlier years, when I was scrimping on money and did not mind spending my time on debugging and repairing, I would go for the wash-it-myself approach or replace the printhead on my approach (even with a non-OEM printhead). Yet today, I want to get back to printing, so I lean towards spending more money for a solution.

Maybe there will be another forum member that has that specific printer model that can better advise
Hope this helps
John Wheeler

 

[Charles218]

Thanks, I really appreciate your detailed response, I will get to this over the weekend. I have some experience removing and cleaning these heads, so I am not too squeamish in this area.

 

[thebestcpu]

Thanks, I really appreciate your detailed response, I will get to this over the weekend. I have some experience removing and cleaning these heads, so I am not too squeamish in this area.

Best of skill to you on this approach working. Let us know if it worked, as that would be valuable for others who encounter a similar issue.
John Wheeler

 

[The Hat]

Any suggestions on what is causing this?

Your print head is not looking good at all, firstly when you have a print problem such as your, you should stop all printing immediately and only do nozzle checks until you can get a perfect 100% clear pattern.

You can try using an OEM black cart, (not aftermarket) and run a half dozen nozzle checks with a normal head clean on the (black only) between each nozzle print, and if there is no improvement in the quality of the output after six tries, then the black nozzles are fried..

Now you can go on using the printer by selecting Matte or glossy paper in your media selection and that will give you reasonable print quality for black text on plain paper and this method wont effect your colour prints.

I don’t know how easy it is to get a new print head for your model printer, but never be tempted to buy a refurbished head from third party sources, because they are all rubbish and you will be just wasting your time and money, buy only from authorised dealers (Not EBay)

P.S. soaking the head in warm water with a little washing up liquid in it may help but I dough it and this can cause further issues to an ready stressed head..

 

[Charles218]

Before I proceed with the advice above, I have had around 7 or 8 of these printers over the years. We currently have two up and running at our house. Having had problems with the heads in the past, I vaguely recall someone saying that moving a problematic printhead from one printer to another could cause other problems not directly related to the printhead. This may have been related to an effort to clear the B200 error code. Again, this is a vague recollection. I ask because I have two or three original printheads from older printers that I saved and could swap into the current printer if needed.

 

[The Hat]

I ask because I have two or three original printheads from older printers that I saved and could swap into the current printer if needed.

That’s good news, because you’ll be ok to use one of the other good ones, if necessary..

Just run a normal cleaning cycle with the new head installed and print a nozzle check..

Good luck..

 

[Charles218]

Reporting back, after removing the printhead and manually cleaning it quite thoroughly, then running a nozzle check, the result is virtually a clone of the pre cleaning nozzle check. I then ran one deep cleaning followed by a nozzle check, the result is as far as I can see identical. Both of these nozzle checks look "exactly" like the nozzle check that I attached at the beginning of this thread. I would think that if the problem had to do with a dirty head I would at least see some changes in the nozzle check.

As I mentioned, I have 2 or 3 spare heads laying around that I could try, but would first like to get feedback on the possibility that installing a bad head may cause some other software related issues. This does sound a little fishy to me, but I believe I read about this a few years back. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Thanks for your assistance!!!

 

[thebestcpu]

Reporting back, after removing the printhead and manually cleaning it quite thoroughly, then running a nozzle check, the result is virtually a clone of the pre cleaning nozzle check. I then ran one deep cleaning followed by a nozzle check, the result is as far as I can see identical. Both of these nozzle checks look "exactly" like the nozzle check that I attached at the beginning of this thread. I would think that if the problem had to do with a dirty head I would at least see some changes in the nozzle check.

As I mentioned, I have 2 or 3 spare heads laying around that I could try, but would first like to get feedback on the possibility that installing a bad head may cause some other software related issues. This does sound a little fishy to me, but I believe I read about this a few years back. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Thanks for your assistance!!!

Hi Charles
All I have read is that the printheads of the mx922 are compatible.
However, swapping printheads is usually recommended when you have a known working printhead in the printer having the issue. Otherwise, you may be just trying to solve another printhead issue. So, your mileage may vary.

I will give you links to two videos of cleaning such printheads, as there can be quite a bit of dry ink in the printhead, and just soaking may not do the trick. Given that you are going down this path, I think it would be worth watching them (the second one does more than just soaking and rinsing.

cleaning printhead soaking

more aggressive approach and tools

Suitable electrical connections without contamination around the contacts are essential and another source of potential issues. So, failure can occur outside the physical printhead as well.

Best of skill - you have more patience than I do.
John Wheeler

 

[Charles218]

John, I appreciate the video links, both are very good. However, after following the steps in the second video and using Piezo Flush, I still get the exact same nozzle check pattern. When I say exact, that is exactly what I see, nothing is changed. I never got around to trying a different printhead, I was spending way too much time with this.

Regarding patience, I've always thought of myself as having tons of patience, but this time the printer won. It was used in my teaching studio almost exclusively for making black and white copies, I gave up and just ordered a Canon Imageclass printer/scanner. Goodbye to ink cartridges and hello to what I hope will be much less trouble prone toner cartridges.

Now on to fixing the stubborn yellow ink clog in my Epson P400.

Thanks!