ip4000 slowish printing

[PeterBJ]

I did some tests using a new version of the lorem ipsum document. I created a new document because I hadn't saved the Word versions of it only a PDF version. I have attached the new documents in a zipped folder, so you can print these documents to compare your times with mine.

Using one of my iP4000s with the same default settings as yours, I printed the document both in Word and PDF versions with and without highlighting, I used a stopwatch to take the time for printing only (activity on the printer) and total time from clicking "Print" or "OK" till the printer had stopped activity. These are my results, it is seen that black text only is faster than black text and coloured highlights.:

Maybe an hour later I printed two nozzle checks from user mode and the Word versions of the lorem ipsum document with and without highlights. I then switched off the printer and switched it on in service mode. I printed first the Service Test Print and the EEPROM info print. The temperatures were BK = 28.5 and C = 27.0 and Env = 23.0. Env means environment and is measured somewhere inside the printer.

To avoid heating the print head from print jobs i took my other iP4000 and turned it on in service mode. I printed the Service Test Print and immediately after that the EEPROM info print. To my surprise The temperatures were BK = 36.0 and C = 37.0 and Env = 19.5. These temperatures are much higher after less printing and are similar to those of your printer. I hope this does not mean that the print head is going to fail soon. I wonder how the "hotter" iP4000 will behave when doing the same print jobs. I wonder if it will be slower due to pausing? I might do that test.

I suggest to get a "standardized" temperature test that you wait until tomorrow and then switch the printer on in service mode and does the Service Test Print immediately followed by the EEPROM info print. This way we can compare measured temperatures.

 

[The Hat]

I tried the four files you posted in the Lomem1.zip to see the comparisons on my old i865.

Unfortunately I didn’t check the printer before I started and only found afterwards that it was actually set to High quality, so my times will be somewhat slower plus the printer is set to Quiet Mode, so there’s no point is checking running temperatures either !

 

[martin0reg]

...I would guess just interrupted...
...would ambient temps make a difference to printhead temps

- As I said before, If the prinintg interrupts, get the switch going.
- High temps of the printhead is a bad sign, but you can't cool it.
Bubble jets use to wear out and die.. just take care of ink flow to not shorten the life span..

 

[Music Image]

@PeterBJ, would I be correct in saying wow that is quite a difference between those temps! I've downloaded your zip. Just to make sure we're comparing apples with apples as much as possible ...bear in mind these points and if anything is going to skew the results:

1/ Im using the Libre Office Writer Portable word processor program from a USB stick. Hopefully that wouldn't make a difference. In any case, my Word program is 2002 and won't read .docx files and it's on my other computer anyway.

2/ Adobe Acrobat reader doesn't live on my system. I use PDFXchange to handle my pdfs.

3/ I didn't mention that I always set the printer driver to show "Preview before printing" as it wasn't relevant to what we were doing, but with these latest tests it might be. Shall I leave this setting off or on or shouldn't it matter (I just activate printing from the preview page instead of the program menu). I don't think I've changed anything else from default settings.

4/

"I used a stopwatch to take the time for printing only (activity on the printer) "

Im taking "activity" to mean as soon as the paper "grabs" or is fed into the printer or do you mean after that? We'd only be noticing maybe a second between that and when it actually starts printing.

When you say the 2 nozz checks were done from "user mode" did you mean activating them from the printer itself or from an attached computer or did you mean something else?

I haven't printed anything from the printer since that coloured document in my previous post. That was, what, a couple of days ago. As a point of interest, I wonder how long would it take a printer head to cool down properly? I'd be surely interested in any other tests you're running, and 2 identical machines can be really helpful in such circumstances. Indeed lets hope my printer head is still OK. I know with printers, to a degree at least, it's use it or lose it. I don't print much, but when I do need my printer I'd imagine it would be more than annoying not to have it.

EDITED TO ADD: Here's another possible variable as far as printhead temps go, I pretty much leave my printer turned on and have done so throughout these tests. PeterBJ, do you think this may account for the higher temps?. When you did your tests were both your printers turned on or do you leave them turned off. I'm not talking about momentarily turning off to enter service mode. Maybe just a thought worth considering. While I wait for a response to this post I have decided to turn my printer off.

@martin, your quote of what I said,

" The problem is, it appears to be printing slower with 3 or 4 stops per page. .."

You asked:

."..does this mean really slower printing speed or just interrupted printing - or both?"

That's what I was answering...that it's interrupted. However in light of the results of my last printout where nothing of that nature happened, I don't need the door training trick at this point.

Thanks for the info on the temps.

Just as an aside, FWIW, I have always changed ink tanks on the Low ink Warning, not when it's actually run out.

EDITED TO CORRECT SPELLING MISTAKE : PDFExchange should be PDFXchange

 

[PeterBJ]

1/ I thought that Open Office and the spin-off Libre Office had solved the problem with the "new" Microsoft file formats. But apparently not. Instead you can use a free Word viewer to open the file so you can read the document and print it. Download link here. You can not edit or work with the document, only viewing and printing is possible, but that is also sufficient in this situation. I have an old P4 computer running Windows XP and MS Office 2002. I have downloaded a compatibility program that converts the .docx files to .doc. Sadly the computer has failed, so I cannot give you more details. IIRC Microsoft also offered a stand alone file converter. I don't know if that is still available. I have attached a zipped folder with the two files in .doc format, I hope Libre office will accept them.

2/ I don't know if using another program than the Adobe Reader to open .pdf files will affect printing speed. But why not download the Adobe Reader? It is free. If you don't like it you can un-install it after having tested the print speeds and compared them to those from PDFExchange.

3/ With the "good" = "not overheating" iP4000 I got mechanical activity only times of 9.1/8.6 seconds for printing the no highlights version of the document with and without the print preview function enabled. The difference could very well be caused by uncertainty on my judgement of when mechanical activity starts and stops, so I think the preview function makes no difference on printing speed.

4/ With activity I mean mechanical activity. I start the stopwatch when I hear the printer starts mechanically. It could very well mean the printer "grabs" the paper, as you suggest and I stop the watch when the paper has landed in the output tray.

With 2 nozzle checks from user mode I mean two nozzle checks from the printer driver's maintenance tab ordered by the computer. You can also do a nozzle check as a stand alone printer operation, this is also in user mode. I mean user mode as opposed to service mode.

It is hard to tell how long a print head needs to cool down to ambient temperature, as even turning the printer on both in user and service mode can trigger a nozzle cleaning that heats the print head. But I think 12 hours or more will certainly be sufficient. My default printer is an iP4300, which is always connected to the mains, I only switch it on and off using the printer's on/off button. This greatly reduces the amount of print head cleaning on start up saving ink and extending the life of the ink absorbers. Some automated print head cleaning is triggered by a timer or a drop counter or a change of an ink cartridge or the print head. If the printer is disconnected from the mains the last printing time cannot be remembered, and the print head is cleaned at start up. If the printer has been used not long time ago and has been connected to the mains the nozzle cleaning might be skipped.

@PeterBJ EDITED TO ADD: Here's another possible variable as far as printhead temps go, I pretty much leave my printer turned on and have done so throughout these tests. PeterBJ, do you think this may account for the higher temps?. When you did your tests were both your printers turned on or do you leave them turned off. I'm not talking about momentarily turning off to enter service mode. Maybe just a thought worth considering. While I wait for a response to this post I have decided to turn my printer off.

I don't know but I don't think so. The iP4000s I used for testing were not permanently connected to the mains or permanently turned on. One of the printers seem to run very hot, maybe overheating. I think it is defective.

I have other printers, but they are only used occasionally so they are not permanently connected to the mains.

I first tried to determine if "print preview" on or off had an effect on print times using the "hot" iP4000 and the no highlight version of the lorem ipsum document. The starting temperature was indicated as BK = 39.5 C = 32.5 Env = 21.5. These temperatures were from the EEPROM info print without doing any prints before that.

I then printed the document with default settings except with print preview enabled, so I expected a print activity time of around 9 seconds, but the time was 15.1 seconds. I did a new temperature reading from the EEPROM info page and now temperatures were indicated as BK = 54.5 C = 04.5 (?!) and Env = 23.5. A new test print of the same document and settings except with print preview disabled gave the activity time of 19 seconds. I now stopped testing, I think the printer or print head is close to failing. Something is wrong with the temperature reading.

During the printing I observed that the printer paused several times, and more so in the second print that took longer time. During the printing the pausing did not flash the yellow warning light. Lifting the output tray to an angle of 45 degrees on the good iP4000 to simulate a switch error when printing causes it to pause and flash the yellow warning light.

So pausing with yellow flashing could be a relatively harmless error caused by a defective switch, pausing without warning lights could be a sign of an overheating print head going to fail soon.

On page 1-4 in the service manual you find this about operator call errors: LED blinking in orange 3 times:"Front door closed. [1250]" with the remedy: "Open the paper output tray". 3 blinks could also mean paper jam.

On page 1-6 in the service manual you find two high print head temperature warnings without LED indication.

One is:"Print head temperature rise" with this explanation:"If the print head temperature is high when the access cover is opened, the warning is displayed*1. When the print head temperature falls, the warning is released" and the other is: "Protection of excess rise of the print head temperature" with this explanation: "If the print head temperature exceeds the specified limit, a Wait is inserted during printing"

So the behaviour of the power/warning LED is important. Does it flash yellow or not during the pausing of the printer?

 

[martin0reg]

In my experience temps below 30 are good, from 30 to 33 maybe still okay.
Temps beyond 35 are not good, IMHO beyond 40 the PH is probably worn out or dying soon, I had such temps with "refurbished" PHs from china..
And I had interruptions from high temps too, remembering vaguely some short message in the status window.

 

[Music Image]

@marinOreg thanks for chiming in on those temps.

@PeterBJ thanks for all the tests and going to this effort! Wow there sure is something strange with your "hot" ip4000 readings.

I'll just make a few comments and answers now and come back and post results from some more tests.

To clarify about power left on, I should have been more specific and said, other than for electrical storms I never physically unplug the printer from the wall. By any powering off I mean pushing the power on/off button on the printer. Somewhere way back I remember something about there being more cleaning cycles if your printer is turned off but can't remember if that included being physically unplugged from the wall. Many thanks for more info on that.

As this thread has grown quite a bit, (and yes, I had to check) I'll just reiterate from the first post regarding the orange flashing light:

Ive also noticed the orange light flashes very briefly once each time it stops. There's no code for one flash that I know of.

Apologies for omitting to say that Libre Office does read .docx files, so no problem there.

Where possible I install portables. One important reason is because I can test them first in Sandboxie (a sandbox) as these days even they are not exempt from including nagware and excess "baggageware" like spyware, toolbars, default phone home components, registry entries, logs and other bits and pieces lying around the system. I don't like Acrobat Reader and I'm wary of it leaving dregs on my system after an uninstall. PDFExchange is run from a portable folder on the HDD so for this test I'll just time it from the first mechanical activity.

Just thought of something else to throw into the mix, which probably doesn't have anything to do with it, but just in case .... hows your hearing guys? Sometimes with cleaning cycles I hear this short series of very high pitched beeps. If they're mentioned in the service manual I haven't seen it yet. Its generally a few occurrences of 3 beeps I think a long and 2 shorts. What do these mean?

 

[stratman]

The former Kingsoft office apps now known as WPS Office read he Lorem .docx files in the zip file linked above. I installed the latest free version this afternoon. There is an opt out on an installation of some bloatware that is easy to avoid as long as you pay attention during the installation process. Also, there is a phone-home when you start the app. No big deal for me but I understand if others would not like. No portable version like the other free office apps mentioned above.

 

[Music Image]

Notes:
- Before any printing I went into Service Mode and did Service Printout then the EEPROM printout -- then I did the above 8 test printouts -- then I did another Service Printout and EEPROM printout.

- Ambient temperature 17DegrC

- Total time was taken from clicking on "print" from Canons preview mode screen.

At no time was there any orange light coming on or any pausing of printing, but the usual Zii ziii irregularities as is typical for mixed B&W and colour printing.

HOWEVER... the temps are off the planet!
Todays readings:

Pre Printing
1/ Head TempBK = 43.0 Head TempC= 47.0 Env Temp=20.0

Post Printing
2/ Head TempBK = 50.0 Head TempC= 53.0 Env Temp=23.0

@stratman, it has been noted that though you can opt out, (I don't see why I should be made to opt out either) in some cases they still install stuff anyway. Moreover, there's no guarantees that what was a reputable download site yesterday will be the same today and the shortlist is getting shorter. Paid apps are fine, but not sneakware posing as free.

 

[PeterBJ]

Considering the uncertainty on taking times with a stopwatch, especially for the printer mechanical activity only, I think your times can be considered the same as mine from post #21. These times were from the "good" iP4000. But sadly your print head temperatures are almost as bad as those from my "hot" iP4000.

I just printed the lorem ipsum document twice without highlights and twice with highlights using the "good" iP4000. After the printing the temperatures were BK = 25.0 C = 24.0 Env = 21.5 These temperatures look nice, also according to the post by @martin0reg .

Sadly the service manual has no indication of what temperatures are acceptable. The temperatures in the EEPROM example from the iP4000 service manual look strange to me: "Head TempBK=18.5 Head TempC=17.5 Env Temp=30.0 FF(3F 3F 3F)" How can the print head be colder than the environment? This error is copied and pasted into several other manuals. Do not always trust all info from a Canon service manual!

Just thought of something else to throw into the mix, which probably doesn't have anything to do with it, but just in case .... hows your hearing guys? Sometimes with cleaning cycles I hear this short series of very high pitched beeps. If they're mentioned in the service manual I haven't seen it yet. Its generally a few occurrences of 3 beeps I think a long and 2 shorts. What do these mean?

I have also noticed this behaviour with iP4000's, so I think it is perfectly normal. It is not an alarm signal. I think the sound is caused by a switch mode voltage converter. Some ferrite cores can emit sound by magnetostriction. I wonder if my "hot" iP4000 will soon emit a di-di-di-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit ?