Canon i560 Clogged Printhead - Black BCI-3eBK Half Missing

Well, after many years of service, my trusty Canon i560 seems to be clogged (maybe burnt out) beyond what I think can be fixed.

I've tried various cleaning methods short of printhead disassembly.

Here's what a nozzle check looks like below. You can clearly see that the lower half of my Black BCI-3eBK is totally missing.




I do have 3 more of these printers in my garage that are refurbished i560's that I got at Fry's for $39 many years ago. So, I guess I could just go grab one of these and get back to printing... but I just wish I could fix this black since everything else is printing just fine.

Forget it Rob it’s done its job and the head is now ready for retirement and there’s no more you can do with it, my iX4000 head done the very same thing last week so I know the feeling, it’s very annoying when the colours still print perfect !

Don’t dispose of your trusty old printer just yet, borrow one of the heads from your spare cache in the garage and it will probability print for another 5 years..

Agree with @The Hat. The missing Pigment Black nozzles are most likely a permanent electrical failure. The forum's history with these types of malfunctions generally are resolved with a new print head. However, we may caution that there is a small chance the malfunction may be from the printer itself, such as the logic assay board, and there is a possibility that a new print head may be corrupted and malfunction as well. I guess that is our version of a coffee cup's labeling "Danger, coffee may be hot!"

You could try cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head and printer.

You could use this printer just for printing images since the non-black inks seem to be printing fine.

Your printer does not have a separate Dye-based Black cartridge so I do not know how good text would print if you tried a different Paper Setting as is often suggested for other printers with similar malfunctions but do have a Dye-based Black cartridge.

Thanks guys!

We do have our monocrome laser printer for everything text based and only use this one for color. That being the case, it would be interesting to find a way to force it to always only print with the 3 color carts and just never use the black. Hmm... is there a reliable way to do this such that I (or my wife) wouldn't always need to select a non-default paper / printer setting each time we print??

If there isn't a way to do this, I'll probably do some more aggressive tinkering with this one and then just move to a whole new printer. That way I know the circuits, wiper blades, waste pads, etc. are all fresh and new with the new head.

Ya, this thing seems to be totally toasted.

I've been running some tests. Printing with only the color carts would work great, but there are two problems:

1. In order to only print color, it seems I am forced to use a "photo paper" setting, and doing so pretty much triples (or more) the time it takes to print documents
2. I need to find a way to force the printer into this setting by default so it wouldn't need to be selected each time. Would this be done with a printer profile?

Nifty said:

In order to only print color, it seems I am forced to use a "photo paper" setting, and doing so pretty much triples (or more) the time it takes to print documents

Click to expand...

One setting may take less time than another, but, this is the result when avoiding plain paper.

Nifty said:

I need to find a way to force the printer into this setting by default so it wouldn't need to be selected each time. Would this be done with a printer profile?

Click to expand...

Maybe someone knows a way to force a desired default setting in the firmware for your printer or add a profile via Canon firmware that you can make the default profile.

There is a way to select a different default paper type in the firmware for my MP830. Maybe the following will help you do the same although it is a different printer and using Windows 8.x. If you have a User Manual the process is probably outlined. The following is how I did it with my software and printer.

Go to Control Pane. and click on Drivers and Printers, or whatever icon that lets you look at your printers. Right click on the default printer (i560 in your case). I then hover the mouse over Printer Properties and then hover over the new pop up menu selection showing my printer (in my case Canon MP830 Series Printer). This brings up a new window called Canon MP830 Series Printer Properties. Select the General tab and click on Preferences towards the bottom of the window. This will bring up a familiar looking window for printing preferences (in my case called Canon MP830 Series Printer Printing Preferences) and from here I select a new default paper type from Media Type. Now click on Apply and then OK at the bottom of the window and you new paper choice is made the default. Easy breezy, clear as mud!

The process for you with a different firmware and OS will may be different but hopefully you will find the Printer Preferences window and be able to apply and OK your new default Media Type (paper choice).

Apply theses setting only once from the control panel as @stratman has suggested and your printer will work without further intervention..

This post has link to the service manual for the i560. The manual is only supplementary, so the manual from this post is also necessary. For download of the manuals see the instruction in this post.

Here is an instruction in English for disassembling Canon S and i series printers for absorber change.

@The Hat... a picture is worth all the words I wrote. Well done!