Banding on leading edge of prints from Canon i9900

[hkelston]

I have what appears to be magenta banding on the leading edge of prints from my i9900. I have learned from reading here that banding on the trailing edge of the print is common, but this is not that. It's most prominent in the first inch or so, then becomes more subtle and then becomes invisible about halfway up the print. I have cleaned the head and it disappeared for about 5 prints, then reappeared. It's visible only on Photo Paper Pro setting and only in areas of the print that are fairly uniform areas of certain blues and grays -- usually water. But it's clearly there.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Grandad35]

This can happen if one or more of your carts has a partially clogged filter/sponge and is starving the print head for ink.

When things are working properly, there will be a small puddle of ink on top of the ink pickup when you remove a cart. If the pickup is dry, you have an ink delivery problem on that ink.

What ink are you using (OEM/3rd party prefilled carts/refill)? How long have you been using it? When did the banding problem first appear?

If you are using prefilled or refilled carts and still have a set of (partially full) OEM carts, try them.

 

[lotuslee]

i think the pickup is dry;not enough liquid in ink ,ink would hard to flow out.

 

[hkelston]

GD-
I use Staples ink most of the time. I've used it for years without a problem. The banding started a few weeks ago and has persisted through a couple of cart changes.

I'll try OEM for magenta and photo magenta next time.

 

[Grandad35]

hkelston,

1. PM seems to be the most common ink to suffer from ink starvation.
2. This may seem strange, but a starvation problem on one color can sometimes cause a problem on other colors. Even though your magenta is banding, the magenta carts may not be the cause of the problem.
3. Since you are using prefilled carts, there should not be a problem with clogged filters or sponges, unless Staples has a quality problem.
4. Buying OEM carts for a test can get very expensive. That's why I asked if you already have a set of partially full OEM carts (many people do) - I wouldn't want you to spend $100 just for a test. A full set of prefilled carts from another 3rd party supplier would also work for this test, and it will cost a lot less.
5. Pull each cart, one at a time. Use a flashlight to look at the top of the ink pickup and see if there is a small puddle of ink. Replace the cart and proceed to the next cart. DO NOT pull more than one cart at a time for this test.
6. Another test is to gently blow into the vent port (on the top of each cart) to cause ink to drip from the uncovered exit port. Once you gain some experience with this, you can tell when a cart isn't delivering ink properly by how hard you have to blow to get the ink to drip.