Canon i560 prints intermittently even with NEW printhead...

[alex913]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I have a rather perplexing problem with my trusty Canon i560 printer. First off, I love this thing and I am trying everything to make sure it works.

I've refilled original Canon BCI-6 cartridges multiple times with great success at photo printing. Eventually, the cyan began to fail. The rest of the colors printed fine. I thought I had a clogged printhead and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and washed and soaked and cleaned... you get the picture. By the time I was done the printhead was like new. Well, the result of all that is that the printhead stopped printing altogether.

I took a brand new printhead and placed into my i560, mounted the ink tanks and did a bunch of print nozzle tests. All the colors came out beautifully except, of course, cyan.

Ok. Simple you think, right? I went out and bought a new original Canon BCI-6 cyan ink tank and placed into the new printhead. A few nozzle checks later and still no cyan. Now I'm frustrated.

I replace my OLD printhead (the one I washed and which appeared to stop working) and all the old ink tanks, including the refilled cyan. Surprise! All the colors look great (some streaking in magenta) and even the cyan is coming out of the OLD REFILLED ink tank?!?!? What the hell is going on here? The cyan is all streaked and looks bad, but at least its coming out, and all the other colors are coming out as well, even though they appeared to stop after I thoroughly washed the printhead. What's going on here?

I can't understand why the NEW printhead won't get the cyan going AT ALL, even with a NEW Canon ink tank, whereas the old printhead is hobbling along, and is actually doing ok with a REFILLED ink tank?

I'll appreciate any insight. I really love this old printer and don't want to dump it. Thanks in advance of any advice.

Alex

 

[ghwellsjr]

Looks like this one has everyone stumpped so I'll take a stab at it.

You may have a classic case of clogged purge/prime tubes. See this post:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1687

Keep in mind that Canon printers were designed to do a prime only when it knows there was no print head, in other words when it was brand new or if you turn the power on with the print head removed, or when it knows you replaced a cartridge. The only way it knows you replaced a cartridge on these older printers is if it detected an empty cartridge. So you really should do a deep head cleaning between each test to make sure that the air that is introduced when you replace a cartridge doesn't cause a problem.

Try your tests again (after making sure the prime tubes a clear} with deep head cleanings after every change in head/cartridge and let us know if you get more consistent results.

It also

 

[alex913]

Looks like this one has everyone stumpped so I'll take a stab at it.

You may have a classic case of clogged purge/prime tubes. See this post:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1687

Keep in mind that Canon printers were designed to do a prime only when it knows there was no print head, in other words when it was brand new or if you turn the power on with the print head removed, or when it knows you replaced a cartridge. The only way it knows you replaced a cartridge on these older printers is if it detected and empty cartridge. So you really should do a deep head cleaning between each test to make sure that the air that is introduced when you replace a cartridge doesn't cause a problem.

Try your tests again (after making sure the prime tubes a clear} with deep head cleanings after every change in head/cartridge and let us know if you get more consistent results.

It also

GHWELLSJR,

Thank you so much for the reply. I'm a fairly smart guy when it comes to these things and I was completely stumped with this problem, hence I'm here. Here's an update on my efforts:

1. Last night I sprayed Windex onto the "purge pads" on the right side of the printer where the printhead parks. I was able to dab quite a bit of ink off of the purge pads. I don't know whether they're purging or not, but I suspect that they are because from what I could perceive there are two purge pads: one for black and one of the colors. Since only the cyan is not working but the yellow and magenta look good, it seems to me that the purge pads are working because all the colors are on one pad; if the pad were bad, wouldn't ALL the colors look bad?

2. I disassembled the printhead and cleaned out the ink passages using Windex and hot water:

A. I removed the BLACK rubber "gaskets" around the ink intakes on the top of the printhead. I cleaned the entire plastic portion of the printhead ("printhead body");

B. I removed the GREY rubber nozzle gasket between the printhead body and the ceramic printhead (where the nozzles are) and soaked that in Windex (and then washed it in water) until it looked new;

C. Using a spare rubber baby bulb, I squeezed Windex and then water through the ink intakes on the top of the printhead body (through the metal grates); the Windex and water poured out of the bottom of the printhead body from the start indicating that there was no obstruction there. I did this a lot, just to be sure that a clog was not causing my problems;

D. I cleaned out the ceramic printhead (although it was already very clean) and could see light through the nozzle slots);

E. I dried everything out (blew air through the ink passages with the rubber baby bulb until there was no indication of moisture) and reassembled the entire printhead.

3. I reinstalled the printhead with all of my refilled cartridges (I know this is not recommended, lest it recreate the same problem) and did a nozzle check.

A. Within 2-3 nozzle checks the black, magenta and yellow looked PERFECT.

B. Cyan actually came out, but again was quite streaked. I tried to do a printhead alignment but the cyan would not print at all.

C. I did a couple of cleaning cycles, and to try to get the cyan flowing attempted to print a page from MS Word with a single large table cell of blue. The cell started off with the slightest streak of blue (~.5 cm) and then the rest of the cell was a clean smooth block of very light magenta (I suspect this was slight ration of magenta mixed into the shade of blue I attempted to print). I also attempted to print a photograph on Costco photo paper (which ALWAYS looked great) and got the same thing: the first .5 cm of the edge of the photo was properly colored but the rest looked fantastic but was completely tinted orange (confirming for me that the magenta and yellow were flowing as intended).

D. NOW FOR THE FINALE: I replaced the refilled cyan ink tank with a new OEM BCI-6 cyan ink tank and THE RESULT WAS THE SAME! I checked all of my ink tanks for proper "breathing" by just slightly blowing into the top of the tanks where you rip off the tape, until a drop or two of ink came out. All of my tanks are breathing properly.

4. Please recall that the SAME result occurred with the NEW printhead that I installed in this printer. This indicates to me that all of the inktanks are good and the old printhead is also good (because the printing from the old printhead is identical to the printing of the new printhead).

The only thing I can think of now is that the "brain" of the printer had a stroke which affected the dispensing of cyan from the properly working printhead(s). Can this be? Is there ANYTHING that I have not done? Please, oh please don't tell me that my lovely i560 is now a poor man's lazer just for the black BCI-3!

Thanks for reading this loooooonggggg post.

Alex

 

[alex913]

Oh, one more question: how can I check the purge lines themselves (not the pads)? What is the easiest way to access them for cleaning? I read the link for the IP3000 but this one is the i560.

Thanks again.
Alex

 

[ghwellsjr]

Your print head is the same one that goes in the iP3000. If you know someone that has one of those printers, or another i560, it might be a good test to try your print heads in their printer and vice-versa. I'm still trying to think of what might be going on here.

You can check the purge lines by observing if the Windex that you place on the pads disappears after cycling power. I didn't mean for you to spray the Windex on and dab them. I meant for you to use a syringe or an eye dropper or a straw to drop enough Windex on them to make a puddle. Then after power cycling (or head cleaning) you can see if the pads get clean and the puddle disappears because it is getting sucked down through the tubing. But you should still be able to determine if a puddle of Windex will disappear. If it is not getting sucked down, it should show a lot of ink in the remaining pool of Windex. If it is getting sucked down, it show be relatively dry and cleaner than before.

When you did the process described in (1), are you saying that you can see all three colors? You should if the printer is working correctly. What do you mean by "Wouldn't all the colors look bad?"? A bad color is one that doesn't show up.

Some people have reported that the gaskets mentioned in (2A) are not thick enough to make an air tight seal. This doesn't seem likely since you have two sets of gaskets on your two print heads but you might try doing something (like doubling up on the one for cyan) to insure that you have a good seal.

It isn't clear from your process that you are doing a head cleaning after you try different things. You often mention doing a nozzle check but this won't perform a prime. Everytime you remove a cartridge, you should cycle power, do a head cleaning, or do a deep head cleaning, in the order of intensity to prime the head. What you are doing is sucking all the air out of the path from the cartridge through the print head. If any air remains anywhere, it can create the problems you are seeing.

Finally, I have one other suggestion. Put a different color cartridge in the cyan slot and/or put the cyan cartridge in another slot. See if the problem follows the cyan cartridge or if it goes away with a different color. You won't hurt the print head by doing this and after you return to the correct cartridges the incorrect colors will soon disappear. The only real danger you have to watch out for is color from the metal grates (as you call them) soaking back up into a cartridge and contaminating it so I would suggest that you blot some of the ink from the metal grates before you change colors.

Good luck.

 

[Trigger 37]

Alex 913, I have an i560 and have refilled my canon carts for almost 2 years. Several months ago I had the same problem with Cyan. I tried everything like you have done except the deep dissasembley of the printhead that you did. I never thought about changing the Cyan cart because it was full of ink. I finally got frustrated and installed a spare Cyan cart. That solved the whole problem. It turns out I had refilled the Cyan cart so many times, it finally got clogged inside where the sponge is. When this happens the printhead can not suck ink out of the cart sufficient to print more than patches with streaks in them. It all comes down to suction, flow, and with either a clog or a leak in a seal, or no air opening, you will get the same results,... a streaky pattern in printing. Also, thinkabout if the new Cyan cart you put in could have been defective. Also check the the gold pads on the back of the printhead. If you have to use some very fine steel wool to lightly clean the pads. Also, check the spring loaded contacts in the carrier that holds the printhead. I don't think any of these could be bad or it would cause some real obvious problems.

Your problems sounds much more complex but somewhere in all the changing you did you still have not supplied enough ink to the Cyan head to make a good pattern. This could also be cause by a blocked air hole in the cart,... or by a bad seal where the cart mates with the print head. When you removed these and you cleaned them, is there any chance you punchured the pad.

Could you go into some detail on how you removed the rubber cubs and the gray screens that cover the inlet for each color. I have a MP730 which uses the same print head and I am still having problems cleaning 2 or 3 nozzles in the Magenta section. It is either really clogged or something is bent in there. When you removed all of that stuff, you said you could see through all the nozzles. That is what I would like to do, and see if I can find what is wrong with my Magenta nozzles. However, I would not have the guts to tear into that section of the printhead without some guideance. Since you have done it, and the printhead survived, I'd like some detail information. It might also help 100's of others.

Bud

 

[alex913]

ghwellsjr,

I checked the purge pads the way you recommended. I removed all the ink tanks from the printhead. I then took a rubber baby bulb and carefully poured enough Windex on both the black and color purge pads until I could see a puddle sitting on the pads (the surface tension of the Windex was surprisingly strong, keeping the puddle "on top" of the pads). I then cycled power to the printer and the puddle was gone. I did this routine with Windex and power cycling several times. Each time the puddle disappeared, indicating to me that the purge tubes were/are clear and the purge system is working as intended. I noticed after several such cyclings that at least one of the pads was originally light in color, i.e. white or light grey.

I tried to do a nozzle check and the result was the same. Black, yellow and magenta came out great, but absolutely nothing from the cyan. I then, taking your advice and something I tried with a now dead ip5000, switched the cyan and magenta ink tanks. No change. A regular cleaning of just the color nozzles and INSTANT RESULTS! The printhead apparently primed itself after the ink tank switch and out come fairly decent patterns of ALL colors! I then reswitched the ink tanks to their normal positions and each color was printing as intended.

In all the excitement, I forgot to clean the metal grates on top of the ink intakes on top of the printhead between ink tank switches and believe I may have contaminated the sponges on the ink tanks themselves. Now I'm getting a bit of bleeding between the colors, but at least I've gotten my cyan back! Its streaking, but its flowing.


Tiger37:

Here's a link I found on disassembling a Canon ip5000 printhead: http://www.normediasolutions.com/guides/cannon_printhead_cleaning/index.htm. I bought an ip5000 on Craigslist and it died on me the same night. I thought there was a problem with the printhead so I followed the instructions at this link. The process is exactly as the guy describes, AND applies to the i560 printhead. Actually, it is even easier for the i560 printhead as there are fewer passages to clean. I used a baby squeeze bulb to do all the cleanings (see my previous posts). One thing to keep in mind is to be careful with the grey gasket between the plastic printhead body and the ceramic printhead where the jet nozzles actually are. When I took appart my i560 printhead I figured I had nothing to loose so I really took it appart. Don't be afraid to try it--its easier than it may initially look.

Good luck!

 

[Trigger 37]

Alex913,

I think if I read your post correctly, what really happened is the other printer sucked sufficient ink out of the Cyan ink tank to get it flowing again. If it doesn't continue to work once it is back in your printer and you've printed several pages, I think it means that the power on cleaning pad, which are supposed to suck more and more ink out of each head in repetitive cleaning cycles is really not sucking strong enough. You may have purged the tubes but their is a waste ink take somewhere in the bottom of the printer and it must be full by now. Also, somehow, and I don't know how, there is some kind of duction pump that provides the suction to begin with. It must be in the path somewhere and it may not be working right.

Anyway, if it continues to work now,.. I'm happy for you, but if I were you I would try and get the unit open and chech the entire line from the pads to the ink waste tank. I have seen ads on some sites where they sell replacement ink waste tanks.