Canon i860 3eBK not printing correctly - streaks

[optimizer]

The printer was printing fine for a while, then I noticed horizontal streaks of white on my black prints.
It got worse.
I looked at the ink and it was empty - no warning - I think there must have been a bad seal at refill time.

Anyway, I filled it.
It printed a couple of good pages and now I'm getting the streaks back.
It's just like someones wiping a sponge across the page, washing the back off.

Any ideas regarding what's wrong.
Are there problems inserting the 3eBK carts?, so the seal isn't right, any other ideas?

Thanks

 

[optimizer]

There's been a bit of banding on the black too, before this happened.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Didn't you get a yellow low ink warning when the reservoir was empty?

Beyond that, can we assume you are describing two diffentent and unrelated problems?

First, why did the ink leak out so fast?

Second, why is there streaking or banding?

And can we assume that you have fixed the leaking problem so all you are concerned about now is the second problem?

White streaking like this can be caused by flow problems. A good test is to print a page of all black. It should print solid black. If you see white streaks, you have a bad cartridge that probably needs to be purged and refilled.

If this is the problem and it were my cartridge, I would try to find out if the problem is a clog in the air vent, or lack of air flow in the upper sponge or lack of ink flow in the bottom sponge. If you don't mind sacrificing the cartridge, poke a hole in the top of the cartridge on the sponge side near the barrier between the two compartments. Then see if the streaking has gone away. If not, provide an air path through the upper sponge to the groves in the wall separating the two compartments and see if the streaking goes away. If that doesn't work, it is probably a clog in the ink flow in the bottom sponge.

 

[optimizer]

I needed to be printing, so took your advice and decided the quickest way to resolve it was buy a new one (I needed a spare anyway).
It seems to be working, although had some banding at the start - I'll keep an eye on it.

I'll be involved with cleaning out the carts and refilling soon - I've got new bulk ink sitting waiting for me to do this.

The bad seal was because of the plastic film they have on the top of the Canon carts. I noticed ink between it and the cart plastic. I assume there must have been an air leak there too.
I've scraped off the plastic film and got a good seal.

One question - I've read that you shouldn't remove the film over on the air hole side. What is over there - have you seen any increased size photos / diagrams of what that air bleed hole setup looks like - how it works?

Thanks

 

[ghwellsjr]

Here is my explanation for what happens on the air vent.