Canon i860 Will Not Print Blue

[HLS]

I have tried the "Deep Cleaning," which can be interpreted as "flooding the printer with ink to flush it." The blue just will not print. I have resorted to dropping water on the printhead absorber to dilute the collected ink ink and then siphoning it off, to no avail. Other colors ar OK, but blue is completely stopped. Is there a way to fix, or am I going to have to buy a new printer?

I should add that I have had the printer for 4 years, printed at least 15 packages of 500 count paper and many 8 1/2 X 11 photographs, and only recently had the problem with the ink. I have also used refill ink, which has worked as well as Canon. I suspect clogging of the printhead due to evaporation, but the dilution method described had no effect.

 

[fotofreek]

Click on FAQ's at the top of the forum page and read the first thread about what to do if your printer doesn't print properly. Several techniques about unclogging Canon print heads. It still might be recoverable, but four years and the volume of printing you've done may be the life of this printhead. You may consider purchasing another printhead, and the best price I've seen for a factory sealed unit is inkcessories.com. Unfortunately, the latest Canons have chipped cartridges which you can refill, but for which no replacement carts with chips are available. If you refill you will get a message that you will violate your warranty.

 

[HLS]

You may be right about the printhead. I decided to purchase some very cheap replacement cartridges, flush them out, and fill with windex (ammonia diluted with mild detergent) as suggested. Thanks. I had read the FAQs beforehand but just wondered if something else had been discovered that might give another option.

 

[Pagebook]

Please let us know if your home made headcleaning cartridges does the trick. Also the sequence of steps you followed once you put the cleaning carts in your printer.

 

[fotofreek]

HLS - If you haven't already done so, set the bottom of the printhead in a tray with a windex soaked pad of toweling paper for several hours before doing the cleaning carts. That may loosen up a clog in the nozzles. Also, if all else fails, check out granddad's description of disassembling the printhead and blowing the plastic part out with high pressure air. Just don't make the mistake I did when disassembling the head - you must grind down the plastic nibs that hold the electronic contact area on to the plastic body. I didn't and I must have damaged the wire ribbon cable as the printhead is now clear but won't work.

 

[digitalartist71]

also....before going to far into the head and damaging it etc.... pop a genuine CYAN cartridge in and see if that fixes it since i guess some cheaper generic carts don't seal well etc???

maybe look at the following post just for reading....but this may not be your problem...since the other colors are working. My IP3000 has two portions for the purging...one for the BLACK and the other for CYAN, MAGENTA & YELLOW. Like I said for reading, I wouldn't necissarily attempt this...especailly if it has nothing to do with what your real problem may be. I guessing u just need to try a genuine cyan cart.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1239

 

[HLS]

The red and smaller black also stopped working. I looked at the absorption pads above the inkjet feed, and they were not accepting any ink, but were just pooling up, definitely indicative of a blockage. I removed the head, which I finally remembered was a simple process of lifting the retaining lever and tilting the head forward. I have it soaking upright in a thin layer of ammonia in a covered disk. I have had to replace the ammonia several times because the hardened ink disolves and discolors it. It may never work again, but it will at least be clean.

 

[HLS]

Ammonia is doing a good job leeching out the pigmented black but has little effect on the dye-based color. I keep switching between isopropyl alcohol that is good at cleaning the dye-based colors and the ammonia that is still cleaning out the caked-in black pigment. That pigment is a solid that simply sinks to the bottom of the cleaning pan.

 

[Nifty]

HLS, thanks for keeping us posted. Please continue to do so! This is a wonderful printer and it would be great to keep it from a terrible fate.

 

[HLS]

The blue is working, but the black still requires some work. I used a large syringe to flush the printhead with isopropyl alcohol after using ammonia to soften the ink. I had posted the results and the image of the test printout, but I noticed then that the photo black cartridge was still not working. The problem is likely due to an oversight on my part. I filled the cartridge with pigment-based black rather than the required dye-based. I am embarrassed but at least think I know how to fix the problem, hopefully. I probably will not need to do an extended soak to get it cleaned up and working. I am guessing that the jets for the dye-based ink are smaller and likely will not allow the pigmented ink to pass through. I confirmed my suspicions after reading the article published here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/difference-canon-bci-3-bci-6.php However, since I very rarely use Canon photo paper, I am guessing that the cartridge still will likely clog due to lack of use. I still intend to refill with the right ink. Here is the Photobucket printout with the missing BK cartridge test.

Discoloration is due to image size reduction. The original scan was about 3000 X 2400.