Canon i950 Won't print certain colors

[Overspeed]

Hello,

My Canon i950 has stopped printing correctly. When I print a Print Head Alignment pattern, 1 of the 8 columns does not print at all, one of the others is banded. The i950 will print 5 vertical alignment columns and 3 horizontal alignment columns ... the 2nd of the horizontal columns comes out blank everytime. I have removed the print head and cleaned it with a q-tip and rubbing alchohol, and don't savor deep cleanings following that but the results remain the same.

I'm wondering if this printer is now a throw away, can it be fixed or what means what in regards to the missing column and the banding other. Truth be known I left my print unused for almost a year. It previously printed very well, until I hooked it up again after a year of sitting.

Any advice would be helpful.

Robert

 

[WhiteDog]

In all likelihood there are some solids in the print head, with clogged nozzles. In your position I would spend only a little time on this , IF I could afford a new printer. I would not get a new head for this one. There are many threads on the forum concerning clogged heads. Pick the most aggressive, being water forced from the feed side, and sitting overnight in Windex. I would not be too hopeful.

 

[ghwellsjr]

It's difficult to tell what's going on with the head alignment. Instead, you should do a nozzle check to see which inks are clogging and how badly. Doing a nozzle check after each attempt at cleaning will clearly tell you if you are making any headway. What does your nozzle check look like?

 

[Overspeed]

Here is a picture of my nozzle check print out. You will notice that:

1) Top right blue pattern ... the last half of the blue area did not print out.
2) The other 5 horizontal areas printed fine.
3) Column G did not print out anything. I have determined that column is also a blue color.
4) Column B is patterned/fuzzy. The other columns produced a good solid color (except g of course).

Robert

 

[Overspeed]

Any ideas?

 

[Grandad35]

Overspeed,

The regular pattern on the Cyan nozzle check suggests an electrical problem as opposed to having a clog in every other nozzle on the bottom of the print head. This can be caused by a bad print head, a break in the flex cables bringing the signals to the head or a fault in the mother board itself. About the only thing that you can do is to pull the print head and GENTLY clean the contacts on the back of the head with a SOFT pencil eraser. Note that each contact pad has a corresponding pin in the printer carriage, and that these pins are spring loaded to push the pins into contact with its pad. Make sure that these pins aren't bent or otherwise bound up.

If this doesn't fix the problem you can try a new print head, but there is no guarantee that this would fix the problem. If you buy OEM carts, you might be better off just buying a new printer. If you do a lot of printing and use 3rd party prefilled carts or refill, you might want to take a chance on a new print head to avoid the chipped carts in the newer printers.

HTH

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have seen another reason that produces the alternating "clogs" on a nozzle check pattern and that is dried ink on the bottom of the printhead. Most, if not all, of Canon's printheads have two columns of nozzles that are offset slightly. This link has a photograph of the nozzles on a printhead:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8684#p8684

If dried ink gets "painted" along one side of the printhead blocking a bunch of nozzles on one side, it will produce the nozzle check pattern you show. All you have to do is remove the printhead and wipe it with a soft wet rag but take a look at it with a magnifying glass first to see if you can see dried ink on it.