Canon i960 Out of Whack

[lockjawdavis]

I've had this printer for two years, and have been very happy with my print quality. Last week, as I was printing photos for our Christmas cards, I noticed the colors seemed out of whack. Sort of washed out with a yellowish/green cast to them. The cartridges are full and in their right place. I ran the head cleaning maintenance, but my pics still look like doo doo. Any suggestions to revive this thing in time for Christmas pictures?

 

[mikling]

It looks like you probably have cartridge flow problems. Did you run a nozzle check?
If you have refilled multiple times with the original cartridges or a few times with a compatible cartridge this is likely the problem. Drop in a new cartridge for the nozzle check color that is incomplete and see if this resolves the issue. If it doesn't.... remove head, flush under warm water, soak and flush again, dry and replace.

If you printed too much with bad flow you have ink cake covering the heaters in the head and they might possibly be burnt out.

Alas....you should have been warned to look out for this to prevent this happening. Too many Canon heads die this death.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you click on "Recent Posts" at the top of this web page, you can follow three other threads where people have had similar problems with i960 print heads.

I would only add that it is also important to make sure your flush/purge unit is working. An easy thing to do is take a syringe or a straw if you don't have one and deposit some Windex with ammonia on the pads that you will see to the right where the print head parks. Turn the power off and on or do a head cleaning to get the suction to pump the Windex down to the waste ink tank. Do this several times until the pads remain clean or at least you can see the colors from the individual nozzles.

If the flush/purge unit is clogged, it will not be able to get ink to flow through the nozzles and create the problems you are seeing. It is just one more thing you have to watch out for but may not be the problem you are having. I recommend dropping some Windex with ammonia on the pads every few months or so to keep the tubings clear.

 

[lockjawdavis]

It worked! Thanks so much for your help. I did the Windex and a purge and my pictures look great! Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Great!

Now get on that Pony Express and deliver those Christmas cards. Better yet, give them to Santa tonight and let him deliver them!

Merry Christmas!