Canon i9900 printhead problem??

[glf]

Recently printouts from my i9900 began to be "faded" for the first half-inch. In other words, the color was poor, then improved. A nozzle test reveals that the 6C (cyan) shows a distinct abnormality. The rectangle printed is divided into equal portions; the top half is cyan but a lighter shade, the bottom half prints correctly. I went through the maintenance procedures with no improvement. Same with replacing the cartridge.

Canon suggests a replacement of the print head. From what I have read, this is not the usual symptom of a bad print head. Can anyone make another suggestion? I would like to salvage the printer but don't want to spend more than it is worth to do so.

Thanks

 

[Grandad35]

Are you using OEM carts, prefilled 3rd party carts or refilling? If refilling, do you periodically purge your carts? If you print 2 images in immediate succession, does the second image show the same problem?

The i9900 is a great printer and is worth keeping.

 

[glf]

I am using OEM cartridges. Have never refilled. Second printouts have the same problem as the first.

 

[Grandad35]

Can you scan an image at 600 ppi and crop a 1" wide x 1" tall section (600x600 pixels), then post it (see "upload" near the top of the page)?

 

[glf]

I uploaded the file, which ended up being a little more than an inch, because the color change occured a little later in the printout than I thought. I hope you can see what I am talking about because the color change is very subtle in the file.

And I started to think about the question you asked "If you print 2 images in immediate succession, does the second image show the same problem?" I never actually printed two copies of the same picture. I printed one right after another, but they were not immediate. So I tried that and the second printout was an entirely different color. The last inch of that one was very strange.

I uploaded both examples (I hope). Please let me know if you get them ok since I have never done this before.

So I tried that. The second color of the second picture is much different than the first.

 

[Grandad35]

After you upload, some text appears in a box (something like "[ img]http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/uploads/113_glue1.jpg[/img ]") on the upload page. You have to copy and paste the link into your post. The previous example results in this image after removing the two extra blanks that I inserted to fool the browser into displaying the original text.

 

[glf]

is the first file.

 

[glf]

Ok. My last post is the tail end of the second copy of the file I printed.

This is copy one, the beginning of the printout.

 

[Grandad35]

I took your two scans, converted them to CMYK and split them into the individual channels:

Can I assume that both images were printed from top to bottom, with the head scanning left and right?

What distance on the print is represented by the height of each scanned image?

Can you post the original image to get an idea of the defect on the second image (the first is obvious - magenta is dropping out at the end).

How does your nozzle check look?

 

[glf]

Can I assume that both images were printed from top to bottom, with the head scanning left and right? YES

What distance on the print is represented by the height of each scanned image? About 1-1/2"

Can you post the original image to get an idea of the defect on the second image (the first is obvious - magenta is dropping out at the end). Done

How does your nozzle check look? The nozzle checks for all colors but cyan look fine. The test for cyan shows a block split at the halfway point. The upper is part is a lighter version of the lower.