Canon IP4000 color banding and goblets of ink

[Bun-Bun]

Hi, this is first time posting here.

I bought a IP4000 about 11 months ago and so far I have loved it. I have a Minolta 7D digital camera and use the IP4000 for all my 4x6 and 8x10 prints.

A few days ago however I tried printing on some shrinkshrap plastic. It is a lot like a transparency so I thought it wouldn't be a problem. However ever since I tried (it didnt work, the ink just gobbed on the plastic) I have been getting color banding on Canon Photo Paper Pro paper. On regular paper it doesnt happen or you just can't tell. The last print I did even had gobs of dark pink ink on it.

The nozzle check is random. Sometimes it shows a bit of blank spots and sometimes its perfect. Yesterday I did about 10 regular cleans and 5 deep cleans on the colors (blacks are fine) and it cleared up. Then I printed 600 buisness cards and its back to doing the same banding again. I am wasting a lot of ink cleaning.

After reading through the forums for a bit I have come to the conclusion that I should try and clean my print heads and/or RMA the printer (however I can not find the receit atm). So my thoughts on cleaning the print heads was to soak them in 99% Isopropyl Alchohol over night and see if it clears up.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[websnail]

You may have just fouled the bottom of the printhead..

A quick removal and look at the printhead should tell you quickly if that's the case.

Cleaning it is detailed in a number of posts on here...

 

[drdavidge]

im having this problem too. everything i print has a glob of ink at the top of the sheet, plus it comes out all messed up. i took out the ink cartridges and took the head out and the bottom of the head had a ton of ink there. i soaked the ink out of there with a paper towel and took a wet one to wipe it down. put it back in, and it works fine for that moment. the next day, i go through this process again. it seems like the head is leaking ink somehow. does anyone know what i can do about this? heres an example of a bad print (ignore those xx's):

 

[Bun-Bun]

Ok, I think I may have fixed it. I looked around the forums and found a post where a guy recommended using compressed air to blow out the heads. Also I read some where people have soaked the head in hot water. Now having lots of experience with electronics I don't put electronics anywhere near water. So on my way home from work I went and bought 99% Isopropyl Alchohol the same stuff I have used to soak CPU's in when they have needed cleaning. I also borrowed a can of compressed air form work.

So I started out with some paper towel in the sink and the compressed air and blew through the print head from the end where the cartridges connect to the print head. Lots of black ink came flying out emediately in floods as where the colors came out as spray and not nearly as much. After I was done I realized I had made a HUGE mess and I was covered in ink lol. There is a lot of blow back if you are not careful. So I spent the next 5 minutes cleaning myself and my counter off. Did not have any troubles all the ink came off everything quite easy which I found kinda odd. But anyway once I had everything cleaned up I decided to pour the Isopropyl on the bottom of the print head to clean it off... this was a mistake as I got the isopropyl everywhere on the print head. So I had to spend about another 15 minutes making sure it was clean and dry before putting it back into the printer.

I put it back in and reinstalled all the cartridges and run a regular cleaning just to get the ink flowing and did a nozzle check. It was perfect except for one tiny black dot on the 6C. All I had time and resources for was one 4x6 print on Canon Photo Paper Plus (garbage paper) and one 8x10 on Epson's top glossy photo paper. Both turned out great, no banding or globs of ink or nothing. So now I will continue to use it and see if this problem arises again and will come back to update. Might be awhile as I do not have the funds to buy more ink and paper atm...

Thank you forums for all the info