Hi... My printer has not been used much since buying it 2 1/2 years ago; mostly a nozzle test pattern every week or two to avoid clogging so it's a like new machine always lived under a dust cover. Recently it showed a lighter than usual light magenta and light cyan color bars and very slight light streaks in the full strength magenta and cyan color bars. Cleaning the print head by following the many posts on this forum fixed the problem but may have led to a new one. To avoid a lot of repeats know that after every cleaning mentioned below were an hour's oven bake at about 120 F and several regular and a deep cleanings and cleaning the contacts in the print head carrier.
Prior to cleaning the print head I had never had a problem with the pigment black ink fine line grid test portion of the nozzle print test. Now with all the color test parts perfect maybe 8 - 15 random line segment were missing. I had switched to 3d party cartridges when the originals ran out. Several posts here have cited pigmented black 3d party inks as being prone to sediment problems. I assumed my repeated flushing, air blowing, soaking on Windex tissues etc had stirred up some of this and now had to be cleaned as well.
Now begins my real problem. After taking apart the print head for maybe the third time and doing all the cleaning steps my first nozzle print test had no pigment black print at all! Not the grid pattern, not the margin 3eBK label...blank, although the color parts were still present and perfect. This next step is significant I think. Repeating the print head dis-assembly and cleaning and running a nozzle print test I got a total blank sheet...not a drop or smudge of ink to be seen.
I get no orange failure coded blinking or pop-up error notices and get the same results (no print) whether with the printer on-line or off. The printer acts normally during the nozzle test with paper feed pausing and the expected green light blinking and steady. I have moved the print head carrier by hand to look at the parking pads but posts here say that's allowable. Could it have caused a timing error?? I took the printer apart also to clean out the drain lines from the parking pads. This didn't cause any orange error lights nor did it fix the problem. The sudden and total nature of the failure feels like an electrical fault and careful as I was, I may have missed some moisture in the print head or flexed it's printed circuit cable one time too many.
Posts here use a process of elimination for complete failure; trying a new print head and if that doesn't work then blaming the main board. I haven't found any Canon test to isolate which is faulty? I hesitate to gamble $46 on a new print head when the problem may be the main board. Suggestions??
Prior to cleaning the print head I had never had a problem with the pigment black ink fine line grid test portion of the nozzle print test. Now with all the color test parts perfect maybe 8 - 15 random line segment were missing. I had switched to 3d party cartridges when the originals ran out. Several posts here have cited pigmented black 3d party inks as being prone to sediment problems. I assumed my repeated flushing, air blowing, soaking on Windex tissues etc had stirred up some of this and now had to be cleaned as well.
Now begins my real problem. After taking apart the print head for maybe the third time and doing all the cleaning steps my first nozzle print test had no pigment black print at all! Not the grid pattern, not the margin 3eBK label...blank, although the color parts were still present and perfect. This next step is significant I think. Repeating the print head dis-assembly and cleaning and running a nozzle print test I got a total blank sheet...not a drop or smudge of ink to be seen.
I get no orange failure coded blinking or pop-up error notices and get the same results (no print) whether with the printer on-line or off. The printer acts normally during the nozzle test with paper feed pausing and the expected green light blinking and steady. I have moved the print head carrier by hand to look at the parking pads but posts here say that's allowable. Could it have caused a timing error?? I took the printer apart also to clean out the drain lines from the parking pads. This didn't cause any orange error lights nor did it fix the problem. The sudden and total nature of the failure feels like an electrical fault and careful as I was, I may have missed some moisture in the print head or flexed it's printed circuit cable one time too many.
Posts here use a process of elimination for complete failure; trying a new print head and if that doesn't work then blaming the main board. I haven't found any Canon test to isolate which is faulty? I hesitate to gamble $46 on a new print head when the problem may be the main board. Suggestions??
