Canon IP5000 light cyan and light magenta gone

[shortcipher]

On the nozzle check pattern, the light cyan and light magenta stripes are completely missing. Have tried everything I can think of:-
nozzle cleaning,
nozzle deep cleaning,
print head alignment,
new ink tanks,
new print head,
clean the print head contacts with contact cleaner,
remove and reinstall drivers,
but the problem persists.

I have always used Canon inks. High quality images print with virtually no cyan or magenta, but printing is OK for text and low-quality graphics.

Is there anything else I can try?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Open the cover so that the head moves to the center.

Take a syringe, eye dropper, or straw and put some Windex (or plain water) on the two pads way off to the right where the head parks. You will need a flash light.

Close the cover.

Power the printer off and on, OR do a head cleaning.

Open the cover and repeat until the pads are clean and the check pattern is correct.

Usually this problem occurs because the purge tubes on the way to the peristaltic pump below the pads are clogged and you need to dissolved the dried ink in them.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[Grandad35]

Shortcipher,

It appears that you have done the correct checks. This could be a situation where there are no electrical signals getting to the print head for the PM and PC because of a faulty mother board in the printer. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to test this, other than shipping it to Canon for service. Depending on the age and model of the printer, this may just be "good money after bad" (unless, of course, it is still under warranty).

This is a long shot, but look at http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=586754&forum_id=40. There is no real harm in resetting the printer's EEPROM, so you might want to give this a try. If you try it, please let us know what happens. This was discussed in a previous thread (which I can't locate), but we have not had any confirmation whether it works for anyone else.

 

[on30trainman]

Isn't the ip5000 just a four color printer (no PM or PC) with an added pigment black - same as my ip4000 but with smaller ink drops. There are lighter C and M strips in the printhead check, but these are just from a smaller set of nozzles for C and M. For the light C and M strips both to be missing seems surprising and might look like an electrical failure to me. Especially since it looks like a new printhead was tried. Since this isn't a current Canon product, service might be expensive. Maybe a service manual might be of some help.

Steve W.

 

[shortcipher]

I repeated the pad cleaning cycle with Windex three times, but the problem remains. The Windex was draining OK from the pads.

I forgot to mention that I had already tried resetting the EEPROM. Did it again, but it didn't fix the problem.

Yes, the IP5000 has a similar print head to the IP4000 and the light cyan and magenta come from the smaller nozzles. The C and M inks are evidently getting through to the larger nozzles located on the same C and M sub-heads. Perhaps my Canon-branded tanks are fake and contain ink which won't vaporise properly?

But it seems more likely to be an elecrical fault external to the print head. Maybe a lead in the ribbon cable connecting it to the motherboard has snapped. Does anyone know what the pinouts are for the 40 gold contacts which the print head engages?

Thanks for the suggestions.