canon mp 970 problem

[Andreino]

Hi All,
I'm trying to ask help about a weird problem that happens with my new mp 970.

I won't explain much about it, as an image explains much better, in image, please look at bottom part.
http://www.pbase.com/image/106003446/original

when i print 10x15 borderless, the last centimeters of image, comes out terrible, like there are few head passes of ink, with some missing. This example is with high quality, if i print with quality 1, it's less visible, cause head passes more times to print, but it's still there.

Seems strange like an hardware problem, maybe there can be something strange with drivers or what? Cause i can't understand if i should bring to assistance, or if i can fix by myself this.
Thanks,
Andrea

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

Hi All,
I'm trying to ask help about a weird problem that happens with my new mp 970.

I won't explain much about it, as an image explains much better, in image, please look at bottom part.
http://www.pbase.com/image/106003446/original

when i print 10x15 borderless, the last centimeters of image, comes out terrible, like there are few head passes of ink, with some missing. This example is with high quality, if i print with quality 1, it's less visible, cause head passes more times to print, but it's still there.

Seems strange like an hardware problem, maybe there can be something strange with drivers or what? Cause i can't understand if i should bring to assistance, or if i can fix by myself this.
Thanks,
Andrea

Most odd. The mp970 is a relativly new printer. Canon is pretty good about covering the printer under warranty, even if you're a month or two after after the warranty.

To isolate whether or not this is a driver problem, for laughs you might want to print from either from flash memory or from your camera. EZ Photoprint also bypasses the windows drivers as well (naughty software). Also printing at the same settings upside down would tell you something, whether it's the color rendering that's having this effect or not.

But before we even start point fingers at the printer, what sort of paper are you using? Canons tend to not like swellable polymer paper. The effect can look like banding, as in an accurate representation of what the print head dropped on the printer, just with the ink not expanding and looking, well, just like this. Usually canon gives you a pack a 5 pack of pr-101 paper.

The other thing that comes to mind is when I refilled my cartridges my self, when I bought empty ones they would gum up after a while having this effect or something similar.


What I'd try
1) Print using microporous paper
2) Print from from flash memory, camera direct, or ez photoprint
3) Print upside down

Helpful for trouble shooting
-What paper are you using
-What ink are you using (OEM or aftermarket, which aftermarket)
-Recent scan from the nozzle check

 

[pharmacist]

Try putting a piece of post-it paper attached on the back of your photopaper facing the outer right when you use the back paper feed. This piece of post-it paper will foul the printer, making it think that the paper is not yet at its end. This will ensure you won't have this microbanding.

 

[Andreino]

Thank you for your reply!

Well, seems that u got the point, I was trying different papers, that I bought online, as i wanted to find a good one to choose, so that i could make a color profile right for it.
With 2 of them (agfa and alphaink), show more this problem, and as well i was excluding to use them, cause i have the problem of wheels of printer leaving small holes on paper, but i can't tell u exactly what kind of material paper they are.

With paper that i bought from fototinte, and a pair of canon sheets, the problem is much less visible, image looks good, though with an attentive check, you can still notice that last 3cm of image, are of lower quality.

By the way, the ink is the original one, though i have hobbycolors inks waiting to be refilled, they will act in different way?

What did you mean with "print upside down" exactly? sorry but i didn't get..


Pharmacist, i'll try that tip, thanks!
It should help to avoid the last 3cm having worse quality in borderless?


Thank you both for help!

One more thing... I see a very light banding in whole image, I've tryied already the cleaning, but it didn't disappear, do you know how to print the extended noozle check with this printer? As the normal one doesn't show anything wrong. (ok here i am beeing picky, it's visible only with areas of same color and beeing attentive, is not such a big problem, but I'm always trying for perfection, as with previous printer this was perfect)

Best regards
Andrea

 

[pharmacist]

What you can do to diminish banding is executing a printhead alignement (see your printer driver). Hobbicolors UW-8 is completely miscible without harmfull effects with the original Canon ink.

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

With 2 of them (agfa and alphaink), show more this problem, and as well i was excluding to use them, cause i have the problem of wheels of printer leaving small holes on paper, but i can't tell u exactly what kind of material paper they are.

If you can provide a link to the source image I should be able to do a test print on a mp960 today on OEM ink and Canon PR-101 paper. I picked one up for a friend and I plan on visiting him. It's the the exact same model, but at least close.

Unfortunately agfa is a manufacturer who makes a wide array of paper. I don't know alphalink.

By the way, the ink is the original one, though i have hobbycolors inks waiting to be refilled, they will act in different way?

One possible explanation would be overfilled cartridges. The sponge side if over saturated can block the ink flow, or restrict it. It can be annoying to troubleshoot as the first print is fine, or the print will work part way through and the ink supply will dry up, and the air pressure will later equalize and work normally.

Hobbicolors is decent ink and should behave in a similar fashion to Canon OEM, though slightly warmer IIRC.

What did you mean with "print upside down" exactly? sorry but i didn't get..

Rotate the image in your photo software. If this is a color rendering issue you'd see the banding at the top of the image, rather than the bottom. If it's a printer issue, the banding will be on the bottom of the image as before.

One more thing... I see a very light banding in whole image, I've tryied already the cleaning, but it didn't disappear, do you know how to print the extended noozle check with this printer? As the normal one doesn't show anything wrong. (ok here i am beeing picky, it's visible only with areas of same color and beeing attentive, is not such a big problem, but I'm always trying for perfection, as with previous printer this was perfect)

Hey you have a top of the line printer, you should expect it to function properly.

The nozzle check is as wide as the nozzles them selves. If there is a single nozzle or a series of them it should be visible in the nozzle check. Someone might have cyan/magenta/yellow/black test images you can run through your printer.

 

[Grandad35]

This looks like a classic case of banding at the bottom. Try the trick posted by Pharmacist it doesnt fix the problem, it just masks it like the rest of the print. There is a short explanation in this post.

Here is a 200x200 pixel crop from near the bottom of your scan, converted to C/M/Y/K and split into its C/M/Y/K channels.

There are obviously a LOT of jpeg compression artifacts (the boxes that appear on the C/M/Y channels) that are caused by the jpeg compression of the image from your scanner - these are not bands from the printer. The banding appears to be mainly in the black channel, and it looks like you have a partially clogged print head. Did you do a nozzle check? Does it show missing nozzles? BTW - similar tests on the rest of the image didn't show banding (as your eyes have already told you).

 

[Andreino]

Here is a scan of latest nozzles check, to me everything seems perfect, the photo black is different from others, but i guess it's just how it should be, can you confirm?

http://www.pbase.com/image/106038188/original

Btw, now the problem is not much as in the photo i showed, but still, it's the same as in the thread, as showed in this photo ( http://www.nifty-stuff.com/img/files/POOR_PRINT.jpg )
What is strange, is that i get exactly same kind of problem... a lower quality in bottom, and expecially in the "first bottom part", where there is the most visible banding, then it gets a bit better till end of page, so seems it's like a canon common thing..

I have tryied only once for now the post-it method, but seems it didn't change much.. i placed it at the top right part, but seems that i can still see the bottom banding, but i'll try this again.

As the printer is new, could it be good to think about a check in assistance in warranty, or i risk to just loose time, and get it back as it was?

Thank you all for help

 

[panos]

Correzpond was the first user who reported this problem (on the thread linked by Grandad). My Canon MP750 exhbits it as well. My ip3300 does not. Correzpond solved the problem with a new printhead provided by Canon + unmixed hobbicolors inks.

So I think you should ask Canon's assistance. It would help if you reported your results in this thread: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=953&p=3

 

[nche11]

The nozzle check print looks very decent to me. I believe your print head has no clogs. The banding shown on your posted scan of your print has black lines. If the banding is cause by clogged print head the lines would be very fine white lines. There is a possibility that your purge unit is full of waste ink. The print head somehow picked up some waste ink (black) from the purge unit and deposited it on the print as dark lines. You may have a leaking ink cartridge. Even OEM ink cartridges sometimes you may run into one that leaks.