Canon MP130 Problems need help with

[judgedredd]

Hi,

This is my first post to this informative forum. So here goes ....

My mum has a Canon PIXMA MP130 which she has been using with generic cartridges. She also has Ubuntu 10.04 installed on her laptop (courtesy of my recommendation, which was a mistake).

We got the printer working under Ubuntu and all was going well until one day it stopped printing any text or color. It would go through the cycle of printing but nothing would print on the paper. She left it for a month not knowing how to fix it, and not being at all technically inclined.

I arrived from the States and tried everything under the sun.

First I re-installed the Canon printer drivers for Ubuntu (which are actually ip5000 drivers for Linux). This seemed to work for three sheets of text and graphics although the text was not brilliant on the last page before it would not print anymore.

I then did all the nozzle checks, head cleaning cycles, etc that I could do.
I then found the procedure to reset the (waste ink?) codes in maintenance mode.

I also took apart the right side of printer and removed the 'blotter' pads and cleaned them as well as the surrounding area. I also removed the print head 'cage' and cleaned the printer head too. Twice! In warm water.

I even tried a new black cartridge (and I think a color one too but I can't remember). These being generic and not genuine Canon cartridges. All to no avail.

When I got my laptop back from the States, I installed the Canon drivers for Windows XP onto my system and found that the page printed out some text, but then it would not print anything like before.

I have a feeling that the electronic 'brain' (if it has one) has locked the printer out of being usable until we buy genuine cartridges. As when I try and print, everything seems like it is working but nothing comes out onto the paper. Data IS being sent to the printer as it shows 'Printing' on the LCD screen, but nothing actually prints (how many more times am I going to say that?). There is some ink coming out as the printer head surface has ink streaks. But it does not print anything onto the paper.

This printer is perfectly ok, cosmetically! There does not seem to be any problems with it. So does anyone have an idea of what I can do to make it print again? It seems a goddamn shame to throw it away because Canon have deliberately handicapped it, which I think is really cynical of them.

I know there are some really knowledgeable guys here so can you please help out?

Thanking everyone in advance for any help that may be given.

 

[ghwellsjr]

First of all, I want to commend you for providing a lot of information with no typos on your very first post. That helps a lot.

Secondly, I want to assure you that this printer has no way of knowing that you have been using compatible cartridges, so Canon has not "deliberately handicapped it".

Thirdly, I want to assure you that the problem has nothing to do with your drivers.

Fourth, I want to alert you that you should not try to print anything except a nozzle check until the problem is solved or you could make matters worse. It would be best to disconnect the printer from the computer if you know how to do a nozzle check directly from the printer.

Now let's see if we can make some headway into what the problem is:

Let me start by summarizing the problem. The printer will print sometimes after it has been left alone for awhile but it doesn't print for very long. You indicated that you removed the print head and washed it twice under warm water and then after that it worked for a short time after you hooked it up to your Windows laptop. This indicates that you don't have an electrical problem which is usually not fixable and that's good news. It appears that you have one of the problems that loosely comes under the category of "ink flow". But I want to warn you against washing the print head head and putting it back in the printer without giving it two days to dry out. Residual liquid (ink, water, cleaning solution, etc) on the internal electronics can permanently burn out a print head when it is powered on. So it is important to know if it ever printed anything after you cleaned the print head.

Assuming that your story line is accurate and that it did print something after you cleaned the print head when you hooked up your Windows laptop, we'll continue with the ink flow diagnosis. As I stated earlier, there are several problems that come under this category and we want to eliminate them one by one until we get the printer working again. (Keep in mind that there is always the possibility that there are multiple problems causing the same symptom.)

First, let's make sure that the purge system is working. You indicated that you removed and cleaned the "blotter pads" in the right side of the printer. We normally call these the "purge pads". They sit in rubber trays that have tubes connected below them that go to a pump that sucks on the bottom of the print head to get the ink flowing for the first time and every time you do a print head cleaning. Sometimes dried ink will clog these tubes so that the pumping action is disabled and when that happens, your printer can no longer print because it cannot get any ink flowing through the print head.

Here's what you should do: open the printer cover and wait for the print head to move to the center. Use a flash light so that you can see the purge pads. Using a syringe, eye dropper or a pinched straw, deposit some Windex or other window cleaner or just plain water on the purge pads so that you can see that the liquid forms a pool covering the pads. If it just simply drains away, the tubes may have become disconnected. Assuming that the liquid remains, you want to do something that causes a purge cycle or a cleaning cycle. Usually, doing a nozzle check will cause at least one cleaning cycle. You can tell if it takes a long time while the printer makes a lot of noise before starting to print. Another way is to turn off the printer, turn it back on, make sure there is liquid on the purge pads, and then do a nozzle check. Sometimes just closing the cover for ten seconds and then re-opening it will cause a short purge cycle. The main thing is that you must make sure that liquid will be sucked away. The purge pads will look dull and rough with no liquid on them and shiny and glossy with liquid on them.

Please report back the result of doing this purge system test so that we can determine the next step.

 

[judgedredd]

Dear ghwellsjr,

Thank you for the quick post.

My memory is a bit spotty on the questions you ask, but I want to clarify something .... the printer worked after reinstalling the printer drivers, then stopped working completely on my mothers machine. When I installed the drivers onto my windows laptop it printed about two lines but missed portions of those lines. Plus the text was 'fuzzy'.

Now, when I had washed the printer head (the bit with the gold looking slits) I did not wait for two days, but about half an hour (yes, I read where it said to wait 2 days!! Not that patient). As to whether the printer printed after being washed I have a vague memory that it did that one page on my Windows laptop. But I will try it again ..... (will let you know shortly)

As to ' .... the printer will print sometimes after being left for awhile but it doesn't print for very long .....' this is not what happens. It does not print after the initial three pages on my mum's Ubuntu machine, and only printed a few lines on a page through my machine before not printing at all.

By the way, I did thoroughly shake out the printer head when trying to dry it, er, manually.

PS. Thanks for the compliment about a typo-free post. I do understand the importance of communicating clearly, and therefore go into more detail than most others do to give as much info as possible. Thank god for the spell checker on here!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Actually, I was in the process of editing my first post when you responded so please make sure you read the entire thing before continuing.

 

[judgedredd]

Hi,

I took the side panel off to see everything easier. I did the nozzle check sequence three times just to be sure of what I was seeing. I observed the liquid going up the tube and into the container in the back (a small white receptacle).

Here is the result of the nozzle check:

http://matrixfiles.com/c.html

Which is doing more than it was before.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Can you take a picture of the tube and the small white container. I have never seen one of these printers and the ones I am used to have tubes that only go down.

I take it that the purge system is working, that is, the liquid you put on the purge pads remains there until the purge pump sucks it away, is that correct?

 

[judgedredd]

Hi,

Yes, the liquid gets sucked away.

Just updated the page with more pics.

http://www.matrixfiles.com/c.html

 

[judgedredd]

Just added an example of what it is printing when it goes through a 'cleaning' cycle. Better, but not yet usable!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Those are very interesting pictures, I wish I had a printer that I could watch its internals working. But the main thing is that the purge system is working. So now we want to see where the problem is in the print head. Let me alert you that you can spend many hours trying to unclog a print head and it may be worth your while to just purchase a new print head for probably around $50 (assuming one is still available).

Your next step is to remove the print head (after removing the cartridges, of course) and place it on a folded paper towel saturated with Windex. You want four layers of paper towel. When you press the print head into the wet paper towel, you should see ink coming up into the round screens on the top of the print head where the cartridges pass the ink into it. Make sure you see this for the black and all three colors. This will tell us if you have ink flow through the print head.

Again, make sure you don't allow any residual ink or Windex to get anywhere except on the bottom of the print head and on the round screens. Don't turn the print head over as this can allow liquid to flow from the bottom of the print head into the internals of the print head.

You can carefully put a drop or two on the screens to help in this test. Just remember what we are trying to do is establish that there is an unrestricted flow from the screens to the nozzles.

Don't leave the print head nozzles exposed to the air too long as they will dry out and cause clogs.

Just before you get ready to put the print head back in the printer, make sure there is no ink on the bottom of the print head that could block the flow of ink out the nozzles. Just blot the print head on clean saturated paper towels and finally a dry paper towel.

When you get the print head and cartridges back in the printer, put liquid on the purge pads and do a nozzle check but make sure it did a cleaning cycle first. You really need to see at least some of the color nozzles printing.

Make sure you have a color cartridge that has ink in it. When you press a dry paper towel against the outlets on the cartridge, does it blot up a lot of ink? If not, you should get a new color cartridge.

Remember, you don't want to print anything except nozzle checks until you get this problem resolved.

When you have done all of the above, you can repeatedly put Windex on the purge pads and do cleaning cycles until the purge pads appear almost white. Then do one cleaning cycle and see if you can see stripes of color on the purge pads from the nozzles. This will assure you that ink is flowing through the print head.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Just added an example of what it is printing when it goes through a 'cleaning' cycle. Better, but not yet usable!

That last image is of an alignment which is pointless to do until all the nozzles are working. If you have the option to bypass alignments, you should do so.