Canon MP130 Problems need help with

[judgedredd]

ghwellsjr,

I have spent a few minutes trying to find the equivalent of windex here in the UK. It seems that most window cleaners no longer have ammonia, if this is the ingredient that we need.

If you can let me know why windex, or what ingredient I need specifically that would help. A thought just popped into my head - White Vinegar? We also have methylated spirits (the purple stuff which contains ethanol and methanol).

 

[ghwellsjr]

Don't use any of those solvents. In the UK, get some window cleaner from Halfords.

 

[pharmacist]

White vinegar is very acidic and most pigment inks are actually a bit alkaline to keep the pigment particles suspended into solution. By adding acid this important pH-value will be neutralised or even shift towards acidic and the pigment particles can suddenly precipitate and besides the acid can be also corrosive to your printhead.

 

[judgedredd]

I will not be able to do anything further until I locate a Halfords near me (I found one 2.5 miles away and will be going tomorrow, Sunday 30th May, to pick up a bottle).

I will try and get this stuff in the next day or so.

Thank you for all the great help. Best that I have been given to date.

By the way, just as an aside and for information purposes, up until recently my printer was an Epson RX595 (no longer the case as I have moved to the UK) with a Continuous Ink Supply System from

http://www.rihac.com.au/

The system is fantastic (but is a bit expensive at US$197 inc shipping plus 6 x 100ml of the six colours) and 100ml of ink costs only AU$13 !!!!!!!

 

[judgedredd]

Ok. I bought the Halfords glass cleaner and spent considerable time doing what you posted.

I went through about 6 kitchen towels. Each was folded 3 times to give a total of 8 layers, and each one was then soaked with the glass cleaner and used until it was discarded and the next one used. While each was being used it was placed on a 1.5 thick sponge to allow the print head to sink into the paper towel. Many times in the beginning the glass cleaner would come up and come through the fine gauze inside the printer head 'cage'. Sometimes, I also placed one drop on each of the gauze covered 'holes' inside the 'cage'. As time progressed sometimes the cleaner would not come up as easily. When this happened I would change the kitchen towel. The cleaner would then come up, but not as much as in the beginning.

As time progressed the cleaner would not come up as much irrespective of whether a new kitchen towel was used or not. I found that 'rocking' the 'cage' would help. I also found that when I placed the drop on the holes inside of the 'cage' that the cleaner would take a while to go 'down' into the kitchen towel. With the color holes, the cleaner would take a very, very long time to go 'down'.

Most times the nozzle check would produce some black ink but not clearly. The color would hardly come out. I checked the cartridges with a kitchen towel like you suggested and ink would come out onto it.

As of now (9.30pm my time) I have stopped for the day. I have done about 10 or more nozzle checks, and have gone through 6 kitchen towels. The ink is barely coming out onto the page, and if it does it is the black that is coming out the most. I will continue tomorrow unless you have some new instructions.

****A quick note: I have not done a clean cycle as I did not remember that part.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I didn't mean for you to do this process so many times. Once would have been enough if it worked the first time which it appears that it did. The goal is simply to see if there is a clear, unobstructed path from the screens on the top of the print head to the nozzles on the bottom.

Assuming that you did have good flow for each of the three dye ink colors and for the pigment black ink, I would suggest that you get the purge pads clean and then see if you can observe the stripes of black and color on the purge pads after doing a head cleaning. If you can, and yet nothing is printed during a nozzle check, this would indicate that you have an electrical problem in the print head.

 

[judgedredd]

I continued on this morning, manually cleaning with the glass cleaner and the doing the 'cleaning' cycle before doing the nozzle check.

The black prints although it still needs more cleaning as it shows fades here and there, 'though I feel that printing a few full pages of text then doing the manual cleaning as well as the 'machine cleaning' cycle will do the trick.

As to the color, this is not doing so great (the nozzle check shows no color coming out at all), which means that the color nozzles need much more work on them than the black does. This kinda fits in with the way the printer was used to mostly print text docs.

I am puzzled as to why the manufacturer(s) have not sorted this problem out, as I remember in the old days (15 years or so ago) that the Epsons were notorious for having this problem.

I am getting an HP 3310 as a replacement for this printer and then buying a CIS system from Rihac for it. Is this a good printer? There was a post somewhere about the best printers and non-HP models were touted. Any thoughts for HP models?

In the meantime I want to get this Canon working. I want to thank you for your input, as you have spent much time with me on this.

 

[judgedredd]

Well, how embarrassing this is to admit ...... I was doing the cleaning etc on an empty color cartridge!!

I also found out something else. Because I was doing everything via the printer itself I did not have access to the deep cleaning facility (which I did not know about until doing the actions below). So, wondering if things would get better I hooked up the printer to my windows laptop and was able to get access to deep cleaning through the maintenance panel

To be on the safe side I also installed a new black cartridge too, even though I had put a new one in at the beginning of all these actions.

Well, I was rewarded with color coming out. I did a few cleaning cycles, nozzle checks, and also changed the H values, and two more deep cleaning cycles (for the black) and got the image as shown here (at the bottom of the page):

http://matrixfiles.com/c.html

Thank you very much for all the help. It is very much appreciated. Now we can sell this printer as 'in good working condition' (It doesn't work with Ubuntu very well)!!!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Deep cleaning is a good way to use up ink cartridges very quickly. I would not do one with a regular ink cartridge. I only do deep cleanings with cleaning cartridges, that is, ones that I have refilled with Windex or with head cleaning solution.

I am still in the dark ages when it comes to buying a new printer. I think they all stink. I recommend buying a used MP780 which many are showing up on craigslist. I do not recommend CIS for Canon's. Others will have better opinions on these topics and there are several ongoing threads concerning new printers with CIS right now.

 

[judgedredd]

Thank you again.

By the way, what does 'the German method' mean in your byline? Or can you point me to something to read or look at?

All the best
Christopher