Canon MP830 Not Printing Text

[Tin Ho]

Stratman, I suggest that you try the trick of printing with dye black ink. It will clear the PGI5 clog like magic. Believe me, I tried many cleaning methods with no success. I was reluctant to believe this method first. It really worked when I eventually tried it.

 

[stratman]

Stratman,
Have you tried dripping either distilled water or windex on the printhead screen and park pads, followed by a clean of the pgi5? I put 2 drops of distilled water on the screen, then replaced the cart. Then I put about 4-5 drops on each park pad (just enough so it doesn't overflow and spill out. Then do the clean/nozzle check. This kept improving the nozzle check but what really did it was dropping the water drops and then leaving it sit overnight (without the clean or nozzle check so that the water can soak in with gravity). This worked on my clog.

Are your cli8 colors appearing in the nozzle check print?

ghwellsjr, who posted this technique, says he has been able to clear out any clogs he has encountered.

Wishing you the best that yours clears up soon!

I think I have Windex, but no distilled water at this moment. Is the distilled H2O preferred - If so I'll buy some and use the left over in the clothes iron. I'll give it a try in the next few days. Thanks.

What are the "park pads" you mentioned? I take it the printhead screen is what the cartridge ink exit port rests over when the cartridge is inserterted into the printer? Pictures of these??

The images I posted may be cropped but nothing was left out. The CLI-8 colors always showed up in the Nozzle Checks. Only the PGBK (PGI-5) part is missing or improperly printed.

 

[jru]

Stratman,

I learned this technique from ghwellsjr's post of 5/22/08: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=17971#p17971

but I did not do the part of inserting an empty cart. I think he suggested distilled water because it's dropping it into the printhead, so it's got no unwanted particles in it. If you have windex I'd use that, or get some distilled water.

The screen is the spot where the exit port of the cartridge would touch against when it is inserted in its slot. It filters the ink going into the printhead

Here's some pictures:

PGI-5 screen with drops of water on it (I used an eyedropper - the water turns black as soon as it hits the screen):

PGI-5 screen after the water is sucked out by the clean or nozzle print: notice screen looks white here:

The park pads can be seen when the carriage with the cartridges is in the middle position (after the cover is raised it moves to the middle from the extreme right park position).
Look into the printer at the spot (at the right end) where the carriage parks (when the lid is dropped the carriage moves to the extreme right park position).
You will see two foam rectangular pads. These are what I have been calling the park pads. I believe the exit ports of the 5 carts sits on these pads.

Here's a photo of the park pads:

See also, trigger37's comments in response to ghwellsjr's post of 5/22/08 at:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=17983#p17983

I'll close with ghwellsjr's words:

I believe the printer is the best machine to unclog your nozzles, mainly by helping it along with Windex (or similar glass cleaner with ammonia). I just don't worry anymore about clogged nozzles. I have many printers that are in storage and I have removed the print heads from them. Some have been sitting idle for over a year and I have never had a problem bringing any of them back to life.

It worked for me, and I had NO part of the PGI-5 image appearing in the nozzle check before I did this. Now it is fully cleared.

Best wishes to you.

 

[stratman]

JRU:

Thank you for the explanation and the pictures. I understand now.

I have several empty PGI-5's but they need to be purged before I put them in the printer.

Just looked and do not have either Windex or distilled water. Have some generic ammonia water that's used to clean windows. Might as well get the real thing for cleaning the printer.

Again, great post. Will give it a try. Thanks.

 

[jru]

P.S. At some point in the process the nozzle check was no longer improving. The step that did it for me was dropping the water drops, re-inserting the cartridge into the carriage, closing the cover (allowing the carriage to park), turning the printer off (so no cleaning cycles suck the water drops out) and then letting it sit over night. The next morning, I powered on, did a clean cycle of just the pgi-5 and then did a nozzle print, and it was 100% cleared.

 

[jru]

Tin Ho,

I am interested in your method.

Did you purge a PGI-5 cart and then fill it with CLI-8 Black?

How much printing did you have to do before it cleared up your clog?

Once it cleared, did you then swap carts back to PGI-5?

Going from pigmented ink to dye based ink and back doesn't cause any problems?

It might be worth having a special pgi-5 cart purged and filled with cli-8 as a "cleaning cart" to swap out whenever there is a clog.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Tin Ho]

Jru:

Yes I used a PGI5 cartridge purged first then refilled with dye black ink and used it to unclog the print head. I think I learned this trick from a thread posted on this forum some time ago. I only printed once the purge page. It immediately unclogged the print head evidenced by the print itself. You will see banding and missing black ink on the fist inch near the top of the black bar. The banding and missing of black are gone near the bottom of the black bar. When I printed it the 2nd time the entire black bar was (near) perfect. I printed it a few more times then switched to another PGI5 that was purged and refilled with black pigment ink. It worked all the way till it became empty.

I refilled it without delay and it continued to work. I believe I refilled it many more times and the clog never returned. I now purge it after 3 or 4 refills. I had a PGI5 cart filled with dye black ink before. Since it was not needed again any more I eventually emptied it and refilled it with black pigment ink too. With two of them I can switch from empty to full in seconds.

I don't remember who posted this method first. I am not too sure either if I did learn this trick from this forum. I might have seen it else where. Thanks to the person who shared this idea here. It is very simple and effective. After unclogging with this method I believe the print head recovered 100%. The nozzle check was perfect and the alignment went through perfectly too. It worked like magic really. I would not have said this had I not experienced it myself.