Canon MP830 not printing yellow on nozzle check

[boze_man]

Hello all...great site!

my mp830 yellow not printing in nozzle check...is there a way to determine if it is electrical via some self test internal diagnostic?

i have cleaned, windex soaked, removed print head, etc, etc via advice from various posts on this site but still no yellow

nozzle check looks great for all but yellow...

i print regularly daily and worked great up till yday morn. i am located in usa and use OEM carts

any advice?

 

[boze_man]

have uploaded nozzle check but not sure how to post it...anyways it looks great aside from no yellow so prob irrelevant

 

[l_d_allan]

You can upload by clicking the "Upload" menu item. Nifty-stuff provides 10mb of space for 640x480 prints. You browse to the image on your local computers, and then "Submit" it. On the confirming response, you can copy/paste the thumbnail info.

With IE8 + Win7, I do this in a separate tab to reduce the chance of messing up my response.

Here are several screen shots I did while answering your post:


And some questions:
* What ink do you use?
* Did you refill it?
* Do you have other yellow carts to try?
* Have you tried a Canon oem cart with real Canon ink in it?
* Anything else change?
* How old is the printer? Still under warranty?
* How much printing have you done with this printer?
* Does the purge unit work?
* Mostly color photos, or text, or both?
* You mentioned "I have cleaned" ... regular print driver cleaning? Deep cleaning?
* Yellow would be hard to see ... can you tell if there is even a very faint amount of yellow showing up? You may have to print on photo paper to see.

 

[boze_man]

Thanks!

but not the best image...basically NO yellow...i will try to scan a better image....

 

[boze_man]

And some questions:
* What ink do you use? OEM

* Did you refill it? NO

* Do you have other yellow carts to try? YES...same result

* Have you tried a Canon oem cart with real Canon ink in it? YES

* Anything else change? NO

* How old is the printer? Still under warranty? 2+yrs old, NO warranty

* How much printing have you done with this printer? Not sure but print alot daily with it maybe 500sheets a month or so so maybe 10000 total lifetime

* Does the purge unit work? I believe so...I did the windex trick but not 100% sure will do some more testing

* Mostly color photos, or text, or both? Mostly color text

* You mentioned "I have cleaned" ... regular print driver cleaning? Deep cleaning? Both multiple times

* Yellow would be hard to see ... can you tell if there is even a very faint amount of yellow showing up? You may have to print on photo paper to see. Have only printed on reg paper willl try on photo

I am assuming that the yellow print head is kaput...is there anyway to confirm running an internal diagnostic? i would think it would throw a code?

 

[stratman]

I am assuming that the yellow print head is kaput...is there anyway to confirm running an internal diagnostic? i would think it would throw a code?

You probably will not get an error and there is no internal diagnostic available AFAIK.

The question remains whether your yellow cartridge is to blame. You could have a lack of ink flow from no ink left in the cartridge, obstruction of ink flow regardless of amount of ink in the cartridge, or an air leak in the cartridge. All of these cause ink starvation which results in no ink, or inadequate amount of ink, to be output. Of course, an electrical issue could be the cause, or, a major blockage of ink crud in the print head.

Have you tried a known working Yellow cartridge other than the one(s) you've been using already? Sometimes it is best to try a brand new OEM canon cartridge to be assured there are no extraneous factors involved.

I would not print anything other than nozzle checks until you test a different Yellow cartridge. You might burn out your print head permanently due to lack of cooling provided by the ink when the print head heats up to spit out the ink on the paper. Once we know it is not due to a cartridge failure, then we can determine the problem to be due to a clog or a damaged print head.

***EDIT***

I see now that you have tried other yellow cartridges. It would be unusual to have multiple failures at the same time, especially if you have tried a new OEM Yellow cartridge, so the problem is now with the print head, especially since you state you have checked the purge unit as ld_allen suggested.

Sometimes clogs are quite persistent and require days of patient cleaning/ flushing rituals. Sometimes your patience will be exceeded in the process and a new print head seems the best solution. What exactly are you doing and using to clean the print head?

 

[ghwellsjr]

One way to determine if the problem might be electrical vs a clog is to remove all the cartridges and the print head from the printer. Take a twice folded over piece of paper towel and deposit some Windex or other window cleaner on it. Press the print head, nozzles down, on the paper towel. Look for ink disturbance in the round mesh recepticles on the top of the print head. If you see it for all colors including yellow, then you should suspect an electrical problem which usually is unfixable. If it shows up for all colors but yellow, you probably have a clog inside the print head which may be fixable.

 

[l_d_allan]

ghwellsjr,

Interesting approach to gather info on what is going on. I suppose the idea is to see if glass cleaner solution is forced up through the nozzles on the bottom, and show up in the nozzle inlet filter area ... round mesh recepticles?

These are pictures of the print-head from a 9000-2, but I think it would be similar for the mp830 print-head.


* First picture is a 9000-2 print-head, looking from the bottom where the ink comes out onto the paper.

* Second picture is the print-head upright in a Glad container lid. For the procedure you describe, it would be a twice folded over paper towel instead of the lid.

* Third picture is the 9000-2 nozzle inlets, from the top.

* Fourth picture shows a closer view of several of the nozzle inlets, and the round mesh recepticles / filter covering the inlets. These mate up with the outlet port of the cart.

* Fifth picture shows the indentation of the Glad lid.

I'm unclear how saturated the paper towels should be. I would think pretty soaked, but wanted to check. Also, would you have dripped in solution from the top through the top mesh recepticles? If so, how much? The print-head inlets are somewhat elevated above the well that encloses them. Enough solution to have these enclosed wells partially or completely full?

With the Glad lid, would the following work?
* Fold up paper towels and place within the Glad lid where the bottle and penny are.
* Soak paper towels with glass cleaning solution.
* The print-head should be suspended over the lid indentation so it isn't resting on the lid itself.
? Drip solution through the nozzle for the Yellow and the nozzle(s) next to it?
? Put in enough solution so the last drop isn't absorbed into the mesh, but somewhat bulging out?
(It may look like a raindrop on an oiled surface. That would indicate that the nozzle channels to the print-head outlet are full.)
* Press down gently on the print-head and watch what happens to the Yellow and adjacent inlets.
* Repeat several times.
* Put in more soaked paper towels if appropriate to have more "travel" of the print-head.

Do I have a ok understanding of the procedure you are recommending, or flawed?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, you want the paper towel to be pretty well soaked. I have used a blunt needle and syringe to deposit Windex directly on the mesh but only one or two drops at a time, you don't want to fill the wells surrounding the raised mesh inlets. I really don't see the point in using a Glad lid, I just do it on the counter top next to a sink. You can use this repeatedly to help unclog nozzles but I was just advising it on this thread as a method to determine if there is a clear path between the nozzles and the inlet ports.

 

[l_d_allan]

ghwellsjr, thanks for the clarifications. Sounds like something to try if and when I have another print-head problem. Hope it helps the OP.