Canon Pixma IP5000 cleaning printhead?

[djphatic]

Hi

I appear to be having a problem lately when printing onto printable discs. The problem may also exist with paper and photo paper but i really dont want to waste anymore.

When printing, it looks as if the black ink isnt coming through properly and isnt being printed, thus gettin a rather light print, if i use the clean head within the printer properties, it will print out fine but only for 1 or 2 prints then it will have problems with the black ink again.

Ive checked the cartridge and there is plenty of ink in there. It is a compatible ink cartridge and hasnt been in there for long. Ive only had this problem today whilst ive been printing on quite alot of printable discs. I had noticed one or two strange prints on photo paper previous to today, but i believed this to be down to changing one of the ink cartridges and hadnt charged properly between prints etc... though the problems with those prints appeared to be with the black ink. Ive printed numerous nozzle checks and all appear to be fine, though the black ink does appear to be grey rather than black, though im not sure whether this has always been the case?

Unfortunately i dont have any spare ink cartridges at the moment to see whether it is just that ink cartridge being problematic.

Im considering manually cleaning the printhead if this is likely to solve this problem but id like to know what is the best and safest way of cleaning.

Any help is much appreciated on the problem topic and any recommended ways to fix the problem.

Mark

 

[fotofreek]

Some cartridges won't feed properly, even when full of ink. Some compatables have been notorious for this problem. Just be sure that you removed the tape over the end of the vent before installing the cart. You can remove the cart and blow gently into the vent hole. You should see ink dripping out of the outlet port with a fairly gentle blow into the vent. Be sure you do his over some toweling paper and not over your new carpet! You also didn't mention if you ran the cleaning utility, and if that didn't work, the deep cleaning utility. An easy test is to replace the cartridge with one that you know works properly, run the cleaning utility, and then print the nozzle test. Some people keep an OEM cart of each color available just for this purpose as they rarely have feed problems unless they are really old. Save the head cleaning you mentioned for problems that won't respond to the easier fixes.

 

[djphatic]

if i use the clean head within the printer properties, it will print out fine but only for 1 or 2 prints then it will have problems with the black ink again.

Yeah I have tried both a clean head and then deep clean, but this only seems to fix the problem temporarily.

Sorry i dont quite understand what you mean. Where is the vent hole to blow into, is this on the top of the cartridge where the sticker is peeled off?

Some people keep an OEM cart of each color available just for this purpose as they rarely have feed problems unless they are really old.

Do u mean a canon cartridge or are you talking about a used/empty cartridge which has been known to work?

I have ordered some more ink cartridges which I know worked find as i used them previously before the ones which are currently in

 

[BlasterQ]

It would be a great help for all of us here if you can tell us the brand of the compatible ink you are using that's giving you a problem.

 

[fotofreek]

OEM is original equipment manufacturer - that would be Canon brand ink carts. The vent hole is on the top of the cart at the far end over the compartment with the sponge in it. There must be an air vent over the sponge so that when the printer discharges ink for printing some air can come into the cart. otherwise you would create a vacuum and the cart wouldn't work as ink would not be able to come out when required for printing. The vent hole is covered with a plastic tape, but it has a maze-like channel that runs along the top of the cart with the end exposed past the tape so a small amount of air can enter the cart when ink flows out. Poor venting is often the cause of what you describe where you get a few prints and then it stops working. There can be other causes as well.

 

[miki]

hey brother u have to do is to clean with a liquid especial called washin leave it inside of this liquid about 24 hours after it ull see the change if the black ink dont pass through well the only way to solve ur problem is to buy a printhead or better said another printer

hp the best !!!

 

[djphatic]

Hi

The current ink what im using and has been causing the problems is compatible ink from inkcycle.co.uk, the previous ink i used was compatible ink from bsprint.co.uk which worked fine. Ive just got some new replacement carts from bsprint and im gonna give them a try first before anything.

Thanks for the help so far, will keep you posted.

 

[fotoboat]

Hi - I have been doing some really heavy duty stuff with my Canon Pixma 4000, using compatible carts. The task is printing calendars on two-sided matte photopaper, 7 pages to a calendar, each page half hi-res photo and half calendar dates & info. It will go on printing lots of good copies until one of the carts runs out (usually magenta first). I change the cart and printing goes entirely to pieces. Typically, if I change the magenta cartridge I lose all cyan output and all the bars on the nozzle test appear to be 100% or partially magenta. This is doing my head in and any advice would be welcomed!