Canon Pixma MP610 printhead issue

[stratman]

Some casual photo printing seems to look OK

What does the regular nozzle check show? If it looks good and your prints look good then forget the extended nozzle check and enjoy your printer. In fact, if your prints look fine to you then who cares what the nozzle checks show!

That said, yes, it appears you have an irreparable malfunction whose etiology is unknown - print head and/or logic assay board in your extended nozzle check. One last thing to try is cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head and printer using a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol, or, you can use a soft pencil eraser. Oxidation can build up on contacts and cause malfunctions.

BTW, has the misaligned black text resolved, worsened or stayed the same after all these maneuvers?

 

[zack23]

What does the regular nozzle check show?

It still shows something not right with the first Cyan stripe. There is subtle banding, and instead of being a solid color like the other color stripes if you look closely you can see a fine network of lines. Here's a high resolution scan of the stripe (when I check the uploaded scan in my web browser, it's an accurate representation of what the printed page looks like):

If it looks good and your prints look good then forget the extended nozzle check and enjoy your printer. In fact, if your prints look fine to you then who cares what the nozzle checks show!

True, but based on past experience I have a nasty feeling that this problem will grow worse, eventually leading to a failed printhead [or possibly a printhead that will only print successfully in B+W]

That said, yes, it appears you have an irreparable malfunction whose etiology is unknown - print head and/or logic assay board in your extended nozzle check. One last thing to try is cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head and printer using a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol, or, you can use a soft pencil eraser.

Yup, that was one of the first things I tried. The contacts appeared to be clean, and further cleaning made no difference.

BTW, has the misaligned black text resolved, worsened or stayed the same after all these maneuvers?

Yes, that problem appears to have gone away, presumably because of the various printhead alignments that I did!

Best wishes,
Zack

 

[stratman]

It still shows something not right with the first Cyan stripe. There is subtle banding, and instead of being a solid color like the other color stripes if you look closely you can see a fine network of lines.

And there is a strange Cyan halo or ghosting around the black "C" to the left.

Nothing else to say or add except either try and return the print head or enjoy what's left of it. Sorry.

 

[zack23]

And there is a strange Cyan halo or ghosting around the black "C" to the left.

Yup. The letters running down the left hand side of the regular nozzle check have been showing varying degrees of cyan contamination - sometimes quite noticeable, sometimes almost not visible.

 

[The Hat]

Just leave the print head alone and get on with your printing, it seems to me that your wishing the head to fail, the proof will all be in your daily output..