Canon S820 printing stripey

[jswofford]

I have replaced both cyan cartridges and the black cartridge, done several cleanings and deep cleanings, several print head alignments, yet all tests still print like this:

http://www.littleduck.com/printer.jpg
(Enlarge to 100% for detail.)

There is actually *no* difference between any of the tests, before and after cleanings, before and after new cartridges. Not even a little bit of improvement.

Do you have any suggestions?

I took the whole cartridge contraption out of the printer and uh, wiped it clean with a paper towel (probably not the recommended method). I gently swiped it across each little vertical nozzle where the ink comes out. Still, not even a tiny bit of change (bad or good).

I still use the printer for printing text documents, but it's useless for printing photos or graphics, unless I want horizontal bands across the page.

 

[Doug]

The next step is to search this forum and you will find some very good methods for cleaning the inkjet nozzles which generally involves removing the cartridge holder and soaking the nozzles in a solution. If that does not work it means that you have to either purchase a new cartridge holder (where the nozzles are contained) or purchase a new printer. The new cartridge holder often costs more than a new printer.

The solution I have come up for all of this is I purchased a Canon ip4200 about a year ago. The printer is excellent but the ink is very expensive! So I kept an eye on all the bargain Internet sites and I was able to purchase two additional ip4200's in the $30 range (each). I now have all kinds of spare parts and three sets of inks which I refill.

Good luck!

Doug

 

[Grandad35]

Any failure where exactly of a bank of nozzles doesnt print is a suspect for an electrical problem. This link starts at page 11 on a long thread:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=241&p=11
and this link is a thread of its own with a similar nozzle check problem:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2375

 

[jswofford]

Doug: I searched for cleaning info as you suggested, and my print head is currently being cleaned.

Grandad: Thanks for the info! If I still have the same problem after putting the printer back together, I'm immediately adding a new printer to my Amazon Xmas Wish List. It's not worth it for me to spend any more time messing with it, even if it's fixable.

In my experience, it seems like the economical thing to do is to treat home printers as semi-disposable. They're priced that way anyway; it's the ink cartridges that are profitable, not the printers. I've been using supercheap ink for some time and I always wonder if it contributes to the clogging, but I really can't complain about getting several years' use out of a printer that only cost a couple hundred bucks.

Anecdote: it seems that the striping started all of a sudden; it wasn't a degenerative thing. So the electrical problem theory might make sense -- like ZAP and suddenly there's an issue. But I'm not 100% sure about that, since I didn't do the nozzle test right away so I can't compare results. I do recall that suddenly I simply could not print photos anymore. It didn't go from a mild striping to full blown stripey over the course of weeks/months.

I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Trigger 37]

jswofford,... I'm affraid that you are about to get some bad news. It has been so long since your last post I am assuming that you went ahead and purchased a new printer. The problem is that even though the new printers are not expensive, they all use "Chipped Ink Carts" that are very expensive. There are no cheap ink carts for the new printers. So before you throw that old Canon away, better try again to clean it. It you have plenty of money,... not a problem. A lot of us are not willing to pay $327 a gallon for ink.

Your S820 is/was a high quality photo printer of years past and it is almost identical to the iSeries i960 which a lot of people will tell you is one of the best printers that Canon has made. There are better ones now but none have the low cost ink supply.

I have fixed several printers with the same nozzle pattern yours has displayed. It takes patients and good cleaning. Take the ink carts out and test them to make sure they are flowing ink. Blot them with a paper towel and should get a good drop of ink. If not they are drying up. Seal them with tape so they don't leak while you work on the printhead. I clean my printheads in a laundry room sink. I use the hottest water I can stand and a hand sprayer focused on the nozzles on the bottom with as much water pressure as I can get of out the faucet. Then I turn it over and do the filter screens. More recently we have seen other that use boiling water in a dish and let the printhead soak. When the water cools down, they do it again. Set the printhead in a dish on a hot soaked paper towel and check it in an hour to see if any additional color ink comes out. Add several drops of hot water to each filter screen. Do this tell you don't see any more it. Then dry the head very well. Put it back in the printer and know good ink carts and run 2 standard cleaning cycles to Prime the printhead with ink. Print the nozzle check pattern and see if you were successful. If you don't have the patient to do this,...maybe it will help someone else.

 

[jswofford]

Not ALL new printers take expensive ink: the Canon Pixma iP90v ink is supercheap. (Though I have no idea what year it entered the market and if it's very "new." The S820 cartridges were slightly cheaper but these still qualify as very affordable. Third party, anyway; it's the only way I buy.) I bought it and I love the printer, so everybody is happy in the end.

I still have ink left over for the S820, so I'm using that and printing everything at the finest/highest quality until I use a bit more of it up. If I print that way, I lose the stripes.

I've spent enough time on the print head; the satisfaction/reward of DIY only goes so far. I may try to sell it, or I may keep it as a backup.

 

[Trigger 37]

jswofford,.. Yes the iP90V uses the BCI-15xx ink carts but I can't say those are really cheep. That has to be an older printer if it uses anything that is BCI based. You could also search for one of the older printers in good condition. You could also just get a new printer with much higher quality and performance and just refill the ink yourself. You have all kinds of options. Good luck on your decision.