- Joined
- Jun 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,645
- Reaction score
- 85
- Points
- 233
- Location
- La Verne, California
- Printer Model
- Epson WP-4530
Last year when my mother bought a new cartridge for her HP printer, I suggested that she buy a Canon iP4000 and I would re-ink for her. She did, but wanted to continue using her HP until it ran out of ink. Today, it did and she asked me to hook up the Canon. Turns out, my son had hooked it up for her many months ago and it has sat idle all this time.
First thing I did was a nozzle check and to my surprise only one of the pigment black nozzles failed to print. The dye nozzles were all good.
Next thing I did was pull all the cartridges one at a time to check their ink levels. They were all good.
Then I did another nozzle check--another surprise. The top and bottom four rows of nozzles in the pattern (there are 32 nozzles in each row) did not print anything and of the remaing three rows there were a dozen nozzles that failed.
A couple more nozzle checks added many more nozzles to the printout but still nothing in the top and bottom three rows.
I next did a regular head cleaning with a big improvement. Only 30 (out of 320) nozzles randomly scattered throughout the pattern were still not printing.
I decided it was time to go back to my house and get my cartridges filled with cleaning solution.
Several hours later, I'm back at my mother's house and the first thing I do is a nozzle check. Surprise!! They all work.
I'm reluctant to blame these failed nozzles on clogging. I think it's more likely they were just starved for ink. I have had other experiences with my two printers where the black pigment ink fails a nozzle check on a few nozzles and numerous cleanings don't clear them up but the next day everything is fine. (This was before I made my cleaning cartridges.)
I offer this story just for information but I would also like to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience or if anyone has any theory on what is happening.
First thing I did was a nozzle check and to my surprise only one of the pigment black nozzles failed to print. The dye nozzles were all good.
Next thing I did was pull all the cartridges one at a time to check their ink levels. They were all good.
Then I did another nozzle check--another surprise. The top and bottom four rows of nozzles in the pattern (there are 32 nozzles in each row) did not print anything and of the remaing three rows there were a dozen nozzles that failed.
A couple more nozzle checks added many more nozzles to the printout but still nothing in the top and bottom three rows.
I next did a regular head cleaning with a big improvement. Only 30 (out of 320) nozzles randomly scattered throughout the pattern were still not printing.
I decided it was time to go back to my house and get my cartridges filled with cleaning solution.
Several hours later, I'm back at my mother's house and the first thing I do is a nozzle check. Surprise!! They all work.
I'm reluctant to blame these failed nozzles on clogging. I think it's more likely they were just starved for ink. I have had other experiences with my two printers where the black pigment ink fails a nozzle check on a few nozzles and numerous cleanings don't clear them up but the next day everything is fine. (This was before I made my cleaning cartridges.)
I offer this story just for information but I would also like to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience or if anyone has any theory on what is happening.
