Had to ship my canon i9900, is the head clogged?

[BoredTrainBuilder]

I realise from a quick web search that a lot has been written about clogged heads, I hope this therefore does not bore you all.

I had to ship my canon i9900 from the US to the UK and have just got it going again at this end. Total inactive time about 7 weeks. First print out is extremely flat in all colours (perhaps especially green). There is no banding, and the nozzle check test page seems to be OK. Also the printer is suddenly out of Photo Magenta ink and low on some others, it seemed to be OK before setting off.

Have I got a clogged head, and if so what is the easiest way to clean it ideally involving contraptions which I don't have such as syringes or compressed air?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Grandad35]

BTB,

I suspect that vibration during shipment may have caused the ink from at least the PM cart (and maybe others) to drain into the sponge that covers the print head when it is parked. This has the potential to cause a contamination problem where some of this excess ink could be pulled back into other carts, contaminating their colors.

See (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=347) for a post where this happened to me. Pull each cart to verify that the ink at each exit port is the same as the color in the ink chamber - any contaminated carts must be replaced. Run a deep cleaning cycle to purge the contaminated ink(s) from the ink channel(s) and print a few heavily colored images to make sure that the contaminated ink has been completely purged.

 

[BoredTrainBuilder]

Thanks for this very useful and prompt reply, I have now finally had a chance to look closely at the printer. I removed each cart in turn but could see no evidence of the contamination mentioned and have now replaced the PM cart with a new one and all is well.

If I get any new insight into what went wrong I'll post it.

Thanks.

BTB