Help with my Pixma Pro 9500 Mk II

user5800

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Hello everyone,

here's the situation

Bought time ago, used very few but always kept clean by changing original cartridges time to time.
During a move to another apartment I forgot to put new cartridges in it, it rested for many months and I discovered that my print head got clogged.

print_head.PNG


Putting in oem cartridges and doing from normal to deep cleaning and only nozzle check print tests did not solve the problem.

Tried putting the print head under water, let it dry and then tried various other deep cleaning and wasting time and money with first original then third-party ink (InkTek).

Nothing to do, the print head is still clogged, the printer is now dirty, and I got a pair of times a B200 error after various deep ink cycles because the print head block got blocked near the sponge probably too full after many deep cleaning.

In order to get the printer working again I switched it off, unblocked roughly the printhead block from it's position to the center of the printer, removed both printhead and cartridges turning the b200 error to print head missing, switched down, putting the print head and cartridges back and everything got working again but with the print head still clogged.

So till now I stupidly managed to:

- Not being able to unclog the printhead - probably the pigmented ink that 9500 uses does not dissolve with water and the water itself act like when you mix oil and water.. practically uncompatible

- Dirtied the printer a bit, the roller are full of dust the sponges are full and dirty

- Almost ruined the moving belt of the printer that emits a little different noise compared to the regular one

I'm trying to understand what's my best and more cheap option to getting this printer get able to work again.

I'm worried to bring the unit to a canon assistance store because many times happened me they tell bull$hits about the actual status of the printer inventing problems and telling there are too many things wrong to fix..

In my opinion this printer needs a cleaning, the rolls and the waste ink items cleaned and changed and the print head changed or if still possible cleaned.
 

The Hat

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The first thing you need is patients and the second is to stop using deep head cleaning because that will cause the head to burn out, and the third is to soak the head in warm water mixed with some Fairy washing up liquid 50 mm deep. (or another brand)

Change the water every 6 hours, and leave the head to soak overnight, then dry thoroughly in a warm place and insert if back in the printer, also shake all the carts vigorously for ten seconds then install the carts again.

Power on the printer and let it settle for a few minutes then run a nozzle check and compare it to your previous nozzle print, it should be a lot better, if still not clear, then here’s the hard bit, just wait for an hour or so and run a normal cleaning cycle then print another nozzle print, it should clear in time but don’t rush it…

Don't print any test sheets till it clear, only nozzle checks...
 

palombian

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Be very prudent with the printhead since replacements are out of stock (NEVER buy a "reconditioned" in China).

Open the top cover and wait until the printhead is in the middle (as for changing carts).

You could start by spraying some soapy liquid (with a syringe and needle) on the ink suction pads on the right where the printhead normally rests. After closing the cover this should be sucked away by the purge pump and the pads should become more clear after a few applications.

To remove the printhead, open the top and wait until the printhead is in the middle, unplug the power and remove carts and printhead.
 

user5800

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First of all I would thank you both, then

Fairy washing up liquid 50 mm deep.

What kind of washing liquid is? I'm in Europe, it's a cleaning liquid for floors, glass, soap ? And with 50 mm deep you mean the printhead? I should not submerge the whole print head but put only the nozzle part underwater trying to not wet too much the chips on the side right ? Do you have some kind of picture to be sure not make more errors ?

About water.. the ink of this printer seems stubborn and not mixing well with water.. I used sink water for clean previously the print head and that lead to this even more stubborn clog on Cyan and Yellow, there's any other liquid more near to the medium used inside pigmented cartidges ? I found various nozzle cleaning liquid, some of them designed for bigger models like Canon ImagePrograf IPF 8100, Canon ImagePrograf IPF 9100 and so on that should be all pigmented if I recall correctly:

INK-CLEANING-CANON-PF-0250.jpg


If it possible use a more dedicated liquid like this instead of tap water would be better because water in my zone is full of limestone.

Be very prudent with the printhead since replacements are out of stock

Probably I already ruined my print head, I was stupidly harsh with the first tries of unclogging using a bit of alchol and a cotton bud passed various times to try to unclog yellow :\ Anyways It's still worth a try unclogging the head putting it into liquid. Ah.. if I found this forum first of all my attemps..

(NEVER buy a "reconditioned" in China).

Can you go in further detail with this? My hope was in case of not being able to clean and fix my print head to buy a new one from the unique seller in china that I saw online. Do they sell fake products? I could still get my money back by using paypal as paying method in case of not proprerly working products.

Thanks in advance for your replies!
 
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Artur5

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Most (if not all) refurbished printheads from China are genuine Canon but far from new. They remove the printheads from working (or non working ) printers and proceed to clean it a bit, before resealing them again in foil wrap, to give the impression that they’re new. Other vendors sell them “naked” without much indication of the real condition. Anyway, all those units are a lottery. Some may work, many of them won’t. Even those which print correct nozzle checks in the beginning, usually fail within a short period of time. I played this lottery a few times and I never won. @palombian is right. Stay away from this stuff.

Fairy is quite usual in many places of Europe, Just a popular dish soap gel. Any other brand would do. Some people prefers to use window cleaner with ammonia, and there’s also the cleaning mix of fellow member @pharmacist : 20% of isopropyl alcohol + 1% of ammonia + 3% of propylene glycol + 76% of distilled water.
Probably the fluid cleaner/conditioners that you found online contain also isopropyl alcohol and/or ammonia. I suspect that all these products are basically the same.

Cleaning the printhead out of the printer is the last thing one should do but, at his stage, is your only remaining chance. As @The Hat wisely wrote, patience is the key here. Follow his advices and let’s hope for the best,
Regards.
 

The Hat

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@user5800, Yes I know you’re in Milano, but I mistakenly taught that Fairy washing up liquid was also available there, it’s just hand dishwashing soap, another brand is Dawn or Lili’s W5.

For the short amount of time the head will be in the water it shouldn’t matter but if you’re worried about it then use bottled distilled water, just make sure it’s hand hot and not boiling, that’s when the minerals in the water would be most active.

There are all sorts of fluids on the market for cleaning print heads and most of them work but they are fairly expensive and in small bottles, you can also use @pharmacist conditioning/cleaning solution:

3 % propylene glycol, 20 % isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and distilled water up to 100 %, this solution does work but it’s best to leave it for a few days to work properly, remember patience is your friend.

50 mm of solution is more than enough for soaking in a plastic dish, just as long as you remember to thoroughly heat dry the head before use, any liquid left near the electronics on the back will be deadly, so please avoid.

I am sorry I don’t have any photos right now to show you as all my archival Attachments are unavailable to me because of technical issue with the forums new upgrade, it would take many hour of searching and I may not find anything suitable.

Last but not least, don’t try rubbing or cleaning the head externally with anything, nothing will be gain by that, shake and pat dry with a clean cloth to remove the visible water and place near heat for a few hours, then it will be ready to use.

P.S. shake the cart before installing and use fresh carts to start up with..
 

user5800

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Ok I have still not tried to clean the printhead because lack of time to mix with chemicals and get some ingredients of pharmacist formula...

However I still wonder about something that happened:

1) If yellow and cyan are clogged how come that after various clean and deep clean the cyan and yellow cartridges were empty? If it wasn't possible for ink to flow normally it could be possible during the cleaning? I don't think so, ho come this ink disappeared??

2) Can the printer be used without break for print just in black and white? I know that black and white also use colors for balance the bw neutrality but I'm talking of just real black and white with only the black cartridge.

3) It's possible that sometimes happens that a cartridge won't want to release ink?
It happened with a Magenta (M) cartridge that refilled correctly up to 29-30 mg of weight and was pretty wet but once installed it won't release the ink, I had to get a brand new one from the shelf of my supplies and Magenta started to flow again...maybe the spring worked well enough to allow refill but not for pumping out the ink?
 

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If repeated cleanings emptied Y and C cartridges but nothing appears in the nozzle test, I’m afraid that your problem aren’t only clogs but electrical malfunction as well. The pump is able to suck cyan and yellow ink if some or all the nozzles aren’t clogged, but there’re some resistors or components burnt inside the printhead, so no electrical impulse reaches the nozzles and no ink is expelled when you try to print.
What started being only clogs has developed into electrical failure, possibly because of the excessive and repeated deep cleanings.
Not good news, but it’s the most plausible explanation. Sorry, I wish I was wrong.

You can print black & white, provided all the cartridges are installed and the chips aren’t faulty. There’s no guarantee though that with a certain part of the image which looks black, the printer won’t try to use cyan or yellow, and the results on the paper may appear dark red/magenta instead of dark grey/black.

With the Pro9500 carts, it’s very rare that the spring fails. If ink flows with difficulty, the problem might be dried ink in the outlet pad. To restore the cart to working order, just clean that pad with pharmacist’s mixture or some cleaning liquid, such as a weak solution of ammonia or dish soap. You better use distilled water if your tap water contains a lot of lime.
 

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We have to look at the possibility that you may have tried to hard when starting out, it’s what you did when you first turned on the printer, when and how did you notice the cyan and yellow were missing ?, trying to print an image or doing several deep cleans can kill the print head for good.

With all the methods you have tried so far you should have made some progress, try using a new cyan and yellow cart, and see if that makes a difference, but only print a nozzle check nothing else.

You can purchase cheap 3rd party carts to use for this exercise, there’s no need to buy OEM carts, but remember to shake each cart before installing, and the ink in the new carts will dissolve some of the old ink in the head and you should see something on the nozzle check.

The answer to your question:- the printer must have all the carts present when printing and have some ink in them, if you try to print with no ink in a cart then the head will be damaged beyond repair, the printer will not print with one or more carts missing.

Print a nozzle check and post it here please..
 

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In hindsight I did a lot of stupid things with my printers too.

One of them is trying to unclog with deep cleaning instructions.
Either the printhead already had damage, either it was not used since long and the ink dried, and the damage occurs when trying to clean.

The only chance to salvage a dried printhead is soaking.

Preferably with (warm) demineralised water with some detergent to wash the dishes.
After all it seems ammonia (Windex) does more bad than good, and I don't know if alcohol will solve dried (pigment) ink.

And even if you can revive a printhead, most of the time it fails a few weeks or months later.

Nozzle checks serve to verify the state of the printhead BEFORE things go bad.
 

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