i560 Problem

[retmet]

My colored print outs are streaky. I have tried various things suggested on this forum including cleaning print head. The last thing I tried that got me about 15 good pages was to blow in the air relief hole of each cartridge. When I try something and then get good color printing, the printer will stop in the middle of a job and sound like it's doing a cleaning. When it finishes what ever it is doing and resumes printing, the streaks return.

I love this printer and reink my cartridges (OEM) with great success but can't seem to resolve this problem. Can someone tell me what is happening and why (when it stops during a print job and churns away)? I am about to replace all cartridges with OEM's unless you recommend something else.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Have you tried cleaning your purge pads and tubing? I take a syringe full of Windex (with ammonia) and squirt some on the pads and recycle the power so it will do a cleaning cycle. After doing this a few times, the pads should not show any ink when you put fresh Windex on them. This will also clean the tubes going to the vacuum pumps unless they are totally clogged. Even if this isn't your problem, it's still a good idea to do periodically.

The reason I'm thinking it might be related to your problem is that the purge unit is also used for priming the nozzles, print head and cartridges. If it can't suck enough ink through that path so that there is no air in that path, then eventually, the air will get down to the nozzles and printing stops.

Good luck.

 

[fotofreek]

How many times have you refilled the carts? After a number of refills they tend to slow down and not deliver ink well. If you have a cart that doesn't drip or drips minimally when the fill hole and ink outlet are open you need to either replace the cart or do Grandad's backflush to rejuvinate the cart for more refilling.

 

[retmet]

Thanks for the responses. I was unable to clean the left, long, rectangle purge pad. It still showed black no matter how many times I shot the windex to it. The smaller square pad was originally black but cleared somewhat after repeated cleaning. Is there a way I can get to this area to view the tubing and try to clean them? I tried to get the top of the i560 off but wasn't sure how.

Just for info, I installed new magenta and yellow cartridges, blew through vent holes, ran a light cleaning and was able to get 60 good pages before the colors streaked again. Still dead in the water at this time.

 

[mikling]

First, double check to make sure that the cartridges are sealing properly when placed into the carriage. Make sure the sponge in the cartridge is not inadvertently pushed up. Assuming it is OK then proceed.
I will assume that the new cartridges magenta and yellow are good OEMs? OEMs are foolproof. If not are they good compatibles? How do you know?
If they are known good or OEMs then there should have been no problem unless you are getting ink buildup within the head itself.

When you cleaned the head, did you flush from both sides? or did you just soak and rinse? You should flush from both sides under a running faucet until whatever exits on the other side is clear, soak and then repeat. Soaking alone will not clear the internal passages inside the head. You don't need to use anything other than warm water for this. Based on the results with new cartridges it seems like the head might be the problem.

Good luck. Fotofreek suggestion of a cartridge flush seems valid as well.