IP4500 PGBK Misalignment and Cyan horizontal lines?

[regrub]

Hello dear forum Members, I'm currently having quite a big problem with my Canon Pixma IP4500 and hope that you might help me diagnose what is causing it or maybe even fix it

Printer worked flawlessly up till now, but when I tried to print a high quality Foto on glossy paper today it came up with horizontal blue lines all across it.

I ran the nozzle check and it showed me a weird printout of the PGBK cartridge. (See attached images) Following that, I ran a deep clean, but that didn't seem to do much. When trying to do a printing head alignment I get black and sometimes cyan horizontal lines across the sheet of paper. I'm unable to do a manual alignment, since the values are smudged beyond legibility.

I replaced both the PGBK and the Cyan cartridges but results are still the same.

Any ideas what is causing this or if it's possible to fix it?

Thanks in advance for any good tips!

 

[turbguy]

I suspect you have an electronic failure in the printer. I would unplug it for 24 hours, and try again afterwards.

You can also try inspecting the timing strip and potentially cleaning it. This is a clear plastic strip with a very fine pattern of lines that runs through the printhead, that acts as an encoder to tell the printhead "where it is" left-to-right. If it's not dirty with ink, then don't clean it.

 

[PeterBJ]

I agree with turbguy. The PGBK nozzle check in image one indicates an electronic print head failure to me, and the horizontal stripes in image two indicates one more electronic failure, in the logic board, to me. So sadly I think the printer is a total loss

There is one thing you could try, even if I think the chances of success are very small. Remove the cartridges and the print head and clean the contact pads on the backside of the print head and the contact springs in the print head carriage using a rag moistened with an electronics contact cleaner or isopropyl alcohol.

 

[regrub]

Hi guys and thanks for your replies!

I had the printer unplugged for around 20 hours now and after plugging it back in to the outlet now I got the following error:

"A print head is not installed or the installed print head is not compatible with this printer."

I have tried removing and installing the print head again but error remains...

I'm not really sure I understood what the timing strip is. Do you mean the brown-ish looking circuit-strip on the print head itself or the several white strips that connect the print head holder to the printer? If it's the former, that did look a bit covered in ink and I tried cleaning it with distilled water and wiping it clean.

In any case, error remains.

What I'd like to understand better (English is not my native language, so sorry if some of my questions seem redundant) is if the problem lies in the printer itself or the replaceable printing head. If it's the latter, I could try giving it to the IT-Workshop in my university, they have some guys that maintain the university printers, might be able to help repair the printing head. If the problem is in the printer itself, I'd just buy an IP4500 without a printing head off from eBay, since they go for around 30€.

Again, thanks for all your help!

 

[PeterBJ]

"A print head is not installed or the installed print head is not compatible with this printer." usually means that the print head is defective. Sadly a defective print head can damage the logic board in the printer, and a damaged logic board can damage a new print head, so replacing a print head is a gamble, for which I don't know the odds for success.

Furthermore the horizontal stripes in your uploaded image 2 indicate a logic board failure to me, so sadly I think the printer is a total loss. I would not risk the money for a new print head.

The timing strip is a transparent plastic strip that runs through a slit in the print head carriage. It has very fine vertical lines that are read by an optical sensor to determine the print head position. A dirty timing strip could the optical sensor to misread the position and so cause printer malfunction. But sadly this is not the cause of the problem.

I wonder why printers without print heads are sold at Ebay? Probably the print head was defective, and maybe the logic board also is defective? Or maybe the seller thinks he or she can make more money from selling the printer and the print head separately?

Even if a such printer were OK but missing the print head, I wouldn't install a known defective print head in it, as it might ruin the logic board. And buying and installing a new print head in a such printer is risky to say the least. I would stay away from such Ebay offers.

 

[regrub]

Sigh... Well I reaaally lucked out there... Damn. Guess I'll be saving up for a new printer.

I think printers without their corresponding print heads are sold, because the head is usually the part that goes bad most easily by getting clogged, so people try to get some money back by selling the theoretically fully functional printer. That's just a wild guess on my part though.

 

[PeterBJ]

Or they are well aware of the risk that the logic board has been damaged so the printer is worthless, but pretend not to know.

Using wrong methods in an attempt to clean the clogged print head has a high risk of ruining the logic board, making the printer a total loss.

 

[Todz]

Before dumping the printer (as I nearly did), try this simple procedure. Delete the printer and reinstall. DO NOT use the printer driver from the Epson website - use the installation disc that came with the printer. If you don't have the original installation disc then let windows install it automatically. (Do not let it search the internet). When windows has installed the driver right click on the printer and in properties (or similar) click on "update driver" (again, while not being connected to the internet). It'll install another small file and that should sort it.

In short - the printer driver on the website is faulty. The original installation discs didn't have the problem otherwise Epson would have been swamped by complaints. It sorted my 1290 out.

I have pointed out that many many people have got rid of their printers because of this error but have received no reply from Epson. The auto driver has less functionality than the website driver but it does come with the benefit of no blue lines!

 

[turbguy]

The printer driver doesn't do anything for Canon alignment and nozzle prints. They can be produced directly from the printer, through a series of button presses, without even being connected to a printer. Doing those operations from a computer does it with one click, instead.

 

[Todz]

Turbguy - I have absolutely no idea why I posted a comment about an Epson printer when the subject was a Canon printer. This proves conclusively that when you get tired you should go to bed - rather than trying to "finish everything off".

Apologies for the abberation. Now I need to find out where I should have posted it!