iP4500 Suddenly Stopped Printing PGBK Ink

[bankerjohn]

I'm a first time poster, so please excuse any "rookie" statements.

My Pixma iP4500 printer stopped printing from the PGBK cartridge this morning, when I tried to print a simple 3-page Word document ... and nothing but blank paper came out of the printer! I deduced that by changing the paper type from "Plain Paper" to "Glossy Photo Paper" ... printed the 1st page of Word document, and everything printed successfully in solid black (albeit much slower print time).

I also ran a nozzle check, with the results shown below ... oops, I see this forum doesn't allow new members to post URL's or images ... so no picture. But all lines of the nozzle check look normal, except that the top line (that's supposed to show the PGBK cartridge I believe) is completely BLANK. Maybe I can post a link to another member's post ... with quotes to disguise it ... "h t t p ://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7317"

I only use OEM Canon cartidges, and the PGBK one is relatively new ... but for some unknown reason, I can't get to the pop-up that shows the ink levels! When I open the Properties and click on "View Printer Status", I see an hour-glass appear next to the pointer ... then it returns to a normal pointer, but the status pop-up never appears. Could I have a corrupted driver?

I'm getting all solid red lights on all the ink cartridges ... so there's no obvious evidence of low ink ...

I have not yet attempted to do any of the following (because I'm a firm believer in diagnosis before repair attempts or parts purchase):

- install a new PGBK cartridge
- clean the print heads
- flush/clean the waste ink pads

I even called Canon ... but of course their suggestions were to (1) take it to an authorized out-of-warranty service center, or (2) buy a new printer.

Any and all helpful suggestions for a solution would be greatly appreciated!

 

[stratman]

Do not do cleanings and do no printing except nozzle checks until your issues get under control, or else you could burn out your print head.

You will be able to post a nozzle check after 24 hours from your first post (I believe) Please post it.

The Pigment Black issue could be

1) Ink starvation - no ink leaving the cartridge and requires a flush of the cartridge (if refilling) or a new cartridge to fix.

2) The print head may have a Pigment Black ink clog in the print head - soaking the print head may resolve the issue.

3) The purge unit for the Pigment Black may be malfunctioning in one of several ways. Use a syringe/needle, soda straw, long eye dropper or some other implement FLOOD water on top of the purge pads. Water should POOL on top of the 2 pads. It takes more than a couple of drops to FLOOD the purge pads. The purge pads are located to the extreme right as you look into the inside of the printer. When the printer is idle or powered off, the print head rests above the purge pads. Open the lid and you will see the print head come to and stop in the middle, like when you change cartridges. Now use a flashlight to see the pads to the right. FLOOD the purge pads making sure you see a pool of water above them then close the lid and perform a simple cleaning. Open the lid and look to see if the water is now gone (the pads may even look a little less blackish). Report if you are unable to FLOOD the pads, if the POOLED water doesn't go away. Report your experience - if it worked as expected or not.

4) Print head malfunction - you can try cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head AND the printer with a soft pencil eraser or a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol. If you do any cleaning up inside the printer be careful not to smudge or dirty the plastic timing strip - see here for an idea of what and where the timing strip is.

5) Logic board malfunction

Start with #3. You could also do #1 if you have a new or known working cartridge, otherwise, report back your observations.

 

[Grandexp]

Great post, Stratman. I can tell that you spent a lot of effort in putting it up. It is the best answer to this type of problems.

I had a same problem before when I refilled and installed a BCI-3ebk into my mp780. It printed blank on the nozzle check initially. I had to do two cleaning cycles back and back to make it print correctly. This BCI-3ebk cartridge proved to be not a great one despite it allowed me to print some 30 or 40 pages of document after that. When I used the printer the next day it had a very slight banding. I tossed the cartridge and refilled another one. It has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[bankerjohn]

Re: nozzle check

I'm allowed to upload an image file (which I did), but once it's uploaded I still am not allowed to reference it in my post!

 

[The Hat]

Re: nozzle check

I'm allowed to upload an image file (which I did), but once it's uploaded I still am not allowed to reference it in my post!

It helps to start by Post a reply as normal then open another Nifty window and use Uploads.
Go into Uploads and click anywhere in the Image box and right click copy then go back and paste into your previously opened thread..

 

[bankerjohn]

Either I'm not following your directions correctly, or your procedure doesn't work for me. When I go to Uploads, I see a "Thumb:" and an "Image:" box which contain "url" and "img" data for my "Recent Upload" ... but when I copy either of the links, and paste it into my reply, and then try to Post reply ... I get the error message about new members being required to reduce the number of URL's or IMG's to ZERO!

 

[The Hat]

Either I'm not following your directions correctly, or your procedure doesn't work for me. When I go to Uploads, I see a "Thumb:" and an "Image:" box which contain "url" and "img" data for my "Recent Upload" ... but when I copy either of the links, and paste it into my reply, and then try to Post reply ... I get the error message about new members being required to reduce the number of URL's or IMG's to ZERO!

The only thing I can say is sorry for the mix up, as you may have to have a couple more threads before the Moderators
will allow you to post any images (Must be new rules) ?

 

[stratman]

Great post, Stratman. I can tell that you spent a lot of effort in putting it up. It is the best answer to this type of problems.

Thanks. I posted this a couple of months ago for someone else and decided to reuse it instead of reinventing the wheel all over again.

We really need more sticky posts that cover the topics that get asked over and over again.

 

[bankerjohn]

The Pigment Black issue could be

1) Ink starvation - no ink leaving the cartridge and requires a flush of the cartridge (if refilling) or a new cartridge to fix.

2) The print head may have a Pigment Black ink clog in the print head - soaking the print head may resolve the issue.

3) The purge unit for the Pigment Black may be malfunctioning in one of several ways. Use a syringe/needle, soda straw, long eye dropper or some other implement FLOOD water on top of the purge pads. Water should POOL on top of the 2 pads. It takes more than a couple of drops to FLOOD the purge pads. The purge pads are located to the extreme right as you look into the inside of the printer. When the printer is idle or powered off, the print head rests above the purge pads. Open the lid and you will see the print head come to and stop in the middle, like when you change cartridges. Now use a flashlight to see the pads to the right. FLOOD the purge pads making sure you see a pool of water above them then close the lid and perform a simple cleaning. Open the lid and look to see if the water is now gone (the pads may even look a little less blackish). Report if you are unable to FLOOD the pads, if the POOLED water doesn't go away. Report your experience - if it worked as expected or not.

4) Print head malfunction - you can try cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head AND the printer with a soft pencil eraser or a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol. If you do any cleaning up inside the printer be careful not to smudge or dirty the plastic timing strip - see here for an idea of what and where the timing strip is.

5) Logic board malfunction

Start with #3. You could also do #1 if you have a new or known working cartridge, otherwise, report back your observations.

I started with #3 ... flooded the purge pads with water, then executed a cleaning cycle. Nozzle check printout still completely missing the top line where the PGBK cartridge is supposed to print. Checked the purge pads and the water is gone, so I assume the purge unit is functioning correctly.

Before I proceed to try other possible solutions, one thing that no one has responded to is my concern that My Printer software is no longer allowing me to view the ink levels. When I click on Printer Status, nothing happens. In the past, this would bring up a window showing the ink level on each cartridge. Is there a possibility that my driver file has become corrupted? Should I attempt to uninstall the "Canon iP4500 Series" program, then download and install the current version? ... before I try anything else?

 

[The Hat]

bankerjohn

The unavailability of your ink monitoring is a bit of concern and I am wondering if that happen
at the same time as the black failing to print then you have a much bigger problem.

Reinstalling the print driver is not going to do much for you either
because all the other print functions are still available to you.

There is some sort of communication error between your print head and the logic board inside your printer,
it could be a failed print head but that still should allow you to at least view the ink status even if it were blank
so I would say its more lightly to be logic board related.

At this early stage its only guess and your logic board maybe perfectly all right
so you could replace the black cartridge in the mean time with a new one do a normal head clean
and a nozzle check and see if there is any improvement in the output of the black at all.

Last but not least you could try stratmans step (4)
Please try posting the nozzle check again maybe the upload will work for you now.