MP830 printhead troubles

[bigo93]

Well my MP830 stopped printing using the black ink, colour was fine.

Found this post viewtopic.php?pid=27274

Well didnt have any windex to hand so I used some solvent I had lying around. Was citrus based stuff to clean the thermal compound of CPUs

Well I guess this is a warning to anyone who's gonna use anything similar! DONT!

Cant upload any images since I'm new, but here's what's happened.



First of all the glue holding the ribbon cable to the pcb on the printhead absorbed some of the solvent and expanded. I think this then caused the four bits of plastic on holding the pcb to the main unit to snap off!

Second, somehow the plastic supports through which the nozzles are screwed onto the uni, those have somehow snapped off! So now the entire thing is off the main unit.

Third, there is a rubber pad/seal between the nozzle part and the main unit, it looks like this too absorbed the solvent and has expanded! So even if I try to glue the nozzle mounts back to the main unit, the pad is too big now and will block the outlets of the main unit.

Dont know why the plastic bits broke, printer has only been moved a few times and no idea how any movement could damage the printhead whilst inside the printer.


So dont so what I have just done. Gonna have to buy a new printer now as the cost of a new printhead is pretty high, and I cannot be sure it isnt something else wrong with the printer.
And man are printheads expensive, over have the price of a new printer!!

 

[stratman]

Yeah, not a good idea. Sorry to hear of your troubles. No matter the cause, losing a print head sucks.

Just to be clear, only the print head is ruined? You did not use the cleaning solution on the printer itself?

You will be able to post images after 24 hours, so tomorrow afternoon you'll be good to post. Please post images of the print head so we can see the damage you described. You will help the forum learn.

Before you buy another printer, consider calling Canon Sales about a new print head. Canon usually has the lowest prices, at least in the USA. Why keep your printer going? Because new printers these days have somewhat inferior builds (cheaper, less sturdy components, smaller ink cartridge capacity) compared to your MP830. If you refill then you will need to purchase different inks and another chip resetter in order to maintain approximate Canon OEM function. Your old inkset for the MP830 will work but some color accuracy will be off because of some changes in ink formulations. This may or may not be of significance to you. Also, the new printers have opaque cartridges which slighty complicate refilling, but is easily overcome, so not necessarily a deal breaker, but will add additional up-front cost to facilitate refilling.

Unless there are other issues with the printer itself, consider keeping her going. The MP830 is a great printer!

 

[turbguy]

Try soaking the plastic gasket between the printehead block and the nozzle plate (I think that's what you mean) in soapy water or windex, dry it out, and see if it contracts to the original size. Otherwise, your printhead is toast. I suspect that you printer developed a purge unit issue (assuming there are two separate parking pads for the Black ink and the Color Ink in your printer. If the printer cleaning options permit cleaning black from colors seperatly, then you probably do have two parking pads.

Do you refill? If so, what inks?

Wayne