My 6-month young Pro+100 died on me today. No Yellow!

[Photographic Memory]

Well I have been on a Print Spree past few days. A real bender! But today a Print came out Yellow fading to Magenta.

So I tried Head Clean, Deep Clean, took the Print Head out, tried to flush with Windex (Ammonia-D), it is now sitting on some saturated Ammonia/Isopropyl/Propylene Glycol/Water Paper Towels in the metal dog bowl/sick bowl.

My poor Pro-100, will I be able to resurrect it? Attached are the Print and Nozzle Check.

If you remember a month or 2 ago, I posted photos of a Yellow CLI-42 Cart with "gunk" in clearly visible. Whether this was Yellow Gello or Mold we don't know.

Today when swapping out another Yellow Cart to see if it was a bad flowing Cart I noticed the Yellow Cart I took out when no Yellow printed had a tremendous amount of froth/foam inside if this helps the diagnosis?

How long do I keep Print Head in bowl? Overnight?

One thing I don't have is an "adapter" for the Syringe to fit onto Print Head Ink Inlet. Of all the things we need in situations like this I have everything except a thingymajig that would allow me to apply pressure into Print Head. I was so frustrated earlier that I didn't have anything, but I am beyond upset now. Still in shock. Hasn't sunk in.

Please help??

 

[kdsdata]

If you do get your syringe adapter take note "not" to apply any "great" pressure.

Place print head on tissue or paper towel, use "very little" pressure, and check results on tissue.

If you use any amount of elevated pressure you can seriously damage the print head. The parts in the print head are of miniscule size and don't take well to any unplanned, as in not designed for, pressure.

 

[Emulator]

A way to gently flush a print head and determine individual flow rates is illustrated in post #5 of this thread:-

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/9000-ii-maintenance.9817/

 

[The Hat]

@Photographic Memory, When you have Yello Gello present in your print head the last thing you need is pressure, because that procedure won’t work on this stuff, the gel gets into the nozzles and when heated dry’s rapidly.

You will need to use something that acts slowly to dissolve the dried gel over time, but I have not heard of any one thing specific that will work, and there are lots of different remedies, but none of them work fast.

That said, your nozzle check looks a bit to clean to be caused by Yello Gello and your printed image shows a sudden drop out of yellow ink, which would indicate complete nozzle failure.

Stop soaking the print head and thoroughly dry and reinstall it in the printer, but this time use a new cyan or Magenta cartridge (compatible will do) and swap the yellow chip onto it for this exercise.

Just run one cleaning cycles and then a nozzle check and if there are no signs of any colour output from the yellow nozzles then your print head is beyond saving, get yourself a new print head and don’t reuse the two old yellow cartridges again, sorry...

 

[Photographic Memory]

I will try this tomorrow. Thank you.

Being as it is still only 6 months old is it not under warranty? Bought from Amazon and paid the extra got 2 years cover?

 

[Photographic Memory]

Darn it, so good news and bad news. This seems the exact same situation I had with the Pixma ix6550...

I did almost all what you suggested this morning The Hat, short of swapping out a Yellow Chip onto a Magenta or Cyan Cartridge. I thought let me go ahead do what you recommended, run a Cleaning Cycle and then a Nozzle Check.

To my absolute surprise the Yellow printed what looks perfect? (See attached Nozzle Checks). I was a bit unsure why there was a band missing on the Light Grey, I thought I may have blown a nozzle during my "unclogging" of Print Head attempt. I left it a while and ran another Nozzle Check, and then another. By the 3rd or 4th all colors showed up.

I thought I was good to go, only this tine go slowly, print a Photo one at a time and see how it went, making sure the image wasn't laden with Yellow color. The first few were fine and then just now an image totally had Magenta/blank patches where Yellow should have printed.

Another Nozzle Check. Same. Back to square one.

What do you recommend?
We know now that the Nozzles are all in tact?
Maybe this IS Yellow Hello or Mold.

Am I right in suggesting do some more soaking of Print Head in a gentle solution of Windex/Fairy Liquid/Water for a lengthy period of maybe a week?

Please help. Half of next is happy all Nozzles are in tact. The other half which was once bitten now twice shy is feeling the exact same situation I had with my previous printer, the Pixma 6550.

Thank you for the support!

 

[The Hat]

You’re not over filling your carts by any chance or allowing your carts to go beyond low ink before refilling, because this issue can masquerade itself just like nozzle clogs, and don’t remove the print head anymore, because that’s not your problem right now.

When you have a good and proper nozzle check once more try printing this test sheet, this will show up any ink flow issues with any of your cartridges...

 

[Photographic Memory]

Got it, will do!

Not over-filling per se, maybe the sponges on some have been a little oversaturated on the top sponge, not letting the carts run dry, but it is usually, almost always, the Grey that gives me the low-ink notification and I swap out the whole set every time.

Remember I posted my suspected Yellow Hello a few weeks back here, and was informed it could be possible mold.

I of course flushed out this Cartridge with Windex-D. And I will be open and honest this is a CLI-42, not a CLI-8. I do use a CLI-8, yet also have 3 sets of Carts, so 2 of the Yellows are flushed CLI-42 OEM's from months ago (not recently).

The weather this past winter has been "miserable" as you know, and I spotted what looks like miniscule pores of mold on my Vape (e-Cigarette) recently so most like it is either Yellow Gello or Mold, let's be realistic, not problems at all with the other colors. It would be a 1 in 8 coincidence that it just so happened to be a faulty Yellow by random means.

Will run a Nozzle Check shortly and report back. Thank you!!

 

[Photographic Memory]

OK Nozzle Checks are all coming up blanks.

I have 2 options: Either,

a) Flush a Yellow Cart and fill it with what, Windex and Dish Soap (i.e. Fairy Liquid) ad Water? What else/instead, Isopropyl? Glycerin? Propylene Glycol?

b) Do what I did, but instead of leaving the Print Head in a saturated Paper Towel of Windex, etc for 24 hours, this time leave it for a week?

b DID help when I tried to "unclog) the Print Head, but for only a day, I am guessing there is either dried Yellow/Gello/Mold "baked" into the Nozzles so what other options do I have?

Apply for Service on Canon's website and hope they send me a new Print Head?

I am open for options, but this starting me make me feel anxious.

Thank you as always.

 

[stratman]

1) Stop doing the same things or else you will get the same results.

2) Stop using the known problematic Yellow cartridges. We do not know what it is and you keep having problems using them. Take these cartridges out of the diagnostic equation. Cartridges are relatively inexpensive. New print heads are not.

3) Avoid Yello Gello. Get a new or other non- OEM CLI-42 Yellow cartridge unless you have a guarantee it has been flushed perfectly for refilling. Either

• stick with OEM CLI-42 Yellow ink forever or
  
• obtain a CLI-8, flush with water and swap the chip from the CLI-42 or
• get an empty aftermarket cartridge and refill or
• use third party pre-filled Yellow cartridges.

4) You may need to soak the print head again. I would try the "new" Yellow cartridge first before soaking the print head. Nozzle checks only until issue resolved.

5) Call Canon tech support if still under warranty. Using Non-OEM Canon cartridges or ink may void your warranty.

6) Stop doing the same things or else you will get the same results.