Pixma iP5200, brand new print head seems to have blocked up already?!?

[JonM]

Hi all,
I wonder of anyone out there has had similar issues or can help me figure out whats happening here.

I have a Pixma iP5200, several years old, on which I use OEM inks and cheapo gloss photo paper, and have always had perfectly acceptable results on the rare occasions I printed photos.

A while back, the yellow faded significantly- the output on the nozzle check was not streaky, but very faded. Photos had a pronounced magenta cast. A deep yellow square printed very pale.
I switched ink tanks, did multiple deep cleans, all without success, followed advice I found on this forum to clean the head (soaking in 10% ammonia solution, compressed air, filtered water), and apart from blowing ink just about everywhere, did not make any difference.

So as a last resort, and certain the solve the problem (hah!) I purchased a new Canon head (for almost what I paid in the first place for the printer..), and for a few prints, was happy with the results, but then, hey presto, during the course of a batch of 6 A4 prints, the yellow faded, and prints are once again strongly magenta.

So then I figured out that the yellow ink I was using might somehow be defective (polymerizing?), so I bought a fresh batch of yellow from another supplier, did several deep cleans to clear what was left in the new head, and tried again. No change.

I have tried tweaking the yellow colour intensity in the printer driver- this does not make any difference.

The one other thing I have tried is to install a magenta into the yellow slot on the head, (using the yellow chip) to see whether the magenta ink came through on a nozzle check. The result was that no ink came through at all, even following a head clean.

As you may have gathered by now, I am no expert in this stuff, but I am assuming that for some reason, the original head became partially blocked, and the same has happened almost immediately to the new replacement head, although I cannot understand why this should have happened, or how I can resolve the problem.

Any advice would be gratefully received!
Thanks, Jon

 

[ghwellsjr]

Sounds like clogged purge lines.

Have you tried putting Windex (or water with 5% ammonia) on the black purge pads where the print head parks and then do a cleaning followed by a nozzle check? Then repeat until the nozzle check comes out normal.

It would be helpful if you could scan the nozzle check and post it here so that we could see what is going on.

 

[JonM]

Thank you- this is a new line of approach that I have not come across.
I think I can access the purge pads by 1) opening the top cover to bring the print head to the centre, then 2) switicn g off power and sliding the head to the left. The pads then are under the casing to the RHS, as in the attached pic- does this look correct?
Also, I have scanned a nozzle check as you suggested...:
Many thanks,
Jon

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, those are the purge pads. The one on the left is for the black pigment ink (PGBK) and the one on the right is for the dye inks. You do have one missing segment on your black pigment and I can see some problems with your magentas along with a serious problem with your yellow.

I would also recommend removing your yellow cartridge and putting some Windex on the screen where the ink feeds into the print head each time you repeat the steps. Of course, put it back before doing the cleaning.

If you get the one pigment black segment working again, you can save pigment ink by not putting Windex on the left hand pad and telling the printer to only do a cleaning on the dye ink group.

 

[JonM]

I have followed your suggestion- many thanks for the help and advice.
I have run the 5% ammonia/clean cycle about 12 times, (using clean as opposed to deep clean), but other than empty a complete set of nearly full and full cartridges (apart from the yellow, of course) there is only a very minimal difference in the yellow output on printing the nozzle check..There does seem to be yellow getting through, but it is very low intensity
It may be that I should keep this process going, but I wanted to check rather than carry on blindly to no avail..

One thought that crossed my mind was to fill an empty cartridge with ammonia solution, and use this in the yellow slot, to print a yellow block of colour, in an attempt to clear the blockage.
Would this make sense, or are there any other avenues I could explore?

Thanks,
Jon

 

[ghwellsjr]

Well, your one clogged pigment black is now working and the yellow looks better but the light versions of cyan and magenta appear to be getting worse. If you are in a country that sells Windex or another window cleaner with ammonia, I would suggest that you use that instead since it is a soapy solution.

You could make a yellow cleaning cartridge with ammonia solution but I would recommend you get a cleaing solution from:

http://www.inkjetsaver.com/tools.html

You need a solution like this because there are other ingredients besides those in Windex (or your own mixture) that the print head needs to work effectively. Also, I would not recommend that you use your printer for printing anything (except fast black on plain paper) until you get your nozzles cleaned. The reason is that the nozzles need a flow of ink to cool the heaters that fire the nozzles. A nozzle check is a very minimal amount of firings and you also need the suction of the prime/purge unit to pull the ink through the nozzles which printing will not do.

Just putting a cleaning solution on the screens and on the purge pad and letting the printer sit over night will often help unclog nozzles.

You might also find out how to do an extended nozzle check on your printer. Here is a link that works with many printers:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=869#p869

The extended nozzle check does for the dye inks what a normal nozzle check does for the pigment black. It lets you see the individual nozzles in a grid pattern. This is important when you are trying to unclog a lot of nozzles because you want to see if the pattern of clogging is changing, in other words, or some previously good nozzles showing up clogged and is the clogged pattern random each time you do it. If that is the case, then the problem is a flow problem rather than individual clogged nozzles.

I know there are a lot of people that recommend removing the print head and soaking it but I think that is risky and advise against it. Your printer is designed to unclog its own print head safely.

 

[JonM]

I have followed the advice on the link you posted and produced an output, shown below. It does not look like the extended nozzle check, but I'm not quite sure what it is I'm looking at or what it means.

I am a little confused as to where you think the problem may lie: Your first post responding to my description of the problem made me hope that the reason I' d failed in the past (I used iso-propanol to repeatedly soak clean the old head before I gave up and replaced it) was because I was concentrating on the print head, whereas the issue lay elsewhere-i.e. the purge unit.
From your last post, it seems like you are now thinking more in terms of a print head nozzle blockage than a purge blockage- is this correct?
If the problem is with the head, and as the print head is almost brand new, I am wondering whether this could be due to a faulty replacement part (it was a genuine, factory sealed Canon part, bought from a reseller).
However I'm getting confused as the symptoms that I have are exactly what prompted me to replace the head in the first place, and concerned as all the cleaning etc is consuming a lot of ink (I am on my third full set since this problem first materialised). Is there any safe and effective way to clean the purge or head without consuming so much ink?

I am in the UK, where Windex is pink and creamy/viscous, and does not contain ammonia- definitely not something I'd imagine suitable for cleaning delicate parts. Similary, ammonia- based products are hard to come by, other than 10% ammonia for heavy duty cleaning.

I am sure I can find a specialist cleaning agent, and presume that your intention is for me to use this, rather than 5% ammonia to place on the purge pads?

Sorry- lots of questions I know! I appreciate this is taking a lot of your time, and am really glad of your help! Many thanks,
Jon

 

[lin]

Your very faded yellow, seems to be an electrical problem with the printhead.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I am a little confused as to where you think the problem may lie: Your first post responding to my description of the problem made me hope that the reason I' d failed in the past (I used iso-propanol to repeatedly soak clean the old head before I gave up and replaced it) was because I was concentrating on the print head, whereas the issue lay elsewhere-i.e. the purge unit.
From your last post, it seems like you are now thinking more in terms of a print head nozzle blockage than a purge blockage- is this correct?

If you have a clogged purge unit, you will not be able to unclog the nozzles in the print head nor will you be able to prime a new print head. A clogged purge unit would explain both why you could not unclog your original print head and then why you could not get your new print head to work (it didn't get properly primed). Priming is the process of getting all the air out of the print head.

If the problem is with the head, and as the print head is almost brand new, I am wondering whether this could be due to a faulty replacement part (it was a genuine, factory sealed Canon part, bought from a reseller).
However I'm getting confused as the symptoms that I have are exactly what prompted me to replace the head in the first place, and concerned as all the cleaning etc is consuming a lot of ink (I am on my third full set since this problem first materialised). Is there any safe and effective way to clean the purge or head without consuming so much ink?

Oftentimes, just putting a cleaning solution on the purge pads and letting it soak overnight will help unclog it. You may have to repeat this for many days.

I am in the UK, where Windex is pink and creamy/viscous, and does not contain ammonia- definitely not something I'd imagine suitable for cleaning delicate parts. Similary, ammonia- based products are hard to come by, other than 10% ammonia for heavy duty cleaning.

Ammonia in the USA is sold full strength and is intended to be diluted to 5% for normal cleaning and 10% for heavy cleaning. It sounds like you can only get it already diluted to 10% in the UK. I would still dilute it in half or more when used in a printer.

I am sure I can find a specialist cleaning agent, and presume that your intention is for me to use this, rather than 5% ammonia to place on the purge pads?

Windex in the USA is a very light with a slight blue color added liquid, not like the Windex you describe in the UK. We can also get a product to put in our automobile windshield washers which is quite similar to Windex. Is there a similar product in the UK? Maybe that would be a good one to use.

Sorry- lots of questions I know! I appreciate this is taking a lot of your time, and am really glad of your help! Many thanks,
Jon

 

[pebe]

JohnM,

The pink viscous stuff you are refering to is 'Windolene'. From the smearing it leaves on windows, it also contains some form of oil!

They also make a much lighter liquid in the form of a spray - it also smears!

But your best option would be ammonia which you can get from hardware stores (if you can find one that hasn't been ousted by a supermatket), or get it from a Poundstrecher store, as I did.