Printheads and how to blow them up

[websnail]

Seems I've learned alot today about the potential hazzards of CIS's and Canon printers. As of last count I think I now have 4 dead printheads, one very dead MP750 and potentially an IP4000 which is managing quite well to screw up additional printheads.

In case anyone wants to know what to avoid I'll give you a quick paraphrase of the days undoings.

Pixma IP4000
1. Notice a low ink flow in one of the tubes (air starting to seep back to the reservoir) which is a sure sign of an air leakage problem so need to pull the cartridges and printhead to fit with small thin silicon grommets on top of the existing rubber ones in the printhead.
2. Clamp all tubes leading to reservoirs to avoid freeflow of ink then pull cartridges and printhead.
3. Accidentally place printhead on edge of worktable and watch it bounce on floor.
4. Attempt to fit bouncing printhead into printer and pray
5. All those years of not attending church get thee compupence and prayers not answered.. 5 orange flashes followed by single green = printhead incorrectly fitted, etc..
6. Oh dear say I.
7. Decide to bite the bullet and plug in a printhead that was brandnew into the MP750 when it died
8. Insert properly, seems to work well but with some banding so leave to soak a little
9. Realise that a headclean might be in order so remove cart again and do small amount of cleaning solution to clean out any clogs.
10. Replace printhead and cartridges and turn on printer
11. Run a test print..
12. Note strange white flashes and realise something wrong..
13. Pull plug on printer ASAP
14. Open window to clear out acrid burning smell
15. Go to pull cartridges and printhead again and realise that the ink tubes are still clamped
16. N00b error results in much cursing, swearing and wondering how the **** I forgot that.

17. Schoolboy error #2 decide to get out a new printhead and fit that making sure that clamps, etc.. are unclamped before turning on printer.
18. Probably blown another printhead now as the 5 orange and single green flashes are back.. EIther that or the printer itself is now toasted and so I'm wasting time and printheads.



Bottom line, through all of this I should have sighed, bitten my tongue and walked away very carefully until I could be sure I was calm, rational and thinking straight. I didn't, so I'm wondering how much I can get for my "spares" iP4000 model with the external waste ink tank modification applied.
*sigh*..


I won't even mention the iP4200 which has suddenly decided it doesn't like Yellow for some bizarre reason... Not my best day.. *sob*..

 

[Nifty]

Bottom line, through all of this I should have sighed, bitten my tongue and walked away very carefully until I could be sure I was calm, rational and thinking straight.

Well said and sooooo true!

Replying to this a little late, but it's just as good to hear the bad stories as much as the good stories. I think we'd all rather learn from other's mistakes instead of reproducing them ourselves.

 

[websnail]

Replying to this a little late, but it's just as good to hear the bad stories as much as the good stories. I think we'd all rather learn from other's mistakes instead of reproducing them ourselves.

LOL... Oh that that were true..

I learn my lessons, wait 6 months and then go and learn them all over again, despite knowing that it's really a very dumb, seriously stupid, absolutely moronic thing to do...

 

[fotofreek]

The lesson I learned through many attempts to revive a printhead problem on an i960 was that excessive efforts to fix the printhead problem left me sufficiently frustrated that I impatiently did something to the printer and blew it too. The other lesson is that there are times when all your efforts don't fix it and it is time to give up and get a new printer!