SX235W & CISS Problems - Magenta Only

[Night Crawler]

Hi everyone.
I have an SX235W Printer and I'm using one of those 25 ebay ciss.
When I first brought the printer, anything I printed looked great. As my ink was running low, I had a look for genuine cartridges and was horrified when I could buy the printer again (with ink) for an extra tenner. So I decided to buy a CISS.
I noticed straight away that the inks were different (Original pigment and CISS Dye), but proceeded anyway.
For a while, everything was fine. I used up about half of the ink and then all of a sudden I started having problems with the magenta.
At first, it was if someone told the printer to cut back on the amount of magenta to spray, then it stopped printing magenta all together.
I cleaned and cleaned and everything was ok for a while. Then it started again. So I stripped the printer down, removed the printing head and proceeded to clean the heads using some pink head cleaning fluid that I had.
As I forced the fluid through the print head, I could see that the spray pattern on the black, cyan and yellow were fine. No gaps, no angled jets... but the magenta just didn't look right.
I got it to the best I could and then put the printer back together.
before re-installing the cartridges, I emptied the megenta cartridge and then allowed it to fill up with fresh ink.
I then ran a couple of cleaning cycles to purge the heads and then proceeded to print a full A4 photo.
All was well, until about 1/4 of the way down and the magenta stopped working again.

So, what could the problem be?
Is my printer broke?
Is my ink no good?
Am I better off getting a big hammer?

I can't go out and buy a set of genuine cartridges. They are just too dam expensive.

Thanks

 

[costadinos]

Your ciss probably needs the magenta channel be primed again.
That's usually done by unplugging the small hole on the front of the "cartridges" and pulling out some air/ink with an empty syringe until there is constant ink flow.

 

[Night Crawler]

I'm pretty sure the pipes are all full and theres plenty of ink in the cartridge. I'm at work at thr mo bit will give it a try anyway when i get home

 

[websnail]

If the only cleaning approach you've used is active (ie: pressuring fluid through the printhead nozzles) then it's likely you've only cleared part of the blockage out of the system.

Try soaking a small wad of kitchen towel and placing this on the printhead parking/cleaning pad then sliding the printhead back into parking position. Then leave it alone for 6 - 12 hours. Move head, remove pad and repeat... This approach will allow the cleaning solution to wick into the printhead nozzles and break down the clog in the same way as leaving your dishes in the sink to soak.

To carry the analogy further the active/pressure method is more akin to blasting your dishes with a hose... Not great if the blockage has solidified...

Worth a try if nothing else but for the love of Pete, Sally and their little children, apply patience and allow 24 - 48 hours total to allow everything to break down over various pad changes.

Cheers,

Martin

 

[Night Crawler]

Thanks. I'll give that a try as well.
Are there any special cleaning fluids that i should use, or could i use different cleaning solutions?

 

[websnail]

Thanks. I'll give that a try as well.
Are there any special cleaning fluids that i should use, or could i use different cleaning solutions?

There are a number of different recipes described on here with varying results as well as commercial grades so it's a question of doing your research.