i950 printer problem

[Volatile]

I have had my i950 for around a year and a half now, and it has been a champ up till now. When I try to print photos, it starts printing really slowly, then stops half way through the job.

I've had various combinations of led blinkings, including print head overheat and you need servicing.

Has anyone had anything like this happen? What could be going on? Any suggestions?

Unfortunately, I am deployed halfway around the world from my printer, and I'm trying to help my wife get some prints done. Bottom line is that I cannot take extensive steps in troubleshooting.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Volatile]

Well. I'm home now and the printer works. Sort of. It prints, but the quality has gone waaaay down. I can now see the lines from the print head as well as individual ink drops. The color seems flat as well, but that may or may not be involved....

Anyways, I know the right answer is "have it serviced" but it is out of warranty, and I don't want to end up paying more than the printer is worth to have it looked at.

Fishing for advice, recommendations, similar stories, etc..

Thanks

[S45_fornow...]

Are you using generic inks? They tend to clog the nozzles and overheat the printhead often.

Try removing the printhead (remove ink carts) and soaking it in 70% isopropyl alcohol for 24 hrs. Blowing out the nozzles with air using a syringe every few hours while soaking also helps. Dry it thoroughly and put it back into the printer.

When finished, do a nozzle check from the printer maintanence utility. If it checks out OK, then great, if not, the printhead is more than likely toasted. You will probably need to run the nozzle check several times to get ink flowing properly thru the nozzles, so if it looks like sh*t the first time thats normal.

Good luck.

[Volatile]

Thanks, I'm going to remove the printhead tonight.

I haven't ever used generic inks, it overheated when I was trying to print something like 10 sheets of pictures continuously. In hindsight, that probably wasn't a great idea.

[Volatile]

I'm not really sure what exactly a print head should look like, but I think mine has a problem. If anyone knows for sure, would you please tell me if that little black spot in the upper left is supposed to be there? It looks to me like a scorched spot, or possibly a crack.

Also, there is ink all over the inside of the print head, where the ink cartridges snap in to. That can't be good....

How much is a print head for an i950?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/Volatile/Canon%20forum/IMG_5426.jpg

[kb244]

kinda normal looking other than the fact that it looks all the same color on every line. Print head cost? hrm, not sure you'd have to send your printer to canon. It used to be when they sold the print heads in stores with the inks like back on the older Canon i530D printers and such they were like 40$ with a batch of ink with them. I mean its similar to my i860 shown here ( I print regularly i just did a cleaning few days back all the pictures come out just fine ).

Despite that its printing fine and such, the bottom of the head looks much worse than yours, yet its able to print picture sharp images.

http://www.karlblessing.com/images/share/ink_head.jpg

[kb244]

Oh furthermore I went ahead and used a q-tip to clean off that head above ( well NOT the head just the brown area around it, I did not touch the head at all with the q-tip should be careful never to actually touch the head ). Furthermore There is a sponge on the far right of the printer, it absorbes stray ink and such, thats one of the main reason the brown area is covered in it, I just took a toilot paper or paper tower, and press down into the sponge to soake the ink into the paper should keep ink for getting onto the area arround the head.

[Volatile]

Thanks Karl. I changed the picture to highlight the spot I'm talking about. It's not an ink splotch, it's a crack in the brown plastic/silicon/whatever. Please have a look.

[kb244]

Hrm thats certainly not good.

[mwinog2777]

I don't know what's wrong.

But, 18 months is about what to expect out of the printer.

[kb244]

hrm market-wise manufactures dont expect more than 3 years.