Canon I950 problem help please

[team]

Hi folks; I need some help here.

My Canon I950 has worked fabulously for the past year +. Suddenly it refuses to print blue/ green. I get pinks and black. All my ink cartridges are full; and I even replaced cyan and photo cyan and am no closer to solving the issue.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Belmondo]

The obvious question is: Have you tried cleaning the nozzles? Apologies if you have.

[Spatch]

If you have already tried deep cleaning the heads then maybe you need to buy a new print head - they do actually wear out (as I have recently discovered)!! A few weeks ago had to do this as my prints were coming out with a very bad magenta colour cast. Once I fitted a new head all was fine. Not cheap though at £100. May be worth taking it to a printer repairers for a second opinion.

[team]

Hmmm. First off I did try deep cleaning the heads. No luck. THEN ( and this is where I get embarrassed)after trying new ink; different paper etc. I went out and bought a refurbished i950 for $30.00. Set er up this morning and am having the same problem as I did on my original I950.

[Spatch]

1) Are your inks genuine Canon?
2) Did you swap the printheads over (i.e did you use printhead from your old i950 in refurbished in one)?

[CyberDyneSystems]

You are using Canon ink?

[team]

No I didn't swap the printheads.

I had Non Canon Ink in the printer when it stopped printing correctly. Now some are Canon inks (Cyan and Magenta) and some the rest are not.

Have I ruined the print head by using non Canon inks. The "new" printer has only printed maybe 5 sheets of text only.

I really appreciate the input

[Spatch]

I wouldn't say that you have ruined the printhead, as long as the replacement inks have come from a reputable source (with the inks approved by Canon) then you should be OK. The only reason I asked is that I have also recently had problems with 3rd party inks where the colours were not consistent (i.e print colours changed after swapping cartidges). I have now, for the time being, gone back to genuine Canon inks. It maybe worth you putting all genuine Canon inks in, then do a deep clean (to clear all the old ink out) and see what you are left with.

[Longwatcher]

Not sure if this is really advisable or not, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that somebody had a similar problem using non-Canon inks. They decided what the heck and took the print head out and washed it out with soapy water in the sink, rinsed completely and then let dry for 24 hours and then usng Canon Inks it worked fine from then on.
So if you get desperate this may be an option before purchasing a new print head.

Just something I remembered. Have not tried it myself.

[CyberDyneSystems]

The use of non-canon inks is a very big problem in the newer Canon printers.. (i950, i960, i9100, and more recent BCI-6 type printers)

Starting with the i950 and 19100 the droplet size of the print head went down to 4 picolitre... (newer models as small as 1)

With htese tiny droplets and the required precision of the print head.. non-Canon inks became a disaster waiting to happen. The generic inks do not have as fine a particle size,.. and are almost guaranteed to clog the print head.

I am sure there are some good non-oem inks out there that don't have this problem.. but I do not know of any specifically to recomend. What you get at Staples or for $3.00-$4.00 dollars a cartridge on the net in a "bargain" however are almost guaranteed to fail :(

[CyberDyneSystems]

P.S.

Could you let us know where you got the refurb i950? :)

[team]

i bought it on EBAY: the same seller had more. Looks to be in great shape. Of course I haven't gotten it to print well yet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6728051963&ssPageName=STRK:MEAFB:IT


So do you think I can get Canon inks; deep clean the head through the sofware, and have it work again. OR have I screwed up both print heads??

[Scottes]

I would stay the heck away from non-Canon inks - but of course you know that now. :)

I'd try cleaning ONE of the print heads as LongWatcher said. I'd also get a can of air and try to blow things out before letting it sit to dry. I've never pulled one apart, but I'd also try to blow air through the lines, too, if this is even possible. And then after drying 24 hours I'd put it back in the printer and run it through 2 or 3 print-head-cleaning cycles.

[Spatch]

The only way to check if the print heads are OK is to try. Its a good point made by CDS regarding particle size, worth keeping in mind.

I am not sure that I would use soapy water, a local place I know of use an untrasonic bath to clean heads, but the water is DI (so you should not get any residue on the heads when they dry).

[team]

Thought I should follow up here. I washed one of the print heads; put in Canon Ink and Voila!! Crisp; sharp like new prints again.

Thanks for the input everyone

[mishagav]

I have a similar problem. I beleive i know what's happening, but not sure - why. What i've noticed is that if you don't use the printer for a while, the yellow ink becomes darker - looks like the black ink somehow gets mixed up with yellow. I compared the yellow ink tank with a new - two different collors. And i clearly remember that a week ago my yellow ink tanks looked OK. No wonder all the collors get mixed up. I always use Canon brand inks, BTW.
So after noticing all this i called Canon Tech Support. It took me a while to get the message accros - the guy was trying to tell me to do cleaning, deep cleaning, etc. while i keept telling him that the yellow ink color had changed, and you can keep cleaning till the end of the day, spending more money on new cartridges. Finally he suggested that i can try to replcae the printhead. I've checked on internet - it goes for ~$130, so not sure whther it makes sence, considering the fact that it didn't take too many prints to get this printer out of oder.
Any other suggestions or thughts? Does it make sence?