My Canon printer has conked out.
Turns out the print head needs replacing, it being gunked up by no-name cartridge ink residue. You see, sometimes I used replacement ink cartridges that weren’t Canon brand.
Canon says their ink is suspended in alcohol, while cheap no-name brands are water-soluble. As a result, the print head gunks up after a few years.
Canon suggested I wash the residue off with alcohol. After hours of soaking and swabbing, I still can’t print.
You guys have any suggestions? I don’t think purchasing a $70 print head is the best solution…
Replies
Have had similar problems, but not caused by no name cartridges. If you've tried full strength alcohol with no luck I don't think there's any alternative to replacing the head. As a last resort I've had some luck using HOT water on some print heads, if the ink truly is water soluble. Good luck...
Really, I'd just buy a new printer unless its special. They almost give them away so you keep buying their ink. I find that the cheap printers are olny a few bucks more than a pair of cartridges.
Speaking as an electronic technician, you can try washing the printhead with hot water. It wont hurt anything even if you get water inside the printer. Just make sure its good and dry before you turn it on again. I used to wash all kinds of things that had something nasty happen to them.
Man with computer stuff if it is over a few years old and gives me any trouble in the dumpster it goes. Stuff is a tool. I treat it like its a disposable tool. Just my opinion. DanT
I have tried a bunch of no-name brands of inkjet cartridges for my Epson, and most of them have been no-good no-names. They did not print worth a ####. They dried up, especially the color. (INcidentally, Epson printers have the dispensing head located on the cartridge, so there is nothing to become jammed by bad ink.)
But I have had superb luck with "Amazon" brand cartridges. Tiger Direct sells them, as do other sources. Note that "Amazon.com" does NOT sell them. They print very reliably, even after sitting for days. And, the colors are nice.
I use it even less as I now have a Brother laser printer ($99 new from Tiger Direct) which I use for all the B&W printing; much less costs.
John, thanks for that tip. I'm going to look into a $99 laser as a supplement to what I have now. I'm tired of cartridge prices.
blueJust because you can, doesn't mean you should!
Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. There are some in here who think I'm a hackmeister...they might be right! Of course, they might be wrong too!
laser prints are also waterproof, unlike the ink jets. My laser wont print when its cold in the house, so that's a drawback. Maybe the new ones don't care. I mean the whole printer has to be warm, not the usual time for the thing to heat up.
I hate it when the screws keep all the heat up in the office. Why can't they send some down to the jail block? They're just f'ing with us.
Martha just your name cracks me up. LOL.thank you
It's toasty in the summer though.
Actually the local county lockup was ordered to put in AC this year to keep the prisoners cool. Said it reached 100 in the summer. Course I'm out in it in my black truck with out AC, yada yada...
Blue... you may want to price a color... I picked up a 2550 HP for $400 canadian yesterday. Only planning to use it for a month...then we get a real laser (about $3500). The lower end color lasers are basically got for the price of the toners. ($100 each up here-4 color). When you buy the machine they are half full- but they are great toys.
L
GardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it!
Lucky Pierre: WHAT kind of alcohol? Some inks may be soluble in denatured alcohol, but not in isopropyl. And vice versa, of course. Also - if you try alcohol, get 90+ % isopropyl; much better solvent than the normal 70% rubbing alcohol. There is also ethyl, methyl and several thousand others, some of which are only used to make nerve agent.
Good luck!
Don
I've been buyiing cartridges for my Epson C60 and C64 for awhile now, and I priint a lot of stuff - color and b & w. Never had a problem, but for what I pay for cartridges, I'd gladly buy a new printer for $70 every three years. I also signed up for their notification when they have a deal on. Sticky note on my computer as a reminder to let the printer clean the heads every month.http://www.123inkjets.com/
Regarding those cartridges that come with the new computers: They are "introductory" cartridges, with only a few pages on them. It is sort of like the "free" razor holder that you got with the blades (remember "Blue Blades"?). They make the money on the refills.
On December 17th, I decided to try a "refilled" cartridge. It had more ink in it than the HP cartridge and was only twenty dollars instead of thirty.The previous cartridge purchase had been on June 22. So that HP cartridge lasted six months. The cheapie replacement lasted two and one half months. I replaced it on March 1.Now I realize that this isn't real scientific. The question is "how many pages did each cartridge print?"But both my wife and I agree that we did not do any out of the ordinary printing over the winter.I think I'll keep buying the HP cartridges.Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
The cheapo refill your-own-cartridge ink kits come with some type of solvent that is supposed to dissolve the solidified ink in ink cartridges. I have been using the ink kits in my old HP printer for several years with considerable success but I have never had to use the ink solvent solution. If I remember correctly, the last ink kit I got was from Costco about a year ago for somewhere around $20, although I think I have seen similar kits in the office supply stores.
I used 70% alcohol as I was out of nerve agent. ;) The gunk and dried ink came off quite well. I'll try some of the stronger alcohols too, and if that gets me nowhere, the hot water suggested by paulB.
Edited 3/30/2005 2:36 am ET by Pierre1
Having about 150 ink cartridges on my shelf here... I guess I know a little.
I know it cost me $700 to repair an hp1700 when a no name cartridge popped and shorted out the board.
I know aftermarkets work great in the old style (print head in the cartridge-without computer chip) cartridges. Cartridges have to be sealed in a bag with a couple of drops of moisture as soon as they are taken out of the printer. (ziplock).
Often cartridges can only be refilled a few times before the head is too poor to use.
The new Epson and HP's have cartridges with a chip that means you can only use it once.
In short-the 5 year old printer gets 20$ cartridge refills, the new ones (that are 49 and 70ml) get factory cartridges that are only $38 ea.
I haven't used cannon lately-they weren't compatible with the software I was using...
L
GardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it!
Sounds like you may have gotten it already with the alcohol. For future prosperity, try some straight acetone, not nail polish remover. If that does not work, try soaking the nozzle in a weak solution of ammonia and distilled water.