I bet my weird printer problem can beat yours

[mptrauber]

Hi all,

New to the group and needing help with a tear-your-hair-out problem.

My daughter and I have each a Canon Pixma IP3000 (inkjet, no chips on
cartridges) that ran flawlessly.

My Pixma suddenly stopped printing any black-not a speck. I replaced
the cartridge, reseated the cartridge and the printhead, did deep
cleaning, printhead alignment and cycled the power several times. No
cigar. Called Canon support and was lead through the same process.
Same result.

I then cleaned the removable printhead with windex and distilled water
very well and very carefully. Still no black.

Here's where it gets weird.

I take my presumed "bad" printhead over to my daughter's house. I run
a test on her printer before I do anything and it works perfectly. I
then remove and replace her printhead with mine.

Now, as I expected, no black with her printer. This seems to confirm
my printhead needs to be replaced.

I then put her "good" printhead back in and just for grins, run a
printing test. NOW HER PRINTER WON'T PRINT BLACK. It's as if my
printhead "infected" her printer.

I then ordered a brand new printhead, and installed in her printer or
mine, black does not print no matter how many times I reseat stuff or
change cartridges.

Any ideas?

 

[ato_zee]

I take my presumed "bad" printhead over to my daughter's house. I run
a test on her printer before I do anything and it works perfectly. I
then remove and replace her printhead with mine.

Now, as I expected, no black with her printer. This seems to confirm
my printhead needs to be replaced.

I then put her "good" printhead back in and just for grins, run a
printing test. NOW HER PRINTER WON'T PRINT BLACK. It's as if my
printhead "infected" her printer.

I would suspect that your initially no black printhead had developed
a short circuit, and this blew the control board.
You take the short circuit printhead over to your daughters, it blows
her control board.
Now you have two dead control boards that new heads won't fix.

I've met this many times, processors and other very expensive
devices make incredibly fast and expensive fuses, in fact
the fastest fuses around with 775 legs.

What you should have done, with hindsight, is get a new
head and put it in your daughters working printer, and being new,
it should have worked fine. Then put her used head in your
no black printer, and if no black, it would cpnfirm your printer
is now a doorstop.

 

[Jim Ford]

Now you have two dead control boards that new heads won't fix.

I suspect this is the last thing the OP wanted to hear!

Jim Ford

 

[ato_zee]

I suspect this is the last thing the OP wanted to hear!

Good theory unless we hear otherwise.

 

[mptrauber]

Thanks for the responses.

Given that these things will flash their little lights at you even if
the printer isn't oriented to true north, It's odd that a short
circuit wouldn't create all sorts of blinking and carrying on.

Hmmm. Where might a pedestrian like me get one of these control
boards?

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Hmmm. Where might a pedestrian like me get one of these control
boards?

From another printer that died of another problem. That's likely to be your
only option at this point. I doubt very much Canon will send or sell you
one. Still, you might call them and find out.

William

 

[Burt]

Thanks for the responses.

Given that these things will flash their little lights at you even if
the printer isn't oriented to true north, It's odd that a short
circuit wouldn't create all sorts of blinking and carrying on.

Hmmm. Where might a pedestrian like me get one of these control
boards?

(snip)

I saw this sort of problem posted to the Nifty Stuff Forum as well. It was
assumed that a short in the printhead killed the printer and that the second
printer the printhead was put into did the same.

If you are near a Staples store they have the ip4300 printer on sale this
week for $69. You may be able to find the ip4200 still available. I did
see them for $40 a few weeks ago. the ip4300 has smaller nozzles and would
probably print photos better. Both are good general purpose printers with
four dye-based inks and one black pigment-based ink.

 

[zakezuke]

Thanks for the responses.

Given that these things will flash their little lights at you even if
the printer isn't oriented to true north, It's odd that a short
circuit wouldn't create all sorts of blinking and carrying on.

Hmmm. Where might a pedestrian like me get one of these control
boards?

If you really want a service manual, i'll hunt up my copy of the
ip4000. I don't have the part number to ask for from canon. It would
give you some idea how to swap logic boards, but really... if it was
me i'd

1) Print text in "matte paper" mode, or any other mode than plain
paper. This will use the color to make black. You at least have a
text print for the time being, though slower than normal.
2) Hunt the 2nd stores for an adquate replacement, as well as e-bay/
craigslist. An i850 IIRC takes the same head and has similar
specs,though an ip3000/4000/5000 isn't out of the question.
3) Consider a replacement printer. The printhead is about 2/3ths the
value of your printer. A logic board would be likely another 2/3ths
the value of your printer.

August is usually a good time to consider the new models. It's when
they come out with something more spiffy than last year. For example
this year "now with camera printing". You have the ip3300 being
replaced by the ip3500, both basically your printer but with newer
ink, chipped tanks. You have the ip4300 which offers higher
resolution and an extra black, which is being replaced by the
ip4500.

Sorry I don't have better news, but if it's really the logic board
that failed, and really the printhead that killed the logic board,
these are the most viable solutions.

 

[Guy Macon]

I take my presumed "bad" printhead over to my daughter's house. I run
a test on her printer before I do anything and it works perfectly. I
then remove and replace her printhead with mine.

Now, as I expected, no black with her printer. This seems to confirm
my printhead needs to be replaced.

I then put her "good" printhead back in and just for grins, run a
printing test. NOW HER PRINTER WON'T PRINT BLACK. It's as if my
printhead "infected" her printer.

I then ordered a brand new printhead, and installed in her printer or
mine, black does not print no matter how many times I reseat stuff or
change cartridges.

Many years ago I had a dot matrix printer on my desk. A cow-orker
asked if he could borrow it. Later he brought it back and commented
that he tried four printers on his computer and that they were all
dead, so he figured he needed a new ISA parallel interface board.

Then someone else came in and said that his printer stopped
working after my cow-orker borrowed it. I tested mine, and
it was bad too.

So I gently suggested, "have you ever considered the possibility
that your PC is a printer killer?"

Every one had a bad octal buffer IC. I replaced the chips
(with sockets to make future repairs easy) and the printers
worked. So I took his prallel port board out and hit it with
a hammer seeral times, and told him to order a new one. I
think he just did without.