Canon IP4000 Disc Printing Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pendragon
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Pendragon

The quality of printing to discs used to be great, but it is now awful -
with blacks barely printing out. Printing to a different brand of printable
disc, did not make a different. However, printing the exact same image to
paper produces colourful, detailed results as I would expect. Even though
the problem is unlikely linked with the ink cartridges, I've replaced them
anyway, without success. I've also ran a basic clean, a deep clean and a
cleaning of the bottom plate, again without resolving the issue. Does anyone
have any ideas?
 
Pendragon said:
The quality of printing to discs used to be great, but it is now awful -
with blacks barely printing out. Printing to a different brand of printable
disc, did not make a different. However, printing the exact same image to
paper produces colourful, detailed results as I would expect. Even though
the problem is unlikely linked with the ink cartridges, I've replaced them
anyway, without success. I've also ran a basic clean, a deep clean and a
cleaning of the bottom plate, again without resolving the issue. Does anyone
have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Are you using Canon OEM ink. Do you have the driver set for the correct
media?
 
what about the CD disc itself are they the ' white writeable' types, a
stupid question I know?

If the blacks are awful then its either the disc or as measekite say's
to do with the media setting or an ink issue..

Are all the writeable disc OK or are the certain types not to use for
the pixmas?

davy
 
:
:
: Pendragon wrote:
:
: >The quality of printing to discs used to be great, but it is now awful -
: >with blacks barely printing out. Printing to a different brand of
printable
: >disc, did not make a different. However, printing the exact same image to
: >paper produces colourful, detailed results as I would expect. Even though
: >the problem is unlikely linked with the ink cartridges, I've replaced
them
: >anyway, without success. I've also ran a basic clean, a deep clean and a
: >cleaning of the bottom plate, again without resolving the issue. Does
anyone
: >have any ideas?
: >
: >
:
: Are you using Canon OEM ink. Do you have the driver set for the correct
: media?

I'm not using Canon OEM ink, but I haven't done for many many months and it
has been fine - as I said, printing out the exact same image to paper
produces colourful, detailed results. It's unlikely to be a driver issue -
the problem started occuring about a week ago and I've not made any changes
to it.
 
: what about the CD disc itself are they the ' white writeable' types, a
: stupid question I know?
:
: If the blacks are awful then its either the disc or as measekite say's
: to do with the media setting or an ink issue..
:
: Are all the writeable disc OK or are the certain types not to use for
: the pixmas?
:
: davy

Yes, the discs I'm using are the white printable discs. I've printed to
hundreds of white printables since I purchased this printer about 6 months
ago. The discs I'm printing to are Ritek printable discs, which I've used
before without any problems.
 
Ben said:
Yes, the discs I'm using are the white printable discs. I've printed
to hundreds of white printables since I purchased this printer about
6 months ago. The discs I'm printing to are Ritek printable discs,
which I've used before without any problems.
Click to expand...

Maybe a stupid question...but when refilling, did you exchange two blacks by
mistake? BCI6 and BCI3 are not the same ink...BCI3 is pigmented while BCI6
is dye.
 
How do you print a disk. There is no selection for it under media type. Am i
not understanding something.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==
 
Andy said:
How do you print a disk. There is no selection for it under media type. Am i
not understanding something.
Click to expand...

Quite so. By your email address you're in Canada. Our North American
Canon iP4000 or iP5000 cannot print on CDs/DVDs. This feature is only
available in more privileged parts of the globe. People elsewhere are
also paying considerably more than us, I believe, for that luxury. The
mechanism isn't installed on our units, although you can see where it
was supposed to be. I get by with my nice glossy labels from Meritline
that I slap on, but only on the CDs. I understand many recommend not
putting them on DVDs.

-Taliesyn
 
Taliesyn said:
Quite so. By your email address you're in Canada. Our North American
Canon iP4000 or iP5000 cannot print on CDs/DVDs. This feature is only
available in more privileged parts of the globe. People elsewhere are
also paying considerably more than us, I believe, for that luxury. The
mechanism isn't installed on our units, although you can see where it
was supposed to be. I get by with my nice glossy labels from Meritline
that I slap on, but only on the CDs. I understand many recommend not
putting them on DVDs.
Click to expand...

Just curious, why do they recommend not placing labels on DVD's?
 
Just curious, why do they recommend not placing labels on DVD's?
Click to expand...

I haven't done deep research, just a couple of recommendations I read a
while ago. I believe it's because DVD players generate a lot more heat
and the discs spin a lot faster. Some claim that if the label isn't
properly balanced (not centered) it can wobble and damage the unit or
simply play badly. I suppose if the label detaches, for one reason or
another, it will cause problems for the player spinning at such a high
rate. As such, for the time being I'm not attaching labels to DVDs. I'm
mostly burning data DVDs any way, so I don't need a "pretty label." A
nice DVD liner on the box will suffice for me. I save the pretty labels
for my music CDs :-).

-Taliesyn
 
: Ben wrote:
: > : >> what about the CD disc itself are they the ' white writeable' types,
: >> a stupid question I know?
: >>
: >> If the blacks are awful then its either the disc or as measekite
: >> say's to do with the media setting or an ink issue..
: >>
: >> Are all the writeable disc OK or are the certain types not to use for
: >> the pixmas?
: >>
: >> davy
: >
: > Yes, the discs I'm using are the white printable discs. I've printed
: > to hundreds of white printables since I purchased this printer about
: > 6 months ago. The discs I'm printing to are Ritek printable discs,
: > which I've used before without any problems.
:
: Maybe a stupid question...but when refilling, did you exchange two blacks
by
: mistake? BCI6 and BCI3 are not the same ink...BCI3 is pigmented while BCI6
: is dye.

You're right in saying that there are two different black cartridges -
they're of completely different size, with one being much fatter in width
than the other. As such, there is no way the fatter one could be fitted
accidentally.

Getting to a point where I'm grabbing a straws, I tried a basic Clean and a
Deep Clean, but this time with the CD tray down. Why this would have made
any difference, I don't know, but it appears to be printing almost perfectly
again.

Thanks for your assistance folks.
 
Ben said:
You're right in saying that there are two different black cartridges -
they're of completely different size, with one being much fatter in
width than the other. As such, there is no way the fatter one could
be fitted accidentally.

Getting to a point where I'm grabbing a straws, I tried a basic Clean
and a Deep Clean, but this time with the CD tray down. Why this would
have made any difference, I don't know, but it appears to be printing
almost perfectly again.

Thanks for your assistance folks.
Click to expand...

I thought you said you rerfilled your carts, that's why i asked about mixing
inks...sorry...

But, i just thought...i usually remove whole head and clean it every now and
then. I did same with my old i550, since i noticed that head gets dirty at
the bottom no matter if you run cleaning, so it can leave smudges.
 
Taliesyn said:
I haven't done deep research, just a couple of recommendations I read a
while ago. I believe it's because DVD players generate a lot more heat
and the discs spin a lot faster. Some claim that if the label isn't
properly balanced (not centered) it can wobble and damage the unit or
simply play badly. I suppose if the label detaches, for one reason or
another, it will cause problems for the player spinning at such a high
rate. As such, for the time being I'm not attaching labels to DVDs. I'm
mostly burning data DVDs any way, so I don't need a "pretty label." A
nice DVD liner on the box will suffice for me. I save the pretty labels
for my music CDs :-).
Click to expand...

I thought that maybe the adhesive would degrade the media coating on the
DVD. I just ordered some CD/DVD labels off ebay to try. The good thing
is that if I trash a DVD recorder from a flying label the cost of a
replacement drive won't break the bank. Also, it should help that DVD
players don't spin the disc as fast as an internal player/recorder drive
in a computer.
 
It describes how to modify North American models to print cd's. I haven't been
following it for some time, but it looks like some users have had success.
Click to expand...

That thread is most disorganized, but using it as a reference it took
me 4hours from getting my printer to printing on CDs. My bigest issue
is the .jpg diagram in that thread listing the reflector location was
dead wrong, that likely accounted for a couple of hours. I altered the
image based on where I think the reflectors should be.

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=36631&forum_id=40&page=21

Now my locations may not be 100% accurate, my end result is off center
by 1.7mm right and .4mm down. But given I cut my epson tray to fit
with a dremmel, and I used masking tape and spray paint. But unlike
origional diagram, mine is at least close, about as close as my epson
tray was in the epson it came with.

But expect people to start selling the offical trays on e-bay in the
future. From my understanding they only cost a few bucks, north
americans are willing to spend $20 to $30.
 
[..]
Just curious, why do they recommend not placing labels on DVD's?
Click to expand...

There's a number of reasons, the often quoted ones being off-centre labels
causing wobble, labels pealing off and sticking in the drive. Using decent
labels and either good eyesight or a label-applicator those problems can be
avoided.

What can't be avoided so easily is the adhesive damaging the surface of the
disc. On a CD the data surface is right on the rear side of the plastic
disc - cheap CD's don't have anything covering that surface, that silver
surface is actually the back of the reflective coating over the layer the
data is burnt to. The glue used in labels can either cause that layer to
oxidise or physically lift the layer away from the data layer (normally
taking about 6 months to a year), either of which make the CD unreadable.

Using CD's with an extra protective layer over the silver (like the white
'printabable' discs) avoids most of that problem.

DVD's are built differently - the data layer is sandwiched between two
thinner plastic disc, and as such label adhesive won't affect the data
surface, but there's still the problem of off-centre and pealing to contend
with...
 
Ivor said:
[..]
Just curious, why do they recommend not placing labels on DVD's?
Click to expand...


There's a number of reasons, the often quoted ones being off-centre labels
causing wobble, labels pealing off and sticking in the drive. Using decent
labels and either good eyesight or a label-applicator those problems can be
avoided.

What can't be avoided so easily is the adhesive damaging the surface of the
disc. On a CD the data surface is right on the rear side of the plastic
disc - cheap CD's don't have anything covering that surface, that silver
surface is actually the back of the reflective coating over the layer the
data is burnt to. The glue used in labels can either cause that layer to
oxidise or physically lift the layer away from the data layer (normally
taking about 6 months to a year), either of which make the CD unreadable.

Using CD's with an extra protective layer over the silver (like the white
'printabable' discs) avoids most of that problem.

DVD's are built differently - the data layer is sandwiched between two
thinner plastic disc, and as such label adhesive won't affect the data
surface, but there's still the problem of off-centre and pealing to contend
with...
Click to expand...

Sounds like if care is taken when applying the label to keep it centered
it should work fine on DVD's. Thanks for the info.
 
I have had no problems with www.surething.com

Ivor said:
[..]

Just curious, why do they recommend not placing labels on DVD's?
Click to expand...

There's a number of reasons, the often quoted ones being off-centre labels
causing wobble, labels pealing off and sticking in the drive. Using decent
labels and either good eyesight or a label-applicator those problems can be
avoided.

What can't be avoided so easily is the adhesive damaging the surface of the
disc. On a CD the data surface is right on the rear side of the plastic
disc - cheap CD's don't have anything covering that surface, that silver
surface is actually the back of the reflective coating over the layer the
data is burnt to. The glue used in labels can either cause that layer to
oxidise or physically lift the layer away from the data layer (normally
taking about 6 months to a year), either of which make the CD unreadable.

Using CD's with an extra protective layer over the silver (like the white
'printabable' discs) avoids most of that problem.

DVD's are built differently - the data layer is sandwiched between two
thinner plastic disc, and as such label adhesive won't affect the data
surface, but there's still the problem of off-centre and pealing to contend
with...
Click to expand...
 
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