M
Mike S.
My sister has a 1.5 year old Canon MP530 all-in-one which had moderately
heavy use. She asked me to troubleshoot a problem that Canon tech support
could not figure out.
The printer is normally powered off. After being powered on, the first 2-3
printed sheets have a dark lengthwise black smear on the BACK (non-printed)
surface which bleeds through the paper, and slowly fades as more pages
are printed.
Looking at a page coming out of the printer, I noticed black ink on one of
the rubber exit rollers that corresponded to the smear. The only way that
ink could get there was from the printhead, so I removed the ink tanks and
examined the printhead.
There is black ink oozing from in between the layers of the print head
housing, which is dripping onto the feed roller. I surmise that this
only happens when the printer is powered up because of the higher pressure
used when the initialization sequence runs.
So it looks like the print head is the problem. The printer is out of
warranty. What's the cost of a new printhead these days - or is it more
economical to just replace? She has a large stock of PGI-5 and CLI-8 ink
cartridges that sh'd like not to throw away.
heavy use. She asked me to troubleshoot a problem that Canon tech support
could not figure out.
The printer is normally powered off. After being powered on, the first 2-3
printed sheets have a dark lengthwise black smear on the BACK (non-printed)
surface which bleeds through the paper, and slowly fades as more pages
are printed.
Looking at a page coming out of the printer, I noticed black ink on one of
the rubber exit rollers that corresponded to the smear. The only way that
ink could get there was from the printhead, so I removed the ink tanks and
examined the printhead.
There is black ink oozing from in between the layers of the print head
housing, which is dripping onto the feed roller. I surmise that this
only happens when the printer is powered up because of the higher pressure
used when the initialization sequence runs.
So it looks like the print head is the problem. The printer is out of
warranty. What's the cost of a new printhead these days - or is it more
economical to just replace? She has a large stock of PGI-5 and CLI-8 ink
cartridges that sh'd like not to throw away.