Canon i560 printer playing up

[QueenOfSheba]

My excellent photo printing CAnon had recently started printing out photos all faded and kind of colours all mixed up looking - Kind of like an Any Warhol but not quite as dramatic!

Its served me well for nearly 2 years but began doing this a week ago after I put in a Tesco own Cyan cartridge to accompany the Tesco own Black, Magenta & Yellow cartridges in there since a few weeks previous - I have done nothing different, not changed any settings etc.

Reading through some threads on Canon printers, I was disheartened to find similar problems and the culprit being the printer head being defective and the cure being new printer head or a new printer for similar price!

Please please no-one tell me my printer is jiggered,

I need it too much and haven't budgeted for a new printer in the near future!

Cheers to any printer boffin who can solve my problem!

PS: Do they make these things to have a certain life so that you have to buy a new one in a few years, like our washing machine, or is that just paranoia on my part?!

[perose]

I suggest you run the cleaning process, if this does not work change the cartridges back to Canon's own and start again. We have found it just is not worth buying cheaper ones, it messes up all the colour settings.

[QueenOfSheba]

Forgot to say that I've tried a few cleans and deep cleans to no avail - Will get Canon cartridges and stuff Tesco and their pony ones!

Cheers Perose, won't try to skimp again in the future, ha ha!

[QueenOfSheba]

Have put a Canon cyan cartridge in and oh the difference! Just waiting for the other colours now then will bring cartridges back to Tesco for a refund! Will never never buy Tesco's cr*ppy ones again!

[cgrower]

I had a similar experience with my Canon printer and sent it to Canons repair centre Electroversal http://www.electroversal.com. It turns out that I'd actually damaged the print head by using remanufactured cartridges. Apparently some inks have a tendency to clog the print head making for an expensive repair.