Canon Pixma Ip90 Printing Problem

[Veryodd]

I have had this printer for several years and it has had fairly limited use but has always been reliable. However, I need to use it more regularly now and when the black ink cartridge was reported as empty, I replaced it. Since then, black text will only print as a series of dotted lines. Colour printing is fine. I put another (brand new) black cartridge in, but got the same result. I have done nozzle checks, cleans, and deep cleans. Nothing has made a difference. Black Canon cartridges are not cheap and I have now wasted two.

I did some online research and I can buy a "manual cleaning kit" for about £16 which involves using a solvent to unblock the printer head.

I can see the logic, but has anyone ever used one of these?

My printer is tiny (it's portable), but it's also perfect for my home situation and I don't want to replace it if I don't have to. I also don't want to be ripped off by a "printer technician".

Is it worth trying the £16 cleaning kit or is that likely to destroy my printer completely?

[Buenchico]

I apologise that my post doesn't directly answer your question. I didn't even know about the 'manual cleaning kits' but you've now got me interested! That's because I've also got a Canon Pixma printer that, despite countless deep head cleans, refuses to print in black properly when printing text documents (other than as below).

However I've found a 'work around' that helps a bit (which is why I'm posting here). When printing a text document I go to Ctrl-P (or File > Print) and then click on 'Properties'. I then use Print Advisor to select 'Print a top quality photo', 'Other Media Type' and 'High resolution paper' (despite only having good quality standard paper in the printer). While the resultant printing is much slower than normal, it produces a crystal clear document. Perhaps that might help you in the short term?

Chris

[Veryodd]

Thank you Chris!

I will try this tomorrow (it's a tad late right now).

Katy

[rojash]

Unfortunately, unlike some printers, the Canon models don't include a new print head as part of the ink replacement cartridge. Canons are pretty well known for getting clogged print heads if they are not use frequently. It's possible to clean the print heads (even without the use of a special kit - you will need to make your own cleaning solution, and work out how to do it), so I would say, yes, go for it.

Once you've cleaned the head, make sure that you print at least a test page every few days, to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

[Veryodd]

Jojash - thank you! I actually ordered the kit, so I am going to test the "get round" option, and give the cleaning kit a go when it arrives. Either way, I will definitely be making more use of the printer.

Katy

[Buenchico]

Veryodd:
Please save me some googling and post a link to where the kit is advertised. I might be interested in one!

[Veryodd]

Rojash - apologies for the typo on your name.

Buenchico - no suing me if you order it and it destroys your printer? Look up Printhead Hospital. They seem very helpful (they give advice on things to do before ordering etc).

[Veryodd]

I had every intention of returning to report progress on the cleaning kit I ordered online, but totally forgot until now. Anyway, the kit arrived the day after I ordered it (so pretty swift service) and the good news is it worked! I can now print text properly again. And there is enough solution left to do another couple of cleans if I need to in the future.