Well, printer help needed, this time.

[Bee]

I've got a printer which is printing oddly. It looks as if maybe one of the nozzles is blocked - it's printing only yellow blue and black when I do a maintainance runthrough, following the options on the screen menu.

It's a Canon Pixma MP750, and hs been very good, but now it won't even print legibly in greyscale!

Help. Anyone?

Bee.

[Guy]

Is the magenta cartridge empty?
Not sure about the 750 but some Canon Pixma printers also have two black cartridges.
Cheers
Guy

[Hugo]

Check that the magenta cartridge is actually magenta! This is the voice of experience!

Hugo

[Bee]

Ah yes, right guys! I was relying on the printer to tell me when ink was running low - it always has in the past.

But there was no message either on the monitor screen, or on the menu screen of the actual printer!

I've checked them all manually - and I had empty blue, magenta and small black cartridges!

Hope that's fixed it. But why would the printer stop talking to the computer and to it's own menu panel??

Bee.

[Bee]

Darn! It hasn't fixed it!

Still printing out alternate lines of text, and very faintly, at that. The first page printed ok down to the last 6 lines, then the second page was terrible. :(

Any more ideas?

Any links to helpful websites? (I did try googling, but I haven't got the hang of it - never comes up with what I'm looking for.)

Bee.

[MarionH]

I ran the printer out of ink once and it did the same sort of thing - OH said that I had managed to stuff the print head up because I kept using it without the ink!!
The other possibility is - are you using the genuine inks or refills. Some of the Canon printers seem to have a little inbuilt genie that tells them when you are not using the genuine inks and try to stop working!
Marion

[Bee]

Hi Marion. I've been using non-Canon cartridges since I got the printer - about 3-4 years ago - and it's been fine till now.

But your OH's observation on your problem could well be right. What was his solution? (I presume he had one??)

Bee.

[Grimsqueaker]

Certainly sounds like the printhead is in need of replacement.. Canon do consider these to be a consumable item on the majority of their inkjet printers

this link should help

QY6-0049-000 - Google Product Search

[MarionH]

Hi Bee,
3 - 4 years - that's good going nowadays!!!!! They seem to fall off the tree after 2 years nowadays.
If you have tried cleaning the print head (several times) and it is still doing the same then yes it is probably a new print head. From memory I don't think they were too expensive at the time (OH says he can't remember the price now) but with the way the price of printers are it may be an idea to check out the price of a new printer.
Marion

[Bee]

Oh 'eck! That sounds a bit 'techie' for me to fix!

Where is the printhead situated? Is it easy to get to, and to change? Isn't there a way of cleaning it manually?

Bee.

[MarionH]

Hi Bee,
I'm sure it will tell you in your manual where it is - I don't think it's any worse than the inks. I had a google and found - Canon Printheads MP750 - QY6-0049-000 - if that doesn't help there will probably be a section under Canon itself - they are usually pretty good,
Marion

[Bee]

Well, thanks to all the helpful advice and web-links you kind people posted, I ordered a new printer head, and have fitted it myself ..... with NO instructions!! WOW, this has got to be a first, me doing something so technical!

And it works, after some wiggling of one of the ink cartridges.

Thanks for the help.

Bee.

[Grimsqueaker]

Thats excellent news Bee...