Seeking help identifying problem - ipf8300 with print smears

[cayugaman]

Hello everyone. This is my first post as a new member of the forum. My ipf8300 is having a problem with print smears that appear to be caused by ink in excess to that required for the printing task at hand. I have cleaned the nozzles, and a nozzle check seems to show acceptable results with regard to having no gaps in the grid in each ink color, but along with the desired printing there are large smears running diagonally over the print, mainly in colors associated with the left print head -- cyan, magenta, yellow. This happens consistently whether running a nozzle check or a stored print. I printed two 24"x36" posters with high coverage in a variety of colors just to see if moving more ink through would clear the problem, but so far, but additional printing seems to produced no real improvement. I am printing on Photo Satin 190, using settings that have previous produced great results in the past, so I don't think it's a paper profile issue.

Not sure how to troubleshoot this, but I suspect it is an issue that at least some users have seen before. Any thoughts on what might cause this, and what steps I can take to remedy/troubleshoot? Any help/adice appreciated! Thanks so much.
James

[Robcat]

sorry, had my 8300 for almost 6 yr and haven't seen. Appears mechanical/physical issue not profile or other software problem. The streaks arent even straight across. If other Canon users in the forum aren't enlightening, Canon help has handheld me through several quite vexing problems   

[enduser]

Had this once when a printhead reached end of life.  New head fixed it.

[deanwork]

I've never seen anything remotely like this on mine in 5 years, or any of my many other printers as far as that goes. When my print heads go out it is always the same situation, one ink drops out completely, never anything strange like that.

Try a matte media or any other media and see if this is still happening.

If it is not the coating of the media, it almost looks to me like some ink got contaminated or some kind of oil or fluid in the print path. Right, it doesn't look like any kind of electronic or  circuit board issue to me either.

john

Had this once when a printhead reached end of life.  New head fixed it.

[cayugaman]

Thanks for this useful advice and feedback. I guess it's not a commonly seen problem. It's interesting to consider the possibility of some kind of contamination. I'm thinking about creating a document made up of large bands of the colors that are smearing, which seem to be in the left cartridge, and printing them on matte media to see if the amount of smearing reduces or changes with more use. So far it seems fairly consistent, not like contamination that is slowly being dissipated with use. I tried reseating the left cartridge, but that had no effect. The possibility that the cartridge is bad seems like one of the more likely possibilities, but what seems strange to me is that the nozzle check printout looks good, excepting the smears. Has anyone seen failed/failing cartridges that do well on a nozzle check?

I called Canon and the person I spoke with didn't seem interested to get into the details. I offered to send in a photo as I figured they would be familiar with this pattern even if it is fairly rare, but he wasn't interested. His advice was to clean the nozzles, and if it didn't clear up, replace the cartridge. I may try again with them after I learn more. As Robcat mentioned, it seems odd that the smears are not straight across the page. I'll report back after more testing. Really appreciate help!

[deanwork]

You know I take back what I said. I actually do remember now a similar situation many years ago with an Epson 9600. I had cleaned the feed area of the printer with windex or distilled water because there was some dried ink back there. What I did was to get some of the fluid on the head carriage ribbon that runs the length of the printer and carries the print info to the head as it runs across the print. This is a thin plastic ribbon that is attached to both ends of the printer and runs through the head assembly.

It drove me crazy and I finally called Epson who told me to clean that with a lint free cloth ( VERY CAREFULLY ). That fixed it instantly. You have to be very careful though because if you bend the ribbon or knock it out of alignment you could be in trouble.

I don't recall seeing this ribbon on the Canon but if you open it up and look back there with a strong light you'll probably find something to clean.

John

[cayugaman]

On John's advice I looked more carefully at where ink is accumulating within the mechanism, and ended up removing the cover over the carriage "home" area, where head cleaning and other maintenance activities take place. I've attached two photos that show where the excess ink is accumulating that then appears to be picked up by the bottom of the printheads/carriage and smear on the print. I have been able to confirm that the unwanted ink is coming from the left cartridge, and is made up mostly of magenta, with a bit of cyan and yellow thrown to keep things interesting. As you can see from the photos, the amount of excess ink is impressive. I removed, cleaned and put back the six porous pads from nozzle cleaning mechanism. The pads all seemed consistently good, in that most of the ink in them immediately rinsed out when placed in distilled water. So the condition of those for the left cartridge seemed similar to those for the right.

While I can't say for sure, it seems like the excess ink is appearing as a result of operations involving nozzle cleaning. The reason I say this is that when printing for the the head alignment procedure, the test patterns and color swatches all look quite good, aside from the smears. So the excess ink seems to be produced in the "home" area of the carriage, not during printing itself. If it's a cartridge failure, it would seem like the test patterns would not look so good, but maybe I am mistaken in thinking that. But if not the cartridge itself, could it be some sort of malfunction in the carriage or ink feeding system, or the nozzle cleaning mechanism? In doing a 24x36 test print, the quality is pretty good, with some minor banding that I still chasing down, but much better than one would expect give the scope of the problem. So actual printing does not seem to cause the huge gobs of excess ink to accumulate, whereas the nozzle cleaning procedures or the head alignment procedure brings it forth in spades. Any suggestions/speculations welcome!

James

[Richard.Wills]

I'd say that you have some material (paper fibres, lint, cat fur) stuck to the underside of your print head. When the head clean happens, this is sticking to the gunk, and acting like a wick / paint brush.
Given that the alternative is replacing the print head, I'd be tempted to go through the head change procedure, and have a close look at the LH print head. If you see deposits of gunk there, try cleaning very gently with a foam swab. I'd try a 50:50 mix of distilled water with IPA.

I'd also give the capping station a good clean, to get rid of all that lovely congealed ink.

Then reseat print head, and see what happens... Others may have a better choice of cleaning solvent.

[deanwork]

Can you do that, reseat the printhead and have it recognized upon reinsertion?

I know you'll waste a lot of ink in the process and might even need a new waste tank, just saying... But if you can do it and everything else fails why not.

Sounds like something is dirty back there.  With these printers, all of them, sometimes when there is a paper jam the ink will still be shooting out and can build up back there. First thing I would do is get some canned air and spray the area then use a lint free cloth to clean everything around the heads, feed area, ROLLERS, and the bottom of the heads with a damp cloth. Don't go spraying a bunch of water back there or you can short out the electronics. Then do the canned air again. You could the print out an alignment pattern to get the ink flowing cleanly.