Just sharing some experience that I have been having over the past months dealing with Canon latest iPFX4XX printers. Some of you may already be aware of some of the issues I have been facing from my recent posts on the forum. I sincerely hope that those of you with the lastest model of this printer can confirm:
1. If your printers are made in China or Japan and what is the model number? (Models in Asia have an extra 10 added to the numeric digits, e.g. iPF8410 vs iPF8400)
2. What your nozzle print out looks like in service mode.
Here is what I have been observing: Canon iPF printers of the X4XX range have critical ink delivery issues. I have tried 2 totally brand new iPF8410 printers, both defective right out of the box, and also one demo very new iPF6460 printer, hardly used, about 1 year old now. I first tried this printer right after it was set up by my dealer one year ago and already it was showing ink delivery problems. I see nozzle misbehavior of all sorts. In its mildest form, my first iPF8410 started to show very subtle microbanding and a very slight loss of color gamut. When the service tech came and did the service model nozzle check, there was irregular non-ejection of nozzles in the pattern. All the iPF printers I have tried show this irregular non-ejection. My replacement brand new iPF8410 shows this problem to a much more severe degree and now the Left Print Head is not firing any color at all, although nozzle checks still show that nozzles are firing, just irregular. No error warning messages, nothing. A brand new head replacement did not solve the problem. The iPF6460 has misfiring, causing random dropouts to occur in the print.
If the probability of these printers being defective when shipped from the factory is 1 in 1000, then its a 1 in 1 billion chance that all three I encountered have gone wrong. Or maybe there is something problematic about the manufacturing of these new printers.
I advise all who own these printers to perform a service model nozzle check as well as to study closely your prints for micro banding, which does not go away with any printhead alignment, auto or manual, or even the initial installation print alignment, which is the most precise alignment available. Because something is not perfect in the ink delivery system, print output is highly variable and the dot pattern is irregular. Cleanings do not solve the problems. Head replacements may not totally solve it either.
To perform the service mode nozzle check, start your printer in service mode by holding the LOAD and NAVIGATE buttons on the printer while pressing the ON button. You should see an "S" on the top right of the LCD after it has started to show it is in service mode. Navigate to the fourth manu panel on the right (the last one), press OK, see that SERVICE menu item is selected, press OK, then press the right arrow button until you see ADJUST, then press the down arrow button. You will see NOZZLE 1. Press ok and a Service Mode nozzle check pattern will be printed.
Here is an example of regular and irregular non-ejection of nozzles in a service mode nozzle check:
Here is a list of possible bad patterns:
I really appreciate everyone's contribution if you can spare the time to check your own printers if they are in good working condition. If your nozzles are not firing perfectly and your printhead is still under warranty, now is a good time to quickly call Canon for a free replacement. If the problem is severe like in all three of my encounters with these new printers, the mainboard or carriage assembly may need to be replaced.