Tech Resources
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No Print or Poor Print Quality
Canon Bubble Jet, Customer Care and Preventive Maintenance
By Todd Wilkerson, Canon Production Team Leader
Depot America Inc.
With most people "surfing the net" these days; just about every household has a personal computer. With the increased popularity of the PC and the Internet, it is only natural that the PCs' perfect companion, the Canon Bubble Jet printer, is in more households than ever. Canon Bubble Jet printers give the PC user the capability to print term papers, resumes, Internet articles, birthday cards, and photo quality pictures. These things you probably knew already, because we always read the features section of our users manual. Unfortunately most of us don't read or don't follow the instructions of the customer care and preventive maintenance sections of the user's manual. I can bet that some of you have finished typing that important term paper or company report in the wee hours of the morning, only to see a print out that is not acceptable. Hopefully the following paragraphs will help you to avoid this situation, or provide you with the know how to resolve the problem. We all expect good 'customer service'. Well here are a few tips on how the 'customer' can 'service' their own Canon Bubble Jet printer.
The most common reasons you might be getting blank pages or poor print quality when printing from your bubble jet are as follows. The first is the most obvious, but it is often the last thing considered. You could have an empty print head or ink cartridge. Secondly you might experience blank pages or partial print if the nozzles on your print head are clogged. Then you may also have blank pages, smeared print, or pages that start out printing fine then print poorly further down the page. All of those problems can occur if the purge unit is not working properly. The purge unit is the mechanism that cleans and refreshes your print cartridge.
When experiencing print quality problems you should first remove the print head or ink cartridge from the printer. Inspect the ink-tank(s) from the print head and observe if there is ink remaining in the tanks or the ink cartridges. Depending on the bubble jet model, you might have an ink cartridge, which is a combination of ink-tank and print head combined or a print head with removable individual ink tanks. Some ink tanks and ink cartridges are made so you can see the amount of ink in them. Next, observe the nozzles of the print head or ink cartridge; make sure there are no foreign objects or substances on the nozzles. Sometimes when installing new print head or ink cartridges, the user will forget to remove the protective nozzle tape. If there is a foreign substance on the nozzles remove it with a dry, lint free cloth. DO NOT USE any cleaning agents. After inspecting the print head or ink cartridge, reinstall it in the printer making sure it is properly seated. The carriage should move easily back and forth.
The nozzles of your print head or ink cartridge become clogged when the printer is turned off and the print cartridge is not seated in the home position. The home position is to the far right of the printer when it is facing you. When the printer is turned off with the print cartridge in the home position, the purge unit will cap (cover) the nozzles. To determine if the nozzles are clogged you must perform a nozzle test. The nozzle test is found in the maintenance section of your computer's printer driver menu. This test will help you to determine if the nozzles are clogged.
To unclog the nozzles you must execute a print head cleaning, which is also found in the maintenance section. Normally one or two cleaning cycles will unclog the nozzles. You should confirm that the nozzles have been cleaned. Do this by executing another nozzle test. If the lines from the nozzle test pattern are broken but the test pattern is improving, perform another two to three cleanings. Execute a nozzle test after each cleaning. By doing this you will avoid unnecessary cleanings, which will waste ink. If the cleanings are not working, replace your print head or ink cartridge. It's a good idea to perform a cleaning after installing a new print head or ink cartridge. If you continue to have poor print quality or blank pages, there is a good chance your purge unit is faulty. At this point you should have your printer serviced by a Canon certified technician.
It is extremely important that you only use genuine Canon products in your Canon printer. There are many imitation and generic products that claim that they are just as good as genuine Canon products. All inks have different weights and densities. Canon inks are specially made for specific printer models. Using products that are not Canon brand will certainly affect your printer's print quality. Other inks can produce irregular color patterns and unwanted shading. More importantly these generic products hurt the overall performance and lessen the life of your printer.
- to use genuine Canon products only.
- to make sure the print head or ink cartridge is in the home position before turning off your printer.
- to check ink levels when possible.
- to perform 3 to 5 cleanings before considering a print head or ink cartridge inoperable.
- to perform a print head cleaning on new print heads or ink cartridges.
- to have your printer serviced by Canon certified technicians only.
- to keep spare ink cartridge or printhead, and ink-tanks handy.