Printer help

[LIZS]

Why is our Canon i560 suddenly printing patchily in black. Tried a new ink cartridge , made no difference .

Should I clean the nozzles ?

Is there a way of doing a test page thingy - this sometimes diagnoses problems...

I did one , cleaned nozzles , then another and it has started to go patchy again.

ok cleaned nozzles and it is still patchy. May print less than half a page but not properly and then fades. Ink full, checked alignment, nozzle clean/deep clean etc what next ?

have admitted defeat and emailed Canon . Even tried removing and reinserting the printer head where the cartridges sit and reset the alignment.

bugger, if so that is £55 - not sure it would be worth it tbh.

For some printers you can buy cleaner cartridges. They are full of ink mixed with a solvent that cleans out the nozzles. I gave a printer of mine a new lease of life with those and they were cheaper than a new print head. I don't know if they make them for yours but worth considering.

their suggestion is a new print head , which may still not solve the problem in which case they'd recommend a service

Most inkjet printers are not designed to last long anyway. When it cleans the heads (and possibly after each print) it will move to one side and scrape off any drips into a reservoir. Sometimes this will use a rubber scraper and sometimes a sponge. Either way it gets overfull and/or messy and instead of cleaning the nozzles it covers them with gunk.

It's sometimes possible to reach in and clean the scraper/sponge thing yourself which can help.

If they replace the print head and clean/empty the reservoir that will probably do it, but will cost too much I expect to be worth it.

oh b*gger. Got an error message and had run out of yellow and blue. In the time it took to go and buy them printer has lost power. Tried different lead to no avail . Help !!!!

should have said we had got a man to clean out the printer head and it worked ...until today