Changed printer cartridge and....

I have a Canon printer that I've used regularly, and it does a nice job of printing. Tonight I changed one of its cartridges (black ink cartridge made by Canon and it's the correct cartridge like I always use) then printed out a photo. For the first time ever it left black marks along the bottom edge of the paper's border. Geeze, it was an 8.5x11 print, too! So I printed out a second one...same problem. Any ideas on how to clean the printer? Has this ever happened to anyone?

My old 9000 was leaving black streaks across my prints and ended up getting rid of it. Have you talked to Canon? I use a 9500 Pro Mark II now and so far have had no issues.

My Epson printer has a head cleaning program built into it (actually, in the software that came with it). I would imagine your Canon has something similar, yes?

Are you sure the cartridge is inserted correctly?
Did you hear the 'click'

I assume that this was not the case with your previous cartridge. Ink smears and blobs usually happen when excess ink is ejected. This can be either due to defective cartridge or due to the printer software.

Take the cartridge out and check for ink smears on the face. If it is there, then the cartridge is pushing out too much ink. Insert a new cartridge and print a page. If there is no smear now, the cartridge was defective. If feasible return it.

If the smearing continues with a new cartridge, then the printer needs to be repaired.

RON said:

My old 9000 was leaving black streaks across my prints and ended up getting rid of it. Have you talked to Canon? I use a 9500 Pro Mark II now and so far have had no issues.

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I printed out a few photos then the printer needed a new cartridge. It was fine prior to changing that one cartridge.

fotojack said:

My Epson printer has a head cleaning program built into it (actually, in the software that came with it). I would imagine your Canon has something similar, yes?

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Yes, but it runs automatically. Usually it will do the head cleaning right after a cartridge is replaced, but I left the room as I assumed it would run. Don't know if it did or not.

WhiteLight said:

Are you sure the cartridge is inserted correctly?
Did you hear the 'click'

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Yes, I took it out and reinserted it.

aroy said:

I assume that this was not the case with your previous cartridge. Ink smears and blobs usually happen when excess ink is ejected. This can be either due to defective cartridge or due to the printer software.

Take the cartridge out and check for ink smears on the face. If it is there, then the cartridge is pushing out too much ink. Insert a new cartridge and print a page. If there is no smear now, the cartridge was defective. If feasible return it.

If the smearing continues with a new cartridge, then the printer needs to be repaired.

Click to expand...

I did look at it when I took it out. Nothing showed up on the surface of the cartridge.


This happened last night so hopefully today the printer will run through another head cleaning. Then I can try out a 4x6 print to see if the problem has corrected itself. If not, I will replace the cartridge and see if that helps. Thanks for all the comments.

hark said:

I have a Canon printer...

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Aaaaaaaand I think I see the problem.

Okay for reals... The problem is, you has a bum cartridge, babe.

....

hark said:

I have a [bCanon]Canon[/b] printer…

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Given that this is a site for us Nikon fanboys, and that Canon seems, these days, to be the brand that most prominently rivals Nikon; this thread would not be complete without someone calling out the brand of your printer, and claiming that that's what is wrong with it. Perhaps even mocking you for admitting to owning a Canon product.

Bob Blaylock said:

Given that this is a site for us Nikon fanboys, and that Canon seems, these days, to be the brand that most prominently rivals Nikon; this thread would not be complete without someone calling out the brand of your printer, and claiming that that's what is wrong with it. Perhaps even mocking you for admitting to owning a Canon product.

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We're a collective of mature adults around here, Bob. That sort of thing simply doesn't happen.





Oh, wait...

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Bob Blaylock said:

Given that this is a site for us Nikon fanboys, and that Canon seems, these days, to be the brand that most prominently rivals Nikon; this thread would not be complete without someone calling out the brand of your printer, and claiming that that's what is wrong with it. Perhaps even mocking you for admitting to owning a Canon product.

Click to expand...

Horoscope Fish said:

We're a collective of mature adults around here, Bob. That sort of thing simply doesn't happen.





Oh, wait...

...

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Ha ha! Yes, it's a CANON printer, and a pretty decent one at that! I think Canon was rather smart to branch out into printers. If DSLR's wind up not being as popular down the road, at least Canon has their printer sales going for them.

So...whatever was going on last night has resolved itself. Last night I turned off the printer. This morning after turning it back on, it went through the head cleaning process even though it did it last night. Then I removed the cartridge and carefully looked around inside plus inspected the cartridge once more. Nothing unusual showed up so after reinserting the cartridge, the printer went through yet another head cleaning process.

I did a test photo using 4x6 paper. As a precaution, I left at least a 1" margin all the way around, and it came out without any splotches around the border area. So I tried out an 11x8.5 letter size photo (that's the size where the problem showed up last night), and it came out perfectly. Then I did a second letter size photo--same excellent print again!

Obviously the head cleaning must have cleared up whatever was wrong. Many thanks for the information! I will keep watch for this in the future, and at least now I have an idea what might be causing it should it occur again.