Replacing a Canon printhead

I an not familiar with your printer but I do have a Canon inkjet printer. Replacing a print head is quite straight forward if you check your manual. Normally an ink tank, which sits in the print head cartridge, is the first to run out. Eventually, however, the print head wears out and you have to replace this unit which usually comes with ink tanks in it - coloured or black.
As print heads get clogged if printing is infrequent have you tried print head cleaning which involves a cleaning process first, and then possibly flushing which corrects severe nozzle clogging. Check your manual for methodology or the operation panel when you select properties for your printer.
As I live in Australia and am not familiar with prices where you live (US??), it may very well be cheaper to buy a new printer rather than replace the print head cartridge.

Just my 2-cents...

Canon printers tend to fry the prthd. if they get no ink, clogged, dry out or anything that keeps ink from flowing to the prthd. as that "cools" the prthd. during printing. During long printing periods, it may actually *pause* to cool abit and then continue printing. However, once the prthd. gets fried, the only solution is to replace as a 100% cleaning won't fix a fried jet(s). The replacement prthd. isn't that hard to do and straight-foward a drop and go sorta thing. The only cavet is to do the alignment, etc. before returning to use. Also, over time from wear&tear the prthd. will fail if cleaning is done on a regular basis even though the printer self-clean for short periods, but a good on demand cleaning is best after 400-500 pages have been printed. Of course it maybe cost effective to just replace the ptr. as newer models come with new ink and are new to begin with.

good luck -----Willy

Can the printhead be "fried" for black ink even though, when I clean it, black ink comes through as well as the colored ink does? That makes me wonder if the problem is something other than the printhead, though I don't know enough about the prining process to know if that is a possibility. I'm reluctant to buy a new printhed (which I haven't priced yet) because I feel unsure about whether the problem is in the printhead or in some part of the process after the printhead. Thanks for any further input. Jerry

Hi grandpaw7 or anyone else that can help,

I seem to have a similar problem with my Canon S600 printer. I have Window ME updated from Windows 98. I recently installed a Canon A75 camera & thought maybe that was causing the problem but I have uninstalled all the software & my printer is still not working properly.

All of a sudden my printer is only printing pictures & a bit of text. For instance when printing a page from a web site for Radio Shack - only prints the picture, price & the Radio Shack logo etc. None of the text of the description prints. Also tried printing from Wordpad & nothing prints. The self test only prints the Window ME Logo. The Print Head alignment prints only 2 columns instead of 3. Is this similar to your problem? I tried everything - even cleaned the print head. It does make sense that the print head could be gone as I use it quite a bit. I do not seem to have a problem printing photos. Oops! let me rephrase that - I just printed a picture & my sons hair is white!!! It seems there is no black & my cartridge is full. I do not really want to buy a new printer because I have a huge stock of ink that I got on sale.

Please let me know if this sounds familiar. Or anyone out there that can shed some light on this problem.

Thanks in advance,
scaron

Sad but true when things break, they don't account the plans of the user.

As mentioned in the ealier post, the printhead can be replaced but at what cost, is it practical. You should check to see if your now surplus ink stock can be used by another(if brought) Canon printer not an complete loss. In theese last few years, inkjet prtrs. are sold pretty darn cheap and the cost of ink is what drives this process. Get, your hands on(catalog) or surf several ink suppliers to see what Canon printers may use your ink in reserve thus cross-refernce what models use your type ink carts should you purchase a new printer of Canon or any manufacturer besides Canon to get away from them.

good luck -----Willy

Sorry for the late reply...

Yes, the printhead can fry, understand there are a number of jets located on the prthd. and 1 or more will not work, causing an error or lousy print. But, if you use high quality ouput it may not be noticed at early stages. Further, Canon prthd. are prone to leak as another failure. The replacement process is pretty staraight-foward, swap it out using the kit and start the alignment process, you will be prompted. Then again for the cost of a ptrhd. etc. just get another printer, it just one of those things to decide.

good luck -----Willy

Did you test the printer with a brand NEW black ink cartridge? If yes, could be the cartridge and not the printhead. Just a thought.

I meant to say if you used an OLD ink cartridge, that may be your problem after you did all the cleaning, etc.