Having big problem with S820

[GRBiker]

It's printing green! When magenta is called up by a photo, document or text. It acts like it is sending a signal to both the yellow and magenta tanks at the same time producing green. Cleaning and deep cleaning was tried and it's interesting: if I do an immediate nozzle check after cleaning, the magenta color is there just fine. But if I then print a small 4x6 picture of say pink blossoms, it will print green with ocasional pink streaks in it. and then with a subsequent nozzle check the magenta is missing. Cleaning again resolves nothing. Also the status monitor is showing the ink tanks for magenta and cyan 1/3 less than what they actually are. Now the only thing I did was replace the black cartridge (canon). The printhead has been carefully inspected and cleaned as per Canon's instructions. Still have the same problem. hmmm . could the laser or whatever is used to read ink tank levels be dirty? And if so sending a screwy signal about magenta? Printer is only two weeks old. Can't believe the print head would be starting to go. ideas? Help please!

 

[Ranjan]

This is one of the strangest (I know its not english) problems I have ever heard on this forum, my guess is some kind of magenta virus is effecting your printer.
The answer to this problem will be intresting, I would be following this.
--
Ranjan
Professional photographer.
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=11993

It's printing green! When magenta is called up by a photo, document
or text. It acts like it is sending a signal to both the yellow and
magenta tanks at the same time producing green. Cleaning and deep
cleaning was tried and it's interesting: if I do an immediate
nozzle check after cleaning, the magenta color is there just fine.
But if I then print a small 4x6 picture of say pink blossoms, it
will print green with ocasional pink streaks in it. and then with a
subsequent nozzle check the magenta is missing. Cleaning again
resolves nothing. Also the status monitor is showing the ink tanks
for magenta and cyan 1/3 less than what they actually are. Now the
only thing I did was replace the black cartridge (canon). The
printhead has been carefully inspected and cleaned as per Canon's
instructions. Still have the same problem. hmmm . could the laser
or whatever is used to read ink tank levels be dirty? And if so
sending a screwy signal about magenta? Printer is only two weeks
old. Can't believe the print head would be starting to go. ideas?
Help please!

 

[Joe Barnhart]

Yellow and magenta do not make green. They make red. I am confused as to why you think magenta is involved in your problem if you're getting green where you shouldn't. The ink monitors are only an approximation, they do not read the levels of the ink tanks until the tank is OUT of ink. Until that time, the levels are approximated by counting the number of dots fired from each printhead.

If you're getting weird colors, double check your print head and make sure that (a) all the color tanks are in their correct slots, (b) they are all FIRMLY clicked into place, and (c) there is no cross contamination (i.e. cyan ink in the magenta tank).

 

[Gerard Chee]

I've been having the same problem with my Canon S800. I posted this question on this forum (see Color Print Mismatch, under my name). The feedback essentially informed my that what you see on your computer screen may not be what the printer is instructed to print. This is the new world of Color management which can be tricky and painful. You will need software to help your printer and computer to recognize the same color so that what you see on your screen is what you will print. I have been advised on Qimage Pro but have yet to get it. Also, Photoshop has a program to help match the colors of your photograph to your print. Another suggestion I got, was to use a Spyder.

I will be following this forum closely too.

Gerard Chee

Yellow and magenta do not make green. They make red. I am
confused as to why you think magenta is involved in your problem if
you're getting green where you shouldn't. The ink monitors are
only an approximation, they do not read the levels of the ink tanks
until the tank is OUT of ink. Until that time, the levels are
approximated by counting the number of dots fired from each
printhead.

If you're getting weird colors, double check your print head and
make sure that (a) all the color tanks are in their correct slots,
(b) they are all FIRMLY clicked into place, and (c) there is no
cross contamination (i.e. cyan ink in the magenta tank).

 

[Ranjan]

I've been having the same problem with my Canon S800. I posted this
question on this forum (see Color Print Mismatch, under my name).
The feedback essentially informed my that what you see on your
computer screen may not be what the printer is instructed to print.
This is the new world of Color management which can be tricky and
painful. You will need software to help your printer and computer
to recognize the same color so that what you see on your screen is
what you will print. I have been advised on Qimage Pro but have yet
to get it. Also, Photoshop has a program to help match the colors
of your photograph to your print. Another suggestion I got, was to
use a Spyder.

I will be following this forum closely too.

Gerard Chee

To me this does not sound as Color management issue, its more of "Color mismanagement issue". If your profiles are not assigned to the image colors will we quite off then the original but you wont get magenta instead of green, thats quite impossible as they are opposite colors. green is made up by adding yellow & cyan.

Seems some other issue is creating this problem. What software are you printing with, try different like origial which came with printer , Photoshop, etc.
--
Ranjan
Professional photographer.
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=11993

 

[acmeron]

Run a nozzle test and see if any horizontal lines are missing. If they are, you need a new printhead. Printing different colors, banding, a blue color at the top of the page all point to nozzles clogging. after deep cleaning many times, and after using up about $20 worth of ink, slome nozzles open up and others clog up again. I'm not going to bash Canon because there are many defenders of the printer out there.

 

[GRBiker]

Perhaps I should re-word myself. Please note: Colors were just fine until I replaced black cartridge. All have been verified to be seated in proper place. Half way through print initally after changing black all shadows started to turn a bright green. Subsequent nozzle check showed magenta to be missing. Cleaning and then another nozzle check showed magenta to be present. However nasty problem showed up once again when trying to print same photo, And then nozzle check showed magenta to be once again missing, Did deep cleaning, nozzle check OK, increased magenta to max, black to min, cyan to min, yellow to min, intensity to max. Tried to print once again but again magenta was missing and print was very faded due to position of color sliders. But no damn magenta. This has gotten to be an end less cycle. Now granted I have already gone through a 100 pak of OD glossy and nearly as much plain with no problems. So now I guess I am going to repalce all carts with a fresh set of Canon's and then let Canon deal with it. Also as it's only two weeks old I could simply take the damn thing back to the store. comments?

Run a nozzle test and see if any horizontal lines are missing. If
they are, you need a new printhead. Printing different colors,
banding, a blue color at the top of the page all point to nozzles
clogging. after deep cleaning many times, and after using up about
$20 worth of ink, slome nozzles open up and others clog up again.
I'm not going to bash Canon because there are many defenders of the
printer out there.

 

[WP]

What program are you printing from? Are you using the latest drivers? Does the problem only happen with a certain picture or all the time? Do you have the printer protected with a surge protector? There are numerous things that could be the issue here.

You must have been doing a heck of a lot of printing if you replaced the Black cartridge after only a week or two. Holy Cow!

If all else fails and if its only two weeks old almost any store would give you a new one for replacement. Put the empty ones back in and save your ink cartridges for the new one one you get.

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

Run a nozzle test and see if any horizontal lines are missing. If
they are, you need a new printhead. Printing different colors,
banding, a blue color at the top of the page all point to nozzles
clogging. after deep cleaning many times, and after using up about
$20 worth of ink, slome nozzles open up and others clog up again.
I'm not going to bash Canon because there are many defenders of the
printer out there.

 

[acmeron]

What program are you printing from? Are you using the latest
drivers? Does the problem only happen with a certain picture or
all the time? Do you have the printer protected with a surge
protector? There are numerous things that could be the issue here.

You must have been doing a heck of a lot of printing if you
replaced the Black cartridge after only a week or two. Holy Cow!

If all else fails and if its only two weeks old almost any store
would give you a new one for replacement. Put the empty ones back
in and save your ink cartridges for the new one one you get.

I was replacing one cartridge every other day for two weeks. It really sucks up the ink. My printhead lasted a bit over two weeks. I have some $300 just in cartridges and photo paper while conducting experiments with settings and various papers, all for nought since the printhead was going out all the time.

 

[GRBiker]

You too huh? How much is a new printhead? I'm now wonderig just how economical in the long haul these Canons really are when compared to the new HP's. Don't you get virtually a new print head with every HP cartridge? And how come Canon still uses a manual print head alignment proceedure while HP's is automatic? (using that blue light) Also Hp has automatic paper detection. So which one is really more technologically advanced? Because I guess if I take it back to the store I could then just as easily pick up a 7150. Wonder if the new S830 would still have printhead problems? Probably. Well if Canon isn't making money off of ink carts like HP does it sure is recovering nicely from repalcement print heads. Kinda balances out. And oh, by the way, that was the 2nd time I had to replace the black cart in 2 weeks. And yes I have been doing a lot of photo work.

printing is from Canon's easy photo print and photo record. yes I have latest driver verified installed from Canon's web site for S820.
acmeron wrote:

Considering also removing all carts from print head, flipping upside down and removing two screws and carefully cleaning area under nozzle plate. Don't really want to return to store unless I have no alternative.

What program are you printing from? Are you using the latest
drivers? Does the problem only happen with a certain picture or
all the time? Do you have the printer protected with a surge
protector? There are numerous things that could be the issue here.

You must have been doing a heck of a lot of printing if you
replaced the Black cartridge after only a week or two. Holy Cow!

If all else fails and if its only two weeks old almost any store
would give you a new one for replacement. Put the empty ones back
in and save your ink cartridges for the new one one you get.

I was replacing one cartridge every other day for two weeks. It
really sucks up the ink. My printhead lasted a bit over two weeks.
I have some $300 just in cartridges and photo paper while
conducting experiments with settings and various papers, all for
nought since the printhead was going out all the time.

 

[fotografer]

GRBiker,

First of all, I must apologise for asking you to give your particular 820 a second chance. Though I don't think I influence your decision much in the end, I think it's just sad things turn out this way...

s800 which I saw was fantastic. But I forget to mention that we have in our team a color management expert that got all printers to print alright with spot-on color, much like Andrew Rodney is doing for a fee...

We printed cupious amounts of photos from s800 and we liked it for its speed (already then 800 was 'fast' by HP standard). Epson 2000P was a nightmare, for the color management guy practically had to tweak quite a lot for every different print files and again with different paper types. Imagine we test printed so much then, I think he lost some white blood cells (not from the inks, but from frustrations spending time alone in the lab tweaking the outputs while we were out for lunch...).

Sorry I digressed. What I was saying was that Canon s800 worked like a charm. And I have to qualify: it worked (past tense) like a charm. I would have thought s820 is an improvement from s800...

You too huh? How much is a new printhead? I'm now wonderig just how
economical in the long haul these Canons really are when compared
to the new HP's. Don't you get virtually a new print head with
every HP cartridge? And how come Canon still uses a manual print
head alignment proceedure while HP's is automatic? (using that blue
light) Also Hp has automatic paper detection. So which one is
really more technologically advanced? Because I guess if I take it
back to the store I could then just as easily pick up a 7150.
Wonder if the new S830 would still have printhead problems?
Probably. Well if Canon isn't making money off of ink carts like HP
does it sure is recovering nicely from repalcement print heads.
Kinda balances out. And oh, by the way, that was the 2nd time I had
to replace the black cart in 2 weeks. And yes I have been doing a
lot of photo work.

Yes, in this respect, I think the cheap 7150 would probably be a good replacement. Bear in mind that while I tested with the draft driver last year, 7150 has slightly poorer shadow details compared with the s800. That said, it seemed to one poster (chingon, I think) that the shadow details of the production model 7350 is still not as good as the s9000. Maybe Canon improved print wuality still further between s800 and s9000 or HP did not nail the shadow detail business (not a huge problem, so I don't think it's in their priority) on time as they introduced the 7000 series to the market.

How much was your s820? HP 7150 sells at $189 street, I guess.

--
Fotografer

 

[GRBiker]

$269 local retail.

First of all, I must apologise for asking you to give your
particular 820 a second chance. Though I don't think I influence
your decision much in the end, I think it's just sad things turn
out this way...

s800 which I saw was fantastic. But I forget to mention that we
have in our team a color management expert that got all printers to
print alright with spot-on color, much like Andrew Rodney is doing
for a fee...

We printed cupious amounts of photos from s800 and we liked it for
its speed (already then 800 was 'fast' by HP standard). Epson 2000P
was a nightmare, for the color management guy practically had to
tweak quite a lot for every different print files and again with
different paper types. Imagine we test printed so much then, I
think he lost some white blood cells (not from the inks, but from
frustrations spending time alone in the lab tweaking the outputs
while we were out for lunch...).

Sorry I digressed. What I was saying was that Canon s800 worked
like a charm. And I have to qualify: it worked (past tense) like a
charm. I would have thought s820 is an improvement from s800...

You too huh? How much is a new printhead? I'm now wonderig just how
economical in the long haul these Canons really are when compared
to the new HP's. Don't you get virtually a new print head with
every HP cartridge? And how come Canon still uses a manual print
head alignment proceedure while HP's is automatic? (using that blue
light) Also Hp has automatic paper detection. So which one is
really more technologically advanced? Because I guess if I take it
back to the store I could then just as easily pick up a 7150.
Wonder if the new S830 would still have printhead problems?
Probably. Well if Canon isn't making money off of ink carts like HP
does it sure is recovering nicely from repalcement print heads.
Kinda balances out. And oh, by the way, that was the 2nd time I had
to replace the black cart in 2 weeks. And yes I have been doing a
lot of photo work.

Yes, in this respect, I think the cheap 7150 would probably be a
good replacement. Bear in mind that while I tested with the draft
driver last year, 7150 has slightly poorer shadow details compared
with the s800. That said, it seemed to one poster (chingon, I
think) that the shadow details of the production model 7350 is
still not as good as the s9000. Maybe Canon improved print wuality
still further between s800 and s9000 or HP did not nail the shadow
detail business (not a huge problem, so I don't think it's in their
priority) on time as they introduced the 7000 series to the market.

How much was your s820? HP 7150 sells at $189 street, I guess.

--
Fotografer

 

[GRBiker]

I see a replacement print head is available from Canon for $$bucks$$ $80. I did nor buy the 3 year warranty. just basic that comes with unit.

First of all, I must apologise for asking you to give your
particular 820 a second chance. Though I don't think I influence
your decision much in the end, I think it's just sad things turn
out this way...

s800 which I saw was fantastic. But I forget to mention that we
have in our team a color management expert that got all printers to
print alright with spot-on color, much like Andrew Rodney is doing
for a fee...

We printed cupious amounts of photos from s800 and we liked it for
its speed (already then 800 was 'fast' by HP standard). Epson 2000P
was a nightmare, for the color management guy practically had to
tweak quite a lot for every different print files and again with
different paper types. Imagine we test printed so much then, I
think he lost some white blood cells (not from the inks, but from
frustrations spending time alone in the lab tweaking the outputs
while we were out for lunch...).

Sorry I digressed. What I was saying was that Canon s800 worked
like a charm. And I have to qualify: it worked (past tense) like a
charm. I would have thought s820 is an improvement from s800...

You too huh? How much is a new printhead? I'm now wonderig just how
economical in the long haul these Canons really are when compared
to the new HP's. Don't you get virtually a new print head with
every HP cartridge? And how come Canon still uses a manual print
head alignment proceedure while HP's is automatic? (using that blue
light) Also Hp has automatic paper detection. So which one is
really more technologically advanced? Because I guess if I take it
back to the store I could then just as easily pick up a 7150.
Wonder if the new S830 would still have printhead problems?
Probably. Well if Canon isn't making money off of ink carts like HP
does it sure is recovering nicely from repalcement print heads.
Kinda balances out. And oh, by the way, that was the 2nd time I had
to replace the black cart in 2 weeks. And yes I have been doing a
lot of photo work.

Yes, in this respect, I think the cheap 7150 would probably be a
good replacement. Bear in mind that while I tested with the draft
driver last year, 7150 has slightly poorer shadow details compared
with the s800. That said, it seemed to one poster (chingon, I
think) that the shadow details of the production model 7350 is
still not as good as the s9000. Maybe Canon improved print wuality
still further between s800 and s9000 or HP did not nail the shadow
detail business (not a huge problem, so I don't think it's in their
priority) on time as they introduced the 7000 series to the market.

How much was your s820? HP 7150 sells at $189 street, I guess.

--
Fotografer

 

[WP]

First of all, I must apologise for asking you to give your
particular 820 a second chance. Though I don't think I influence
your decision much in the end, I think it's just sad things turn
out this way...

s800 which I saw was fantastic. But I forget to mention that we
have in our team a color management expert that got all printers to
print alright with spot-on color, much like Andrew Rodney is doing
for a fee...

We printed cupious amounts of photos from s800 and we liked it for
its speed (already then 800 was 'fast' by HP standard). Epson 2000P
was a nightmare, for the color management guy practically had to
tweak quite a lot for every different print files and again with
different paper types. Imagine we test printed so much then, I
think he lost some white blood cells (not from the inks, but from
frustrations spending time alone in the lab tweaking the outputs
while we were out for lunch...).

Sorry I digressed. What I was saying was that Canon s800 worked
like a charm. And I have to qualify: it worked (past tense) like a
charm. I would have thought s820 is an improvement from s800...

You too huh? How much is a new printhead? I'm now wonderig just how
economical in the long haul these Canons really are when compared
to the new HP's. Don't you get virtually a new print head with
every HP cartridge? And how come Canon still uses a manual print
head alignment proceedure while HP's is automatic? (using that blue
light) Also Hp has automatic paper detection. So which one is
really more technologically advanced? Because I guess if I take it
back to the store I could then just as easily pick up a 7150.
Wonder if the new S830 would still have printhead problems?
Probably. Well if Canon isn't making money off of ink carts like HP
does it sure is recovering nicely from repalcement print heads.
Kinda balances out. And oh, by the way, that was the 2nd time I had
to replace the black cart in 2 weeks. And yes I have been doing a
lot of photo work.

Yes, in this respect, I think the cheap 7150 would probably be a
good replacement. Bear in mind that while I tested with the draft
driver last year, 7150 has slightly poorer shadow details compared
with the s800. That said, it seemed to one poster (chingon, I
think) that the shadow details of the production model 7350 is
still not as good as the s9000. Maybe Canon improved print wuality
still further between s800 and s9000 or HP did not nail the shadow
detail business (not a huge problem, so I don't think it's in their
priority) on time as they introduced the 7000 series to the market.

How much was your s820? HP 7150 sells at $189 street, I guess.

--
Fotografer

--
Have a great day
http://www.pbase.com/wp12001

 

[Joe Barnhart]

When a color disappears entirely -- all jets gone at once -- it sounds more like either (a) the magenta ink supply is not working, (b) there is no electrical signal to fire the magenta jets, or (c) the printhead is defective.

You might try removing the print head and gently cleaning its contacts with a Q-tip moistened in alcohol. You don't need to remove the ink carts first. Also clean the contacts on the printer side. It's worth a shot before taking the printer in for service.

Your warranty should cover the cost of the printhead if it is defective.

 

[GRBiker]

Thanks Joe! As a retired airforce avionics tech I am well familiar with cleaning electrical contacts. Our #1 tool used to fix 70% of the flightline avionics write ups with B-52's and F-4's was a can of contact cleaner or a #2 pencil (got a lot of CND's (Can Not Duplicate). Knowing that, don't you rest easier at night? Anyway I was about ready to literaly tear into the print head or further. But since it's only a couple of weeks old I think I'll just R&R from WRSK supply (War Readiness Spares Kits but in this case the dept. store, ha) for another unit. Then we'll just NRTS the old one out. (Not Repairable This Staion)

• cheers! griz

When a color disappears entirely -- all jets gone at once -- it
sounds more like either (a) the magenta ink supply is not working,
(b) there is no electrical signal to fire the magenta jets, or (c)
the printhead is defective.

You might try removing the print head and gently cleaning its
contacts with a Q-tip moistened in alcohol. You don't need to
remove the ink carts first. Also clean the contacts on the printer
side. It's worth a shot before taking the printer in for service.

Your warranty should cover the cost of the printhead if it is
defective.

 

[fotografer]

Thanks Joe! As a retired airforce avionics tech I am well familiar
with cleaning electrical contacts. Our #1 tool used to fix 70% of
the flightline avionics write ups with B-52's and F-4's was a can
of contact cleaner or a #2 pencil (got a lot of CND's (Can Not
Duplicate). Knowing that, don't you rest easier at night? Anyway I
was about ready to literaly tear into the print head or further.
But since it's only a couple of weeks old I think I'll just R&R
from WRSK supply (War Readiness Spares Kits but in this case the
dept. store, ha) for another unit. Then we'll just NRTS the old one
out. (Not Repairable This Staion)

• cheers! griz

--
Fotografer

 

[bfaul]

I am having a very similar problem with a Canon S800 printer. I went about 3 - 4 months without printing a photograph (just text and regular colored graphics)

. Now the colors are very off, sometimes missing altogther. It will come back somewhat if I clean the heads, but the photos are just not very vivid any more. I figure it's got to be clogged jets. None of the literature that came with the printer ever warned about ink drying on the printhead, so I just didn't know. I have tried everything except buying a new printhead ($90), so that's next. If this works then I will "maintenance" the printhead from here on out by printing a small photo every 3-4 days to keep the jets from drying out. I'd be very, very interested in knowing how you resolve your problem and will be glad to let you know if I resolve mine.

BLF

 

[acmeron]

I am having a very similar problem with a Canon S800 printer. I
went about 3 - 4 months without printing a photograph (just text
and regular colored graphics)
. Now the colors are very off, sometimes missing altogther. It
will come back somewhat if I clean the heads, but the photos are
just not very vivid any more. I figure it's got to be clogged
jets. None of the literature that came with the printer ever
warned about ink drying on the printhead, so I just didn't know. I
have tried everything except buying a new printhead ($90), so
that's next. If this works then I will "maintenance" the printhead
from here on out by printing a small photo every 3-4 days to keep
the jets from drying out. I'd be very, very interested in knowing
how you resolve your problem and will be glad to let you know if I
resolve mine.

BLF

And to think I used to dislike HP for their expensive printhead cartridges that I thought were out of date and not state of the art. the HP cartridges are a bargain when you consider the time and money trying to get a Canon or Epson to work right. OK, Canon supporters, blast me.

 

[chingon]

I am having a very similar problem with a Canon S800 printer. I
went about 3 - 4 months without printing a photograph (just text
and regular colored graphics)
. Now the colors are very off, sometimes missing altogther. It
will come back somewhat if I clean the heads, but the photos are
just not very vivid any more. I figure it's got to be clogged
jets. None of the literature that came with the printer ever
warned about ink drying on the printhead, so I just didn't know. I
have tried everything except buying a new printhead ($90), so
that's next. If this works then I will "maintenance" the printhead
from here on out by printing a small photo every 3-4 days to keep
the jets from drying out. I'd be very, very interested in knowing
how you resolve your problem and will be glad to let you know if I
resolve mine.

BLF

And to think I used to dislike HP for their expensive printhead
cartridges that I thought were out of date and not state of the
art. the HP cartridges are a bargain when you consider the time and
money trying to get a Canon or Epson to work right. OK, Canon
supporters, blast me.

Yep, really killed me to get mine working right. I connected it and started printing. I don't know how I live with it.