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[lytle]

I have had my Canon iP3000 printer for years with no trouble. However, I now have a problem. When I print a typed page of black text, the printer will print the page but it will have blank horizontal stripes or bands across the text at even intervals down the page which eliminates any text that was there. These blank bands are approx. .3” wide and spaced approx. .25” apart regardless of the font size. This happens with black text only. If I change the color to blue I don’t have trouble with these blank bands across my text. I have cleaned the nozzles numerous times, realigned, etc, with no effect and I have installed a new black ink tank which had no effect.

I have investigated every option on the toolbar such as, “File, Edit, View, etc.” but I can’t find anything that relates to the problem. Perhaps I somehow accidentally chose some option to enter that causes the stripes but if I did I don’t know what it was.

I wonder if I have a clogged printhead. What do you think?

Thanks for any help.

Don

[Harpmaker]

Hi Don, welcome to the forum!

It does indeed sound like the black "jets" of your print-head could be clogged. The other possibility is that they are simply worn out, nothing lasts forever.

You could try manually cleaning the print-head by removing it from the printer and running hot water (not hot enough to burn you!) through the print-head and then if that doesn't work disassemble the print-head as shown in the guide and clean it again.

Every time you manually clean the print-head always wait until any water remaining in the head has had time to evaporate before reinstalling and using the print-head otherwise it may short out and kill the printer. I prefer to wait at least 24 hours just to be sure.

[lytle]

Thank you Harpmaker! I'll have to admit that I've had the printer for a long time and it may be just worn out. I'll try cleaning the printhead to see what happens. I remember what I bought the iP3000 for and almost fainted when I saw what I'd have to pay for one now. It has been a good printer and one of the good things about it is how cheap the ink cartridges are compared to other printers. I think it was in here that I read that Canon may be introducing something to prevent using refilled cartridges. Don't they suck!

[Harpmaker]

When Canon brought out the next line of Pixma printers after the initial IP3000/4000/5000 they changed to a new ink cartridge that was supposed to prevent refilling cartridges. I see that folks, including generic cartridge manufacturers, have found a way around that.

If manually cleaning your print-head doesn't get your printer working again, be sure to check that whatever printer you are thinking of replacing it with can take generic ink cartridges or allow you to refill your own. Using your favorite internet search engine will let you know in short order, just type in the name of the printer and the word "refill".

Keep an eye out for sales, I have seen Canon printers on sale at Newegg.com for something like $30 with free shipping!

Good Luck!