ok, I know I've harped on about this too much!

Dark_Forces

You said that you replaced your cartridge twice already; was this after the white lines or do the white lines always appear even when you change cartridge?

If they do appear even though you change the cartridge, try and realign the print head as it may have moved out of alignment. The software with your printer should do this. Or it maybe that your contacts between the printer and the cartridge may be dirty so have a look and see if you can clean it. Try and see what happens.

Hope this helps.

Lychee

Thanks for the help. It started producing white lines which is why I changed the cartridge. When that didn't help, I changed it again. bit silly but I was feeling desperate :P I've gone to maintenace to align it and clean it but no change. I'm not sure how I can clean it myself... Is it safe to use cotton bud? Should I wet it? I've read somewhere that tap water is a no-no...

thanks again

Dammam

If you're cleaning, it's ok to use a cotton bud and some neat alcohol (should be able to get it from a chemist, although I break open the vodka usually - prints wavy lines for a while but it's ok when it sobers up :-) )
Worth doing a Google search for cleaning your model of printer - I know there are lots of Epson hints & tips out there.

squeaky

If you've changed the cartrdige and you still get the exact same fault I don't see how the cartridge can be wrong.

If you look at your cartridge and see where the gold contacts are - try cleaning the contacts on the printer that they fit to.

coolagarry

I had an i455 and had the same problem until finally only the colour ink worked. I took it to a local shop and they removed and cleaned the print head. Charged me £15 (easy to take out if you take both ink cartridges out first) . Unfortunately after about another month I got the same problem. As a new printhead costs more than the printer and having it cleaned again another twice would have cost ths same as a printer I decided to bite the bullet and bought a Canon ip3000 on ebay for £50 (incl p&p)
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Canon-Outlet_W0QQssPageNameZl2QQtZkm
(there's one on at the moment for over £50 but you have to bide your time and bid clever. I know it's an expensive option but it works.

Incidentally the only diy method i found on the web for cleaning Canon printheads was to soak them in warm water for a while and then dry them off (The recommendation was soak a paper tissue in a saucer and zap it in the mictowave until it was hot... then put the printhead on the soaking paper - It didn't work for me !!

elvis_bloggs

All this talk about ink, mess and printer heads is frightening, I'm too scared to even look at my printer now.

coolagarry

You know what they say. 'Don't buy a computer or a car unless you can take a joke'
lol

Lychee

coolagarry wrote:

Incidentally the only diy method i found on the web for cleaning Canon printheads was to soak them in warm water for a while and then dry them off (The recommendation was soak a paper tissue in a saucer and zap it in the mictowave until it was hot... then put the printhead on the soaking paper - It didn't work for me !!

er, don't feel confident enough to try that but thanks for the suggestion!! I'm reluctant to buy a new one as my current one is only about 8 months old.

I've cleaned the printhead as best as I can. I was cleaning the printhead and printed a few words several times over and over, also ran the "Deep Cleaning" in maintenance - spent 45 mins doing that :P At one point, the black ink came out lighter and barely readable which was quite horrifying but did another two prints and the ink came out dark again but still with white lines and a bit fuzzy. So it's not just white lines across but also fuzzy printing (i.e. the letter 'l' won't come out a straight line!)

Anyhow, I thinking of getting a Canon cleaning cartridge, has anyone used such a thing before? It says:

Use a cleaning cartridge when:

* White lines occur printing documents or images
* Indistinct or broken lines in nozzle check pattern
* Ink does not come down during printing
* The printer has not been used in a long time
* Before replacing a new ink cartridge