Canon Pixma MG5300 just prints blank pages

EdGasket · 24 April 2015 at 7:35PM

As the title says. The only thing it will print is some blue when selecting 'Print the head alignment value'. Also when doing the nozzle check I get blue and red rectangles only.

The printer is about 3 years old. It went wrong in the middle of printing a document; it printed 1.5 pages ok in black and from then on everything else was blank and has been since. It goes through all the motions of printing and blank pages come out. I have removed the print head; even dismantled it and cleaned with warm water to no avail. Also used tons of ink doing cleaning via the software.

As it went wrong during printing and not from not from being out of use for a while, would I be correct to assume that a blocked print head is NOT the problem in this case but something more serious? There are no errors being reported on the printer except if I try to align the heads it says it failed, presumably because nothing is printing.

A new print head is about £68 which is a bit of a gamble and dearer than a lot of printers anyway. Any suggestions as to what might have happened or if I should try a head cleaning kit with solvents and power flush (it is unlikely a blocked head though as it just stopped printing ink part way through a document)?

macman · 24 April 2015 at 9:16PM

It's usually not worth attempting to repair inkjet printers, as you say £68 will buy you a new one. It doesn't appear to be blocked print heads from what you say.