PIXMA MX432 blurred printing after paper jam

[tvisingardi]

I had a paper jam on my MX432 and since then my print is blurred, shadowing, double printing.

[Shacora2019]

This worked like a charm for my old canon MG3620!!! I bought a newer version when copies started blurring and now the new one is eating paper so I tried to fix my old one.  This saved me from having 3 printers!

[Cartmaker]

Exactly the same problem with my MG3650 after a paper jam. No help whatsoever form the Canon website and at my wits end until finding this forum and thread. Result: instant success, even though the strip looked hardly dirty to the naked eye before giving it a simple wipe with a damp cotton bud. MAGIC

Spoiler

[sarah-doan]

Omg you are brilliant. My boyfriend was ready to “smash it into itty bitty pieces” last night and tonight i researched myself and fixed it in 30 seconds. Thanks SO mhch

[Jeffenwolf]

Thanks for the great solution!

[Donnahorse]

I am so glad I found this post. It worked a miracle on my printer and saved me having to buy a new one. Thank you, thank you!

[Canonsuxatprint]

Worked,thank you

[Scottfam]

Seven years after Mpell posted this solution, this fine advice is still saving people like me who had a paper jam.  Note to self:  if I had followed, precisely, Canon's guidance on gently clearing a paper jam, I would have never caused the encoder strip to get dirty in the first place.

Sometimes the small details are important.

Thanks, here's another saved logged to Mpell.  Affected product was a Canon TR4522.  I really like this printer.

We also have a number of other Canon products (DSLR's, lenses, and accessories).  One of my favorite companies, and communities.

v/r, the Scott Family

[Stevens579]

June 2020, and this advice is as pertinent today as it was when this was first posted in 2014.  Thank you for this community and all those that post.

[RustyJ]

April 2021. Paper jam on my MG3650, followed by blurred print. Yet another one fixed! Many thanks for this solution which has helped so many people.

[twayneking]

SURPRISINGLY SIMPLE SOLUTION:

I have a Pixma MG3620. I had a nasty paper jam where the paper was sucked up inside. the machine. Once I figured out how to open the transport cover in the back (push down toward the arrow), I was able to extricate the paper. When I tried to print again, My printer started eating paper and no matter how many times I cleared it, it wouldn't stop eating the paper.  On a hunch I shined my flashlight down into the mechanism and spied something shiny. I made a hook out of a paper clip, reached in, snagged the plastic thing and pulled out a small plastic bag of extra earbud covers that had apparently taken a ride up inside the printer on one of my print jobs. I had been looking for a new printer last night. So glad I don't have to buy one, Inflation has doubled the cost of the same 3 year old printer. How's that for a green new deal.

Once it got to where it would print, it started printing double and random lines of characters. Here's how I fixed it.

1. Unplug the printer.
2. Open the front of the printer. Shine your flashlight inside.
   
3. There is a clear plastic strip above the metal bar the printer carriage rides on.
4. Use a long wet Q-tip (I didn't have one so I put a soft wet linen cloth over the end of a ruler). GENTLY rub the smudges off the plastic strip. It's these smudges, likely from your earlier efforts to dislodge the paper jam, that are distorting your image.
5. When the strip is clear, you're done. 
6. You might while you are in there, plug the unit back in and turn it on. Have your trusty Q-tip at the ready. When the rollers spin up, use your Q-tip to clean off the dirt and ink so the rollers grab the paper better. You can also go down to the paper tray and clean the rollers in the center that grab the paper by the sheets.
7. Print a test page. Everything should look good after that.
8. If it's still a little dodgy follow the instructions for aligning the print heads. It's pretty easy. Cleaning that plastic strip should get you fixed though.
9. My wife always makes me dust things whenever I'm back there fixing connections and replacing parts. I go ahead and do it because when she can't stand it anymore, she dusts back there and then I have to spend the next couple of hours reconnecting all the wires that fell out while she was cleaning.

I had no idea a few finger smudges could mess up the printing like that. Just be VERY, VERY gentle when you're wiping them off. Breaking that delicate strip of plastic tape turns your nice printer into a brick.  FYI.

Have a lovely day and hopefully a better one than this one started out to be. Ah, but there's nothing quite as satisfying as kicking a problem in its fuzzy buttocks.

Tom King