PIXMA TR8520 - Not printing magenta

[edstevens]

After my wife reported the printer is 'only printing blue', but not reporting any 'low ink' status, I ran a nozzle check. The two magenta bands did not print any color.  Replaced the magenta cartridge, even though it did not report a low ink condition.  Repeated nozzle check, but got same result.

[jrhoffman75]

Does your printer driver have a head cleaning option that you could execute?

[edstevens]

Yes, it has a head cleaning function, and I used that to no avail before changing the cartridge.

[jrhoffman75]

There are YouTube videos on printer head cleaning. I have never used them and thus aren’t recommending them. Also the option to purchase new head. You would want to compare the price of a head with the price of a new printer, recognizing that the new printer also comes with a complete set of new ink. 

[edstevens · Accepted solution]

Just as a follow-up, just got off a chat with Canon Support.  They had me perform a 'deep clean' of the print head and that resolved the issue.

[gtingreenbelt]

Hello Ed,

Thank you, thank you, and thank you! I had the same problem with my magenta printer head. Without looking up any solutions, I proceeded to do a cleaning and the printer told me, upon the printer head check I did afterwards, that I didn't need to clean the printer head [again]. But the magenta lines still didn't print. So I tried changing to a new cartridge and still got no magenta to print. I looked up the problem on the Canon Website and didn't find an answer after scanning several help pages, so gave up there. A friend suggested throwing the question onto the Web, which is what I did and where I found your problem sooner than I could have on the Canon Website. I did a deep cleaning and, voila, the magenta started to print again. I very much appreciate your saving me the time and expense of having to sign up for technical support!

[edstevens]

@gtinggreenbelt - Well, I have to follow up that in my case, the deep clean only produced a clean test page.  Under actual usage, I continued to have issues.  If the magenta corrected, then I had problems with simply black text.  I had been using third-party cartridges, so finally gave up and purchased a set of Canon brand, and that resolved the problem.  I had been using third party for some time, having gone through several sets with no issues, and the set causing the problems had been in for some time.  I know that some will say "well of course, you should use the very expensive genuine Canon cartridges". 

[gtingreenbelt]

Hello Ed,

Thank you for the follow-up information. I, too, have been using third-party cartridges for a long time, but for me the deep cleaning worked not only on the test page but also in printing a map that I had been trying to print in four colors. I guess it's just the luck of the draw sometimes.

Best regards,

Germaine