Blocked Yellow and Lite Magenta

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

I am currently troubleshooting my 1430 for a blocked yellow channel and mostly blocked lite magenta. Y is completely blank.

After doing several nozzle checks and cleanings I could see signs of problems, but went on to make two printouts:

  1. Text only (Great! Clean and clear)
  2. Image only. The image showed 0 yellow despite the large area containing yellow. Cyan, lite cyan, black and magenta are fine.

I just refilled all the carts (again) and reset them all. Lightly cleaned the portals with iso alcohol and cotton buds.
The printer is recognizing and able to print without error messages.
But the blank yellow and lite magenta channels remain.

My 1st guess is possibly to replace yellow and light magenta carts.
Second guess is…that you may have some suggestions for me.

Thanks for your attention and time.

3

How old are your carts?

When you do a cleaning (multiple cleanings) you should see the level of the yellow going down. If there is a full clog, it will not be going down. In that case you need to run a small format flush with piezoflush which is a handy thing to have around in the future and also check to see if there is any air block in the outlet of the cartridge itself. With these cartridges I generally fill them and then tap them on the edge of a table (gentle rap on the bottom edge of the cartridge) to dislodge and air that may be in the ink outlet. After putting into the printer, I let it sit for 10-15 mins to settle and then do 1 cleaning and then a nozzle check.

If all else fails, wait a few weeks until we come out with our newest generation of cartridges which are a significant upgrade on all cartridge designs currently available.

Previous post showed up as the wrong user as we were doing database upgrades today and a user-id got switched for a few minutes. Sorry about that.

best,
Walker

4

Good to know. Thanks, Walker.

5

I have the exact same problem constantly with my 1430 and the same channels: Y, LM, and often K. I have a set of cartridges with piezo flush in them, I put them on and do cleanings and leave overnight, everything is flowing, and I put in the cartridges and have the same trouble. I even have a newer set of cartridge and still have the problem. Out of desperation, I’ve come up with a method that always works for me now, but it’s maybe not good for the printer…
Before printing I hit put a folded paper towel under the head with some windex on it, Then I open the ink lid and one cartridge at a time, while leaving them in place, I take the plug out of the fill hole, plug the vent hole, and use the small cleaning string to force some air into the cartridge which forces some ink through the head. I replug the fill hole, open the vent hole. I do any cartridge that had a bad nozzle check. Then i move the head and remove the paper towel (which shows the colors forced through. Then I close things up and get great prints until the next day. I feed some blank paper through before printing in case there’s some ink on the head.

It’s an inconvenience but I’ve had 100% success the last few months. Maybe I’ve damaged the head and have to force prime it every time, but I was ready to toss the printer and buy a new one anyway. I can’t get yellow and LM to print any other way.