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Canon BJC7000 printer problem

By ozi Eagle ·
I have a BJC7000 parallel printer connected to a WIN98 266 MHz AMD PC and this is networked to a W2K Athlon XP2700+ PC, the idea being to utilise an old PC as a print server.

When printing, from either machine, the printer randomly crashes in the middle of a page (the print head spasmodically jiggles back and forth). If the print job is still active in the print monitor and can be cancelled the paper is ejected and a new job can be started. If the print job is complete but the printer has not completed printing it needs to be turned off and then on again.
If left it just sits there (subject to the head jiggling) with no error messages. Print monitor has and keeps the status as printing.
Seems to be more prone to crashing if I am printing from the W2K PC and try to multi task.
(The idea of off loading the print job to the win98 PC doesn't work, I presume because of the different drivers for the two OSs. It did when both PCs were win98.)

Reloading all drivers seems to cure the problem for a while. Up to date virus checks and spyware removal regularly done.
Connecting direct to the W2K PC gives the same problem.
Seems to be more prone when a more complex page is printing ( with colour), though it has happened with straight black text.
Can print 10 or more pages before crashing then next time half way through first page. Particularly frustrating when trying to print double sided.
Tried Canon support and was told to upgade drivers (already done).
Originally the W2K PC ran win98 and this gave no troubles - however, running print jobs directly from the 266MHz win98 PC now still crashes.
Have replaced cable with new one, no joy.
I don't know if I have a printer problem, or a driver/PC problem.
Are there any printer test programs out there?
Thanks in advance
Herb

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by ozi Eagle In reply to Canon BJC7000 printer pro ...

BTW the printer passes its internal tests.

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by TheChas In reply to Canon BJC7000 printer pro ...

While it may appear to be a driver issue, I suspect that it is the age of the printer.

(I have a 7004 and love it!)

How mechanically inclined are you?

If you feel up to the challenge, a thorough cleaning of the printer may fix your problem.

Start with a simple cleaning of the print cartridge contacts.

Remove both ink cartridge / print head assemblies.
Using an electronics grade contact cleaner clean the contacts in the printer carriage for both print heads.

That may be all that you need to do.

If you still have problems, it may be time to tear the printer apart and clean the entire carriage mechanism.

If you take the printer apart, closely examine both the ribbon cable for the print head and the toothed belt that drives the print head.

A crack in the mylar of the ribbon, or a damaged tooth on the belt would be the first things that I would look for.

With the belt off of the drive pulley, verify that the print head slides freely the entire length of the bearing, in both directions.

If you decide to clean the bearing shaft, lube it LIGHTLY with a clean lube such as sewing machine oil.

While I had my printer apart, I cleaned all of the ink residue from the print head path, and cleaned the paper feed rollers.

Chas

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by ozi Eagle In reply to

Thanks Chas, I had actually done a complete strip down and clean before the problem arose. I will try it again.
Herb

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by ozi Eagle In reply to Canon BJC7000 printer pro ...

This question was closed by the author

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by ozi Eagle In reply to Canon BJC7000 printer pro ...

Well printer finally collapsed with lots of beeping etc, Totally cheesed off with it by now, so bought new Canon N1000. Expensive, but nice BIG ink tanks,not jus tlittle cartridges.

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