Fault diagnosis
Missing colours and banding.
Nearly every inkjet quality problem is nozzles, not ink. The nozzle check tells you exactly which channels have stopped firing.
Run the printer's nozzle check first. It prints a test pattern per colour channel, and gaps show precisely which nozzles are not firing. Then run at most two cleaning cycles, with a nozzle check between them. Beyond two, more cleaning will not help — each cycle uses a significant amount of ink and fills the waste pad.
Why inkjets clog
Ink dries. The nozzles are extremely fine, and ink sitting in them evaporates and leaves solids behind. A printer used every day rarely clogs. One used once a month clogs constantly. That is the single biggest factor, ahead of ink brand or anything else.
Read the nozzle check
- Complete pattern, no gaps — nozzles are fine, look elsewhere
- Gaps in one colour block — that channel is partly clogged
- One block missing entirely — fully clogged, or that cartridge is empty or unrecognised
- Broken or stepped lines — often alignment rather than clogging; run the alignment routine
The two-clean rule
Run one clean, then a nozzle check. If it improved, run one more. If the second changes nothing, stop.
Clean cycles work by pushing ink through under pressure. If that has not shifted the blockage twice, a third will not either — and each cycle uses a surprising volume of ink, which goes straight into the waste pad. People routinely spend more on ink through repeated cleaning than the cartridge was worth.
What actually clears a hard clog
Dried ink needs soaking, not pressure. On cartridges with an integrated printhead the head can often be stood in a shallow amount of warm water or proper cleaning solution to soften the blockage, then blotted and reseated. On machines with the head in the printer, that is a bench job.
It is worth trying before writing a cartridge off, and worth knowing when a head is genuinely dead — the nozzles can be permanently damaged, and no amount of soaking brings those back.
Preventing it
- Print something in colour at least weekly — a single page is enough
- Power the machine off with its own button, not a switched socket. It parks the head in a sealed position; cutting power mid-cycle leaves nozzles exposed to air.
- Do not leave a cartridge out of the machine for long
- Keep the machine out of direct airflow and strong sun
The power-button point is the one most people get wrong, and it causes more clogs than anything else.
Common questions
How many head cleans should I run?
Two at most, with a nozzle check between. If two cycles have not improved it, more will not — and each one uses a lot of ink and fills the waste pad.
Why does my printer clog when I barely use it?
That is exactly why. Ink dries in the nozzles when it sits. A machine used daily rarely clogs; one used monthly clogs constantly. Print one colour page a week.
Can a clogged printhead be saved?
Often, yes — dried ink needs soaking rather than more pressure. But nozzles can be permanently damaged, and then no amount of cleaning helps. Worth having it looked at before replacing.
Does switching the printer off at the wall matter?
Yes, more than people expect. Using the printer's own power button parks and seals the printhead. Cutting power at the socket can leave nozzles exposed to air, and that dries them out.
Tell us what it is doing.
Call and describe the make and the symptom — most jobs are done in a single visit, and we will tell you straight if it is not worth repairing.