I have a Canon MP610 printer which smears a vicious (!) streak of black ink on the reverse of all my prints, gradually reducing in severity with subsequent prints but always visible.

I have tried all the cleaning routines available in the Canon Printer Utility, cleaned all accessible parts in and around the printer "carriage" and have replaced both black cartridges, all to no avail.

While it doesn't mar or obscure the actual printed side of the page (much), it looks ugly and it's clearly wasting ink. I am about to submit an online support request to the Canon Australian website but I'm not particularly confident in an early response. Does anyone have any ideas what, apart from buying another printer, I can try next?

Andy
iMac 21.5 in, late 2009, 3.06 GHz, Core 2 Duo, 8GB, Lion 10.7.2

Have you tried feeling around with a finger to see if you can determine from precisely where the unwanted ink is coming?

Knowing that might give you an insight.

I have seen smears such as you are describing coming from the pressure roller that feeds the paper through the printer. Try opening the lid of the powered down printer and look inside with a flashlight to see if you can tell where the smear is on the mechanism. With luck the original smear that is getting transferred to the back of your page will be visible and relatively easily reached and you can clean it up with something like an alcohol swab.

If the smear recurs it would probably be cheaper to replace the printer than it would be to repair. Manufacturers make their money from the ink and sell the printers at close to break even.

Well not with a finger exactly but the streak does seem to align on the carriage bottom plate with where the black ink is injected. I have cleaned this point and there does not appear to be any damage to it that might cause an excessive leak. But who knows...

Have your tried replacing the black ink cartridge? As I recall the Canon has a separately replaceable print head but if that is damaged you would still probably come out ahead by replacing the printer.

Yep, tried replacing both black cartridges. Have attempted to submit an online support query with Canon Australia but, since there's no confirmation dialog from the website or email acknowledgement that the query has been registered, I'm not hopeful. May have submitted it several times - who knows.

Sigh...looks like a trip to Harvey Norman (electrical retailer) or Hardly Normal as it's often called here in Australia.