Most all-in-ones require you to scan an alignment sheet after changing the ink. Make sure the printer is on. Press Menu then use the up and down arrows to navigate to Maintenance. Click OK. Navigate to Auto Head Align and press OK. Select Yes and press OK. Load a sheet of Letter or A4 sized plain white paper in the rear tray, follow the on-screen directions. Open the output tray gently and the output tray extension. Press OK. When the page prints out, do not touch the printed sections. You should see a set of broken lines on the page, among other printing. The first section of columns will have 2 black, 1 blue and 3 black. The next row has 4 columns (blue and pink (to my eye)); the final row is 3 blue and 3 pink. If this prints okay, then select Yes and press OK. Next place the printed page face down on the glass of the scanner unit so that the black triangle at the top left of the page is in the left back corner of the glass. (The triangle is an alignment mark and lines up with the alignment mark on the edge of the scanner unit.) Close the document cover and press OK. The sheet will be scanned and the print heads will be adjusted. Do not open the document cover or move the sheet until the unit has completed the adjustment. Afterwards you can discard the sheet.
If the unit fails to adjust the print head, it will indicate this in the LCD screen. In that case, try manually adjusting the print head from the Canon Toolbox on your computer. If you can't get the printhead to align properly manually, the unit may need service.
For pictures, see the manual or support for the all-in-one here: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/photo_all_in_one_inkjet_printers/pixma_mp490#ServiceAndSupport . If you use the Support option, search for align print head.
I hope this helps.
Cindy Wells
Did you scan the page? Until the alignment sheet is scanned, it will be printed repeatedly. What message did you get following scanning the page?
Cindy Wells
The computer says that it scanned the picture, and it put it into a file. It's still making copies of the alignment page when I try to print a documen from my computer.
There's the problem. You do not want to scan to the computer. You want this scan to stay at the printer. I suspect you hit the Scan button and not the OK button (while the unit was waiting to scan the alignment page.) Please try scanning the alignment page again for the Auto Alignment.
More to follow. Cindy Wells
Alternatively, use the Canon Toolbox Manual alignment. For Windows, click Start > Control Panel > Devices and Printers (Printers and Faxes in XP; Hardware and Sound in Vista, then double-click on Printers). Then right click on the printer icon. Choose Properties. Then click on Maintenance and then Print Head Alignment. This prints a different set of bars on the page. It gives two sets of 6 columns with 10 boxes per column. Click yes if the text is readable. Then you will manually enter which box in each column has the fewest streaks. When done, click OK and a second page will print. Repeat the manual entry for the last 6 columns. Then click OK. Cindy Wells
The picture of the realignment page goes to the computer and shows up on the screen automatically when I scan. I press menu, then go to scan, and then press OK to make the scanner scan. When I try the alternate manual approach, I get as far as Choose Properties, but there are no Maintenance or Head Alignment.
Let's start over. Auto: Tell the printer to print the maintenance page (Menu > Maintenance > Auto Head Align) Confirm this (several times including after printing). Then put the page that prints out on the glass and press OK on the printer. Do not press the scan or copy buttons or launch a scan from the computer. Wait and tell me if you get an error message.
Check for a line called Printer Properties and try there. Otherwise, if you do not have the Maintenance option, you do not have the Canon Toolbox installed but have the basic Canon driver or the OS generic driver. What OS are you using? The program is part of the MP Navigator and is available for supported OS versions here (long URL):http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/p... . Choose your OS in the drop down menu and download the MP Navigator software. Uninstall the current driver (Remove printer from the Control Panel instead of going to properties) and unplug the data cable. Restart the computer and then install the MP Navigator. Reconnect the cable when prompted to do so. Then try the Printer Properties again.
Cindy Wells
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try changing the ink cartridges.
This may have happened due to low ink levels. Also try reinstalling the printer driver.
If the print cartridges are damaged this problem will pop up. Even static electricity in human hand could damage the print cartridges.
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Now the only thing my printer will print is the page with the black and pink bars.
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