Canon Pixma ip4000 - Can it be saved?

[steve30]

I bought an IP4000 printer back in 2005 for about £75. I think its on its last legs and I've had my money's worth, but I'm just wondering if it can still be saved.

The head got a bit clogged after being unused for a while, so I put it in some distilled water to soak, but unfortunately I forgot about it and left it quite a long time. The printer then started giving me a "5 flashes" error code (which means bad printhead) and refused to work. It did however, work fine on a few occasions (foruntately it worked on the one day I needed to print some important contracts), but hasn't worked since.

I decided to get a second hand print head from a Chinese company on ebay who sell second hand spares for printers. The printer accepted this fine (no error code), but the 3e-bk head (pigment black) didn't work at all, and the top half of the cyan head didn't work. This sucked because if the 3e worked, the printer can still be used as a monochrome printer. The 6-bk head (dye black) worked, and you could force that by selecting photo quality. Has my printer gone faulty, or is my Chinesium print head a dud?

Anyway, I tried it again yesterday (a month or two later), and the 3e head decided to work (mostly!). Still only half the cyan though.

I stocked up on NOS cartridges last year before it conked out so I'll put some new ones in and see if I can make use of it.

Any idea why this chinesium print head might be intermittent?

I think this printer is beyond its retirement date, but if it can be made to work somehow then I don't see why I can't make use of it.

Thanks.

[steve30]

#eevblog member jspiros suggested purging the head by forcing some water through it. Unfortunately that didn't make any difference to the cyan head. See attached nozzle check with only the cyan cartridge installed.



And the 3e-black has gone intermittent again:





I'm not really expecting to get this going but if anyone has any ideas I'm always willing to hear them.

[Gyro]

I have an interest in your results too, as I have an IP4000. It was the last Cannon inkjet that used 'dumb' cartridges rather than chipped ones. I haven't used mine for several years, since I got a colour laser one. I think I once cleaned a head by forcing water through it.

Just iidle thoughts. The 'hydraulics' of the printhead and cartridge are reasonably complex. I'm sure there must be chambers and passageways inside the head. There are pressure equilibriums between the cartridge and head to settle too. It may be that the head hasn't fully replenished with ink and there are airlocks that will resolve with time. There also may be water left in it (I hope you used distilled or filtered water to prevent particulates or scale building up and clogging the head) and a low pressure compressed air flush might help. You can get head cleaning fliuds / cartridges which may help, both with cleaning and 'priming'. Another concern is that the thermal elements in the head might burn out if operated empty or with airlocks.

As I said, these are just idle thoughts, I will be interested to see how you get on.

[steve30]

I remember being quite enthusiastic about the transparent cartridges when I got it, as I used to use Epson ones which still had quite a bit of life left in them even after the printer said it was empty.

I'll leave the IP4000 a few days and do some more testing and see if the 3e-bk head comes back to life. I do reckon the 6-c is duff though. Its also worth noting that when I tried to purge the 6bk head it seemed blocked. And the 6-bk wouldn't print. Odd because the 6bk printed fine a couple of months ago.

I mentioned my old circa 1999 Epson Stylus Photo 750 in another topic. I've had that in pieces trying to resurrect it. I actually have high hopes for that, despite the naysayers. Like with the Canon, I removed the printhead, and shoved some warm water through it with a syringe. That forced out a load of 20 year old ink and then the water squirted out nicely. I put it back together, installed the empty 20 year old cartridge, did a test print, and the printer managed to extract a tiny bit of ink and deposit it in the correct place on the page! Looking hopeful .

[Hogwild]

I've unclogged some very extreme clogs in about a dozen and a half inkjets.

Water isn't going to do it. Alcohol can make things (much) worse. I suggest you read this reply I wrote to another poster here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/photo-quality-inkjet-refills/msg6010983/#msg6010983

If this formula doesn't work, nothing will. I've unclogged injkets that haven't been used in 10 or 15 years with it.

[tunk]

Quite some time ago I had a HP inkjet printer with clogged
nozzles: Boiled water in a kettle and held the cartridge in
the steam. Seem to remember that it worked.

[steve30]

I've unclogged some very extreme clogs in about a dozen and a half inkjets.

Water isn't going to do it. Alcohol can make things (much) worse. I suggest you read this reply I wrote to another poster here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/photo-quality-inkjet-refills/msg6010983/#msg6010983

If this formula doesn't work, nothing will. I've unclogged injkets that haven't been used in 10 or 15 years with it.

I read your suggestion. Unfortunately I didn't have any glycerin handy but I will bare it in mind for the future.

I think I'm going to retire this Canon printer. Not only did the new "chinesium" head not print properly, it is now flashing error codes as well.

I am making a bit of progress with my vintage Epson printer though (which I mentioned in the ink topic), so I think I will make a new thread about that.

[RoGeorge]

Some inkjet models will blink errors codes, or require service mode, even when the printer is perfectly functional.  I remember around 2015 or so how I had to first keep a certain combination of buttons pressed before plugging the printer into the mains outlet.  That combination of buttons worked only after physically unplugging the power, the soft on/off on the printer panel was not enough.

By starting that way, it was possible to print with all those blink error blinking LED, otherwise the printer was refusing to print.  The override was volatile, it was lost after the first power off.  You have to unplug from mains and repeat the procedure each time.  Of course, the printer was working just fine with all the errors, I've used it with those service mode errors for a couple few more years.

Search online if your model allows the service mode overriding of errors.  Usually this procedure involves keeping the power button pressed (sometimes together with some other button(s) from the printer's front panel) while plugging in the power cord.  If you can not find the overriding combination online, try with the power on button alone kept pressed while plugging the printer into the mains outlet, and continue to keep the power button pressed for at least 5-10 seconds after powering up.

[steve30]

I had another look in the ip4000 service manual hoping it might have disassembly instructions (it doesn't), but it does tell you the intended life of the printer - 18000 pages /or/ five years, whichever comes sooner. Its certainly nowhere near 18000 pages, but I guess its retirement age back when I was at college .

On the subject of disassembly though, the PSU seems like a good design. It is an individual module which unclips and pulls out. Had to break the plastic to get at the PCB though as its held together with a weird security screw. Looked quite well made to be honest.

[Infraviolet]

With some Canon printers there is an odd behaviour upon startup where they would ordinarily throw an error message and refuse to work, but if you lift the "lid" (the section of plastic you lift up when swapping ink cartridges) and replace it back down just as the head is moving during the powerup-calibration it can bypass the error.

It is not for your model, but any of the following links which apply to other Canon models might provide some ideas:

https://jestineyong.com/canon-mg-5450-printer-repaired/



https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Desktop-Inkjet-Printers/PIXMA-MX882-Error-B200/td-p/295778

[Psi]

I remember on some old inkjet printers you sometimes had to do the 'head clean' function like 10 times to fully get the head working.

[psolved]

On the five flashes: on these older Canons that blink-code points at the print head or its electrical contact rather than the logic board (it is the same family of fault that newer models report as E05 or "print head not recognised"). Since you have already swapped in a second-hand head and the symptoms moved around, it is worth ruling out the connection before blaming the head again:

1. Power off, unplug, and reseat the head and cartridges firmly. A half-latched head gives exactly this kind of intermittent behaviour.
2. Look at the gold contact pads on the head and the carriage contacts. Wipe them gently with a dry lint-free cloth, or one barely damp with distilled water, and let them dry completely before powering up. Any leftover moisture from your earlier soak could also cause flaky nozzles.
3. Check for ink or condensation on the flex contacts in the carriage.
4. Run the head cleaning from the printer driver a couple of times and then a nozzle check, with a pause between cycles so the head can refill.

The general E05 / head-error troubleshooting steps are summarised here: Canon E05 error troubleshooting. If the contacts are clean and the same nozzles still fail across two different heads, the carriage side is the next suspect.