Canon MP530 - carriage/ purge unit movement

[hardy]

After more fiddling (basically just repeating all steps I've already done) as well as nozzle check & head align, I switched out my PGBK 5 with another one (the first one was just replaced last week, shortly before the break down). Well, the ink cart was nearly empty which is amazing to me since all it has done so far is purge a bunch! Anyways, with the new ink tank in I repeated and after a couple of error cycles it actually started working! Now I'm not sure it's fixed, but I do think the ink tank was somehow faulty (it was a new Canon tank) because of all the inks it was the only one to hemorrhage all over my printer during this crisis. Also, the manual had a list of life expectancy for the MP530 and I've already blown through that anyways, I think it's time for a laser...
Thanks for your help, hopefully it stays fixed now and for anyone trying to fix this error (these errors) in the future... Mind any recent changes to the printer and try the whole thing with different ink tanks if possible, it worked for me.

Oh, and if you ever do need to get at the purge unit, I found a link here;

http://newsquaremusic.com/CanonMP730PrinterPurgeUnitDisassemblyandAssembly.pdf

 

[hardy]

Just an addition...
A few days later the errors came back, just as stubborn as before, so I decided it was all or nothing time and undertook the task of getting at the purge unit itself. Taking the bulk of the printer from the base was quite easy, four screws (one near each corner), and a couple holding down the metal bracket on the purge unit side... Oh yeah, two pieces of plastic popped off (one broke actually); they were identical black claw shaped, about 2 inches long, no idea what they did... So anyways I flipped everything upside down to get a good look, the purge unit was actually quite clean (no ink buildup). It seemed like the main purge tube (to the centre of the ink pad) was quite gunked up, I removed all tubes and cleaned them out with hot water just to be sure. I also fiddled with the purge mechanism itself,engaging the gears that caused everything to move (wipers & purge pads), after a few rotations it SEEMED like something had loosened (the whole up/down and wiper wiping action seemed more fluid) but I can't say for sure that I did anything at all. I have to say that I was not too gingerly with the printer, as far as I was concerned this was a one way ticket to the junk heap & I was doing an autopsy. I slightly bent the metal bracket that was holding the purge unit in place and decided to leave it there since it looked quite clean anyways.
Then I put the thing back together.
As I was lowering the printer guts onto the base somehow the left hand side spring that held the carriage bar taught shot out and into the dining room. I tried to reinstall it, but it did not want to sit in the same position again so I left it out. That's funny, 'cause now there's some broken plastic claws, a seemingly very important spring and about a half dozen screws that no longer have a home in my printer but I plug it all back in again anyways...
It works! It actually works!
So here it is: 6A00? 5100 ? 5C10? carriage/purge/ etc errors?
Solution: De-claw unit, launch carriage bar spring across house, accidentally cut tiny blue wire then twist back together, oh yeah clean and poke randomly and thoroughly, and then cycle power.
Done

 

[stratman]

Solution: De-claw unit, launch carriage bar spring across house, accidentally cut tiny blue wire then twist back together, oh yeah clean and poke randomly and thoroughly, and then cycle power.
Done

You are now qualified to become one of Canon's authorized repair center technicians.