ip3000 fan
Getting Fingers Dirty
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2008
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 22
Hi everyone. I'm glad I found this forum. While many people might give up on this printer as it's making sounds one would expect to hear from a malfunctioning blender (I turn it off as soon as I hear it), I recently had the experience of buying a printer for my father, and was surprised to discover that Canon's lower end models of today just don't compare with what was sold a few years back. The proof is on Ebay, where a new ip 3000 generally goes for double its original price and double today's lower end printers. Bottom line is I want to fix my ip3000. Hopefully it won't pass on, only to be a fond memory.
Well I guess much of the space here is devoted to sad stories so here it goes.
1. A few weeks back, my printer started printing strange patterns along with readable but very poorly printed text. I was also getting communication errors on my screen although I could still sort of print.
2. Then, I got the 5 orange flash "replace the printhead" error, so I bought a genuine Canon printhead on Ebay for about $50, thinking my printer will be like new.
3. I tried to print with the new printhead only 3 times. As best as I can recall, even with the first print (a nozzle check) I think I heard some noise from the printing that I never heard before. There was no black grid at all, the numbers/letters which name the ink tanks were brown, not black, and the blues were faint. Next I printed a purge graphic (Neil's). I became alarmed at the noise of the printing (although it was not yet the broken blender noise). The blues and black were both way off color. Next I tried to do a printhead calibration. This caused me to get at out of ink error (cannot continue) though I don't recall getting the preceding "low ink" error. When I checked my tanks, sure enough, both the black and the blue had no ink in the liquid-only reservoir.
4. In the couple day interim before I bought new ink tanks, my son tried to print something for school. When the printing failed, I looked at the printer and saw that it was giving a code alternating green and orange 12 times, which I later learned to be the 6A00 error. The carriage was all the way to the right and wouldn't move One post I saw (not on this forum) said to manually pull the carriage to the left. It seemed to be stuck however. Then I bought on Ebay a rather disappointing pdf "Manual" for less than $4. It should an exploded view of the parts, but no explanations. A post on the internet said to use a flat-bladed screwdriver and look closely for arrows showing where the screwdriver could separate the pieces. Much to my amazement, and without too much difficulty, I succeeded in taking off the sides and top without breaking anything. (yeah)
5. Well the first thing I wanted to do was to replace the empty ink tanks as my new printhead was at risk of clogging. Then I tried to move the carriage left, but even now that I could get a good grip, it still wouldn't budge. It was hitting something that was stopping it. So then thinking that maybe for some reason the printhead wasn't inserted properly (not that there is a trick!), I took out the ink and tried to remove the printhead, but IT WOULDN'T COME OUT. It seemed like there was no good reason for it not to come out, so I decided to force it, and sure enough it came out and upon examination, seemed none the worse for the wear. So I put the printhead and the ink tanks back in a tried again. Still error 6A00 and the carriage won't move. At this point, at least the printhead slipped in and out of the carriage properly and wan't stuck in the carriage like before.
6. I then came across an internet post that said that the error can be caused by the mechanism which wipes ink off the printhead becoming glued tight by dried ink. In order to see better what was happening, I started the printer without the printhead installed. Sure enough I could see that the approx. 1"sq white plastic piece which is the base of the mylar wipes was in fact trying to move, but was stuck. What a relief!
7. Now I discovered that probably all this time, I could have moved the carriage if I aggressively lifted it first. (there is quite a bit of spring tension) I moved the carriage to the left part way so that I could access the area of the wiping mechanism. with just a faint touch the white square unstuck and slid (either forward or backward, I can't remember). the point is that now it moved freely. With a q-tip and alcohol I cleaned up the area a little bit, put the printhead and ink tanks back in, lifted the carriage and moved it back all the way to the right, and started the printer. Still error 6A00 and the carriage wouldn't move. To see what was happening, I took the printhead out again and started the printer. Success, I thought. The wiper mechanism moved freely and smoothly, the pads upon which the printhead sleeps moved up & down or down & up, but then .... BROKEN BLENDER FREAK-OUT, and after what seemed like an eternity of 1 or 2 seconds, the noise stopped and I now was getting error code 5100 (alternate green and orange 2 times). Error 5100 can refer to Carriage Unit, or timing strip, or logic board, or carriage motor. Not wanting to overlook the obvious, I vote for Carriage Unit.
8. It was suggested to me by a local business machine repairman that I try cleaning the timing strip. Using simple orange cleaner mixed with water on a q-tip, I cleaned both sides of the timing strip. There was no change in the printer's behavior ... namely it was rude and obnoxious.
9. Please note that with the printhead installed I get error 6A00. With the printhead out I get the horrible noise and error 5100. I tried a few more times with the printhead out, and my finger next to the power button ready to turn it off, and looking closely to try and see what might be physically blocking the movement of the carriage. I can't really see very well, but it seems that the bottom of the carriage might be catching on the black plastic frame which holds the pads for the sleeping printhead.
My Conclusions FWIW
1. It's my un-informed opinion that the noise is simply from the carriage trying to move, but being blocked ... possibly by the frame of the resting pad. This could be caused by either the carriage being too low, or the resting pad mechanism being to high.
2. The 6A00 error that I still get if the printhead is installed, may be being cause by the sliding movement of the white plastic square being blocked by the printhead. This if it is true, also indicates that carriage is too low. This also probably explains why my printhead got stuck in the carriage and could only be removed by force. It had somehow gotten locked up with the wiper mechanism.
3. Lastly, in the two printings that I did after I first installed the new printhead, I was getting some noises that I never heard before. Some of them sounded (in retrospect) like the carriage was dragging along the bottom. I know what that feels like because if I try to move by hand by lifting up against the strong spring tension, I can feel the carriage pass over the approx. 24 block plastic linear nubs at the bottom of where the carriage travels. This also seems to indicate that the carriage is too low.
In other words, I think that there is some malfunctioning of a mechanism or process which is supposed to lift the carriage to a higher level. Lastly I have to believe that the fact that all of this occurred immediately upon my first installing the new printhead,
... is a complete coincidence! How hard can dropping in a printhead be?
Without some outside expert input, I'm afraid I've done all I can do. Sorry for this insanely long post. Thanks for reading.
Well I guess much of the space here is devoted to sad stories so here it goes.
1. A few weeks back, my printer started printing strange patterns along with readable but very poorly printed text. I was also getting communication errors on my screen although I could still sort of print.
2. Then, I got the 5 orange flash "replace the printhead" error, so I bought a genuine Canon printhead on Ebay for about $50, thinking my printer will be like new.
3. I tried to print with the new printhead only 3 times. As best as I can recall, even with the first print (a nozzle check) I think I heard some noise from the printing that I never heard before. There was no black grid at all, the numbers/letters which name the ink tanks were brown, not black, and the blues were faint. Next I printed a purge graphic (Neil's). I became alarmed at the noise of the printing (although it was not yet the broken blender noise). The blues and black were both way off color. Next I tried to do a printhead calibration. This caused me to get at out of ink error (cannot continue) though I don't recall getting the preceding "low ink" error. When I checked my tanks, sure enough, both the black and the blue had no ink in the liquid-only reservoir.
4. In the couple day interim before I bought new ink tanks, my son tried to print something for school. When the printing failed, I looked at the printer and saw that it was giving a code alternating green and orange 12 times, which I later learned to be the 6A00 error. The carriage was all the way to the right and wouldn't move One post I saw (not on this forum) said to manually pull the carriage to the left. It seemed to be stuck however. Then I bought on Ebay a rather disappointing pdf "Manual" for less than $4. It should an exploded view of the parts, but no explanations. A post on the internet said to use a flat-bladed screwdriver and look closely for arrows showing where the screwdriver could separate the pieces. Much to my amazement, and without too much difficulty, I succeeded in taking off the sides and top without breaking anything. (yeah)
5. Well the first thing I wanted to do was to replace the empty ink tanks as my new printhead was at risk of clogging. Then I tried to move the carriage left, but even now that I could get a good grip, it still wouldn't budge. It was hitting something that was stopping it. So then thinking that maybe for some reason the printhead wasn't inserted properly (not that there is a trick!), I took out the ink and tried to remove the printhead, but IT WOULDN'T COME OUT. It seemed like there was no good reason for it not to come out, so I decided to force it, and sure enough it came out and upon examination, seemed none the worse for the wear. So I put the printhead and the ink tanks back in a tried again. Still error 6A00 and the carriage won't move. At this point, at least the printhead slipped in and out of the carriage properly and wan't stuck in the carriage like before.
6. I then came across an internet post that said that the error can be caused by the mechanism which wipes ink off the printhead becoming glued tight by dried ink. In order to see better what was happening, I started the printer without the printhead installed. Sure enough I could see that the approx. 1"sq white plastic piece which is the base of the mylar wipes was in fact trying to move, but was stuck. What a relief!
7. Now I discovered that probably all this time, I could have moved the carriage if I aggressively lifted it first. (there is quite a bit of spring tension) I moved the carriage to the left part way so that I could access the area of the wiping mechanism. with just a faint touch the white square unstuck and slid (either forward or backward, I can't remember). the point is that now it moved freely. With a q-tip and alcohol I cleaned up the area a little bit, put the printhead and ink tanks back in, lifted the carriage and moved it back all the way to the right, and started the printer. Still error 6A00 and the carriage wouldn't move. To see what was happening, I took the printhead out again and started the printer. Success, I thought. The wiper mechanism moved freely and smoothly, the pads upon which the printhead sleeps moved up & down or down & up, but then .... BROKEN BLENDER FREAK-OUT, and after what seemed like an eternity of 1 or 2 seconds, the noise stopped and I now was getting error code 5100 (alternate green and orange 2 times). Error 5100 can refer to Carriage Unit, or timing strip, or logic board, or carriage motor. Not wanting to overlook the obvious, I vote for Carriage Unit.
8. It was suggested to me by a local business machine repairman that I try cleaning the timing strip. Using simple orange cleaner mixed with water on a q-tip, I cleaned both sides of the timing strip. There was no change in the printer's behavior ... namely it was rude and obnoxious.
9. Please note that with the printhead installed I get error 6A00. With the printhead out I get the horrible noise and error 5100. I tried a few more times with the printhead out, and my finger next to the power button ready to turn it off, and looking closely to try and see what might be physically blocking the movement of the carriage. I can't really see very well, but it seems that the bottom of the carriage might be catching on the black plastic frame which holds the pads for the sleeping printhead.
My Conclusions FWIW
1. It's my un-informed opinion that the noise is simply from the carriage trying to move, but being blocked ... possibly by the frame of the resting pad. This could be caused by either the carriage being too low, or the resting pad mechanism being to high.
2. The 6A00 error that I still get if the printhead is installed, may be being cause by the sliding movement of the white plastic square being blocked by the printhead. This if it is true, also indicates that carriage is too low. This also probably explains why my printhead got stuck in the carriage and could only be removed by force. It had somehow gotten locked up with the wiper mechanism.
3. Lastly, in the two printings that I did after I first installed the new printhead, I was getting some noises that I never heard before. Some of them sounded (in retrospect) like the carriage was dragging along the bottom. I know what that feels like because if I try to move by hand by lifting up against the strong spring tension, I can feel the carriage pass over the approx. 24 block plastic linear nubs at the bottom of where the carriage travels. This also seems to indicate that the carriage is too low.
In other words, I think that there is some malfunctioning of a mechanism or process which is supposed to lift the carriage to a higher level. Lastly I have to believe that the fact that all of this occurred immediately upon my first installing the new printhead,
... is a complete coincidence! How hard can dropping in a printhead be?
Without some outside expert input, I'm afraid I've done all I can do. Sorry for this insanely long post. Thanks for reading.
