Canon ip5000 won't start up

My Canon ip5000, working fine until today, is non- responsive to the on/off button. There is power in the two hole plug that plugs into the back of the printer, but when plugged in there is no noise and no lights anywhere and no response to pushing in the power button.

I'd like to ask for advice in troubleshooting this. I have a so-called service manual (purchased online) but it is very limited and the photos are so low resolution that they are also useless. What can I take apart, and where would I be testing for power inside this printer...that would be a good starting point.

And is there a competent service manual available online somewhere, or even an electrical schematic?

John

Deja vu?

Power supplies in Canon printers rarely fail. Instead a defective print head and/or logic board can prevent the printer from turning on.

Sadly old print heads in Canon printers can fail for no apparent reason. A failed print head might damage the logic board and a damaged logic board might damage a new print head. So the replacing a failed Canon print head is a gamble and I cannot tell your odds for success. The print head type is QY6-0057 but I think new print heads are nowhere to be found. Beware of used and often defective print heads from the far East. These heads are often claimed to be new OEM or "refurbished". They are cleaned to look like new and packaged in replica foil bags and cardboard boxes. These heads are often defective out of the box.

When a Canon printer is connected to the mains but not turned on the power supply delivers some low stand by voltages. When the power button is pressed the logic board and print head are tested. If the test is a pass the power supply is ordered to deliver the higher operating voltages. See this thread.

To test if the print head prevents the printer from turning on you will have to remove it from the printer. You will have to remove the printer casing and unlock the purge unit to remove the print head. If the printer can power on after having been reassembled without print head the print head was defective. A new print head might then bring the printer back to life, but a damaged logic board can ruin an expensive new print head.

Druckerchannel.de has an excellent article in English about dismantling of and absorber change on Pixmas 3000, 4000, 5000 and 8500. The link is in this post.

I don't know what service manual you bought online? The links in this post to free manuals are still active. Remember to read the instruction before download. The use of an ad blocker can prevent download from the site.

Yeah, printhead electrical death is the main drawback of Canon printers, IMHO. I’ve owned a number of them over the last 20 years and the machine itself never had any problem; it was always the printhead. In some cases I bought a spare head and in other cases, the part being already discontinued, I was forced to get another model of printer.
That said, none of my failed printheads damaged the logic board and they didn’t prevent the printer from powering-on either. It was just the classic symptom when suddenly half or all the nozzles of one color disappear suddenly. Maybe I’ve been lucky somehow.

Here is an early thread about the risk of defective print heads killing printers. Not all defective print heads kill the logic board, but it can happen if you are unlucky. Swapping print heads between printers for troubleshooting is risky!

Probably 'done and dusted' by now but here goes... should it be the print head, yes there are times a new printhead will resolve an issue and others sadly, a faulty head will take the digi-board with it.

Another problem is to remove the print head is to cleaned the contacts with a clean soft lint free rag moistened in Isopropanol, the contacts on the print head AND the carrier becoming tarnished - do not use switch cleaner or WD40.

Dave

Thanks everyone for the really good information. I've been out of action with an infected hand/wrist so I couldn't even try the first step which was removing the print head...I had no use at all of my main hand.

Now it's(my hand) working again and I'm facing the first step, how to move the print head to the center without being able to power on the printer. I have the right side off and access to some gears. Can I just turn the gears to move the print head over, or is there a lock somewhere that has to be unlatched first?

Turning the gear unlocks the print head from the purge unit. There are no further locks to open. Druckerchannel.de has an excellent article in English about dismantling Canon Pixmas iP 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 8500 for changing ink absorbers. This page shows unlocking the print head.

I removed the print head, but that didn't change the problem, the printer was still dead. I re-installed the print head and the ink cartridges, pulled off the power cord and checked the voltage again (116v), put it back in place, tried the off/on button. No change. Then an hour later I noticed the two lights (green and yellow) had both come on. I tried to print something but the printer software indicated "printer is offline". There was no noise from the printer and no lights flashing, just the two lights both on. Pressing the two long buttons below the lights didn't get produce reaction at all. The printer was still dead but with the two lights on. After I removed the power cord again and put it back in place, the lights were out and the printer still dead in the water.

Any clues from the lights coming on? I have some ip4000s and another ip5000 that don't work. If I knew how to test the logic boards and print heads, I could try some substitutions if any looked good. Is there a way to test these parts using a DVOM?

If the print head were the only defective part in the printer then the printer should be able to turn on without the print head flashing an error code meaning no print head installed. The behaviour suggests that the logic board and/or the power supply is defective. According to some experts at the druckerchannel.de Canon forum the Canon power supplies very rarely fail. This leaves the logic board as the prime suspect.

According to the parts catalogs the power supplies and logic boards for Pixma 4000 and Pixma 5000 are different, so Pixma 4000 parts cannot be installed in the Pixma 5000. You could try substituting the power supply from the other Pixma 5000 to see if the printer can now start without print head.

If the printer can start now this only indicates the logic board might be OK. A defective print head can damage a logic board and a damaged logic board can damage a print head. A logic board damaged in this way may not give any error codes or prevent the printer from turning on.

I have found no test procedures for the print heads and logic boards in service manuals or on the web. I think such were never published to the service technicians as suspect electronic parts should be replaced not repaired. Testing logic circuitry takes more than a DMM.

See this thread for ideas for testing the power supplies.

Newer service manuals state that the print head and logic board should both be replaced in case of print head or logic board failure.

Even if print heads and logic boards for the printer might be found on the web I would not trust these to be new and OK, so sadly I think the printer is a write-off.

Wasn't there a procedure to re-set the printer, by holding down the two buttons while applying the main power.... would this be worth a try?

Dave