Canon MP990 - B200 and U052 errors, any fix or workaround possible?

Hello everyone, I’ve just joined here as unfortunately I’m having some serious trouble with my Canon MP990 - purchased new from microcenter circa 2009 and has been faithfully working ever since, up until this week… I LOVE this printer and I will be pretty distraught if I can’t get it working again, so I am hoping some of you may have some tips or tricks to share.


The printer was used regularly and it wasn’t until I went to print out some documents that I noticed it, did not decide to print… hmm. That’s odd… it’s giving me B200 error message!

After several basic power cycles did nothing, I did some googling and figured out that this could be related to the print head. I then proceeded to take the following steps, each to no avail:

• I reseated the print head and reinstalled the same ink cartridges
• I changed all the ink cartridges
• I removed the print head and cleaned a great deal of ink off the bottom using alcohol and a q-tip. I also cleaned the parts that contact the nozzles of the ink cartridges.
• I used contact cleaner on the gold contacts on the print head as well as the pins inside the carriage.

After doing all this, I would sometimes get the U052 “wrong print head error” instead of B200 but between all the repeated power cycles (sometimes cutting power to the outlet entirely and giving about a minute before powering back on) it would alternate between that and the B200 error I was already getting.


I ordered a “brand new” print head replacement on eBay, which arrived today, however its condition actually appears significantly worse than the print head I am replacing. The flexible ribbon that wraps around the print head is littered with all manner of fine scratches, whereas mine looked pristine particularly after cleaning off all the ink residue… I am fairly certain this “brand new” replacement was even more heavily used than the one I’ve been using since 2009. It appears beat up as if it was dragged through gravel.


I installed it anyway, but it is just giving me the B200 error as well.



Is there anything I can do? Any kind of trickery with the USB service tool or anything like that?

It is a shame that this print head error completely disables all other functionality of the device. I have to call that bad design on Canon’s behalf; this is like manufactured e-waste.
I don’t even particularly care if it never prints another sheet of paper again, I can get any cheap printer and it’d be 100% fine for my needs... But I do need to use the scanner.
This scanner has 35mm film negative scanning capabilities, which I do use regularly. And there are no longer any all-in-one printer/scanners on the market which are capable of scanning film.
The MP990 was top of the line for its time and no manufacturer has since made a printer as fully featured as this one.

a used example of this printer will cost me between $150-$250, but then what? I’m paying for another printer that could just go kaput without warning from one day to the next all over again?


ANY help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, Canon has the strict policy of discontinuing printheads when the printer has been out of production for a few years (usually five). Such is the case with the QY6-0043 used by the MP9890.
Brand new printheads aren't available anywhere. As you realized, those units sold on Ebay/Aliexpress are far from new. All are refurbished and most of them have problems (dead/clogged nozzles) and in many cases they won't work at all. Purchasing one of these units is a lottery with very few chances of wining. I know it by experience.
What options do you have ? -- Of course, I'd stay away from Ali-Express/Ebay printheads.
Getting an used MP990 it's, again, a gamble. You might stumble upon a printer in good shape or you may not. It would be different if the machine was located near your home. This way you could check in person the condition of the printer. Even in this case, there's no guarantee that the printhead wouldn't fail suddenly shortly afterwards. Canon printheads do that sometimes without previous warning.
Another thing is the waste inkpads counter. If you purchase an unit which has printed many thousands of pages, it could trigger the 'waste ink pad full' error at any time.
I think it's time to get a new printer, be it Canon, Epson or any other brand. If you want a model with film scanning capabilities, I expect that nowadays the choices are none, as you said. Possibly you would be forced to buy a secondhand film scanner plus a regular multifunction printer.
Sorry to be the bearer of gloomy news. If it serves of consolation, some people might say that you've been lucky to get your MP990 working for 14 years. Canon estimates the lifespan of their consumer inkjet printers at 10 years or even less.

Artur5 said:

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately, Canon has the strict policy of discontinuing printheads when the printer has been out of production for a few years (usually five). Such is the case with the QY6-0043 used by the MP9890.
Brand new printheads aren't available anywhere. As you realized, those units sold on Ebay/Aliexpress are far from new. All are refurbished and most of them have problems (dead/clogged nozzles) and in many cases they won't work at all. Purchasing one of these units is a lottery with very few chances of wining. I know it by experience.
What options do you have ? -- Of course, I'd stay away from Ali-Express/Ebay printheads.
Getting an used MP990 it's, again, a gamble. You might stumble upon a printer in good shape or you may not. It would be different if the machine was located near your home. This way you could check in person the condition of the printer. Even in this case, there's no guarantee that the printhead wouldn't fail suddenly shortly afterwards. Canon printheads do that sometimes without previous warning.
Another thing is the waste inkpads counter. If you purchase an unit which has printed many thousands of pages, it could trigger the 'waste ink pad full' error at any time.
I think it's time to get a new printer, be it Canon, Epson or any other brand. If you want a model with film scanning capabilities, I expect that nowadays the choices are none, as you said. Possibly you would be forced to buy a secondhand film scanner plus a regular multifunction printer.
Sorry to be the bearer of gloomy news. If it serves of consolation, some people might say that you've been lucky to get your MP990 working for 14 years. Canon estimates the lifespan of their consumer inkjet printers at 10 years or even less.

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Thank you for the helpful response - perhaps not what I wanted to hear but reality is reality!

I do possibly see a couple of paths forward with the MP990 that may help put off purchasing something entirely different.


There are a lot of sellers of the “brand new” print heads on Amazon, and they have a much more lenient return/exchange policy than eBay. So I am willing to roll the dice with them at least one more time. Possibly go through multiple exchanges until I get a working print head.


Again, don’t even care if it never prints again, but I do need access to the scanner. Replacing the printer would be trivial. Replacing the scanner…
I looked into some new options. All are very pricey and there were no options I could find that could interface over my network as my MP990 did.

This is hugely disruptive to my workflow… I’m just shocked there isn’t some kind of known trick or something that can just bypass the error and regain access to the scanner functionality!


Another option is, if going with the used eBay unit, eBay does offer a 2 year protection plan however having never actually purchased or used their protection plans myself, I don’t know if they try to find ways to weasel out of fulfilling their end of the insurance contract. For one, they are the ones offering such a protection plan on these older used electronics. They seem to imply you get fully reimbursed for the cost of the item if something happens and they can’t repair it. But words and actions can be two very different things.

Trying used printheads, even if you get your money back, it’s somehow risky. A damaged printhead, in some cases, may damage the logic board of the printer, rendering it totally unusable.

Yes, its a shame that Canon disables totally the machine, scanning included, when the printer part triggers a service error. Obviously, they want that you purchase another printer and letting you use it as scanner/copy isn’t good business for them, but they seem to disregard the fact that angry customers may consider purchasing another brand instead of Canon.

Years ago, my brother gave me his old Epson multifunction printer because it wouldn’t print anymore, but I could use it solely as a scanner without problems. I don’t know if it’s still like this with current Epson models.

Check out the Canon Maxify range of model printers, one of them is bound to suite your needs..

not sure if the pinout of the printhead of the Mp990's qy6-0076 printhead is the same as the QY6-0078(it looked similar at a glance) in the mg6270 but we could adapt the tape method of disabling either pgbk or CLI but the pins seem to be marked the same as the earlier printhead shown in the post.




its been awhile since i've experimented on what pins are needed to be covered on my printhead for the B200 to go away so the PGBK one may be wrong as it was working fine on printhead. its probably a good idea to fully disable either pgbk or CLI rather than doing what i have done here (potentially even both if only scanning is to be used).

another that could be checked is the logic board's mounting hardware for moisture or tape that has gone conductive for some reason as the same printer had a b200 from tape that was somewhat damp (which may have damaged the printhead then causing the later b200 5 years later)

Bunkerintegrated said:

it's advised to contact Canon support or a service facility for additional guidance

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What planet is this guy on, contacting Canon for out of production print heads and discontinued printers that you want to hack, they would only laugh at your for been so stupid.. Pure spam..