Canon Mp620 Low Ink Signal

My printer is playing up rather oddly. First I get the low ink warning on Magenta, on inspection cart's tank is still 1/3 full and the red light is flashing. I replace it with a spare cart. Shortly afterwards copies look dreadful do a nozzle check (about 3 a week now) and there is no yellow, tank is empty and I have NOT had the usual warning.

Today it was cyan's turn, again on inspection is 50% full but red light is also flashing.

This printer only gets light use very few photo's get seems to be developing a string of problems and as I am almost out of I.S. ink am wondering whether I should be looking for a replacement like the Epson XP series. Because of the ink feeding problems with cyan/magenta with OEM refilled carts I have been also trying compatibles but they seem to get the same warnings as well

Maybe the logic board is failing, the ink level indication seems to have ceased working properly. So I think it might be time for another printer, as this printer has also had a lot of ink flow problems. A new print head might be a solution, but too expensive a gamble, I think.

The reason I think a new print head might help is that the logic board calculates the expected ink usage and writes the calculated ink level to the chip. If the optical sensor does not signal reservoir empty when it should be, the ink level indication might come out of sync. Too low ink consumption could be caused by ink flow problems. See this lengthy thread for a possible example of out of sync ink level indication: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/cli-8-and-cli-521-526-swap.7705/

As the new Canon PGI-550/CLI-551 printers use opaque cartridges for which a resetter probably never will be available, so refilling and check of ink levels is difficult, the Epson XP series might be a better choice.

Thanks PeterBj for your comments the printer seems OK as far as web pages are concerned. Will keep a close eye on things. Still getting the low ink warning (magenta) on every page printed but still plenty of ink in the cart.

The mystery to me is why I have had so much feeding problems. Only ever used OEM refilled carts with I.S. ink tried all 3 methods still prefer the German. Tried purging carts that have caused problems but made no difference to the printers consistent output. Luckily I have a very RELIABLE back-up in the shape of a HP 7760 Photosmart which of course uses the 56/57/58 carts. This is hard wired to a desktop I very use these days, but I switched it on last week to do some updating and in spite of not being used for 2 months the HP produced a perfect printed page when required. Its a pity that these carts do not refill very well but as I use it rarely I am content to buy re-manufactured ones from IJT at very reasonable prices. My son has the same one but only uses OEM gets super pictures out of it and has had it for some years now.

I don't know what is causing the ink flow problems, but I have a suspicion that it could be the German refill method. I have also experienced ink flow problems with the PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges refilled with the German method. I think the newer and smaller cartridges are more fragile than the old transparent cartridges. I have observed needle damage to the lower sponge in a couple of cut open cartridges, that had failed totally to deliver ink. I have now changed to top fill these possibly more fragile cartridges and my problems with them are now fewer. Even if I use top fill, the cartridges seem to benefit from flushing and drying for each 4-5 refills, else they won't fill up to full weight, and they start to develop ink flow problems. There has been more threads about problems with the newer cartridges.

Some of the old HP printers seem to be reliable workhorses, and the combined cartridges seem to be less sensitive to drying if not used regularly. For a Canon printer a weekly nozzle test print is recommended to keep the print head in good working order, I think a monthly test print is sufficient for the HP printers with combined cartridges.

My suggestion for this printer that has migratory issues is to not yet purchase refill ink but rather obtain all new OEM cartridges for the dye-based inks and see if the printer now functions properly. It could be the logic assay board as PeterBJ said. It does sound electrical in nature, though maybe there is in part a flow issue, again as PeterBJ mentioned, in which the sponge needs to be flushed in order to return flow to proper.

Also, try cleaning the electrical contacts on the print head and printer with a lint free cloth and isopropyl alcohol or a soft pencil eraser.

Buying new OEM or aftermarket cartridges if you prefer will be an expense that may or may not be of help. Maybe a lightning strike caused your cartridges' chip or the logic board to go berserker. Regardless of my wild hypothesis, trying new cartridges is a crapshoot to hopefully identify the problem. That is what we do here - crap and shoot. Just ask The Hat.

My post 3 was not completely accurate. Whilst in the main I have used OEM/refilled I have also used compatible carts from 2 different suppliers and 1 OEM PGBK. In fact the cyan/magenta currently in the printer are IJT compatibles.

The printer seems OK printing in small batches, but put a load on it and it starts to play up, colours are off confirmed by a nozzle check. which to me indicates poor cart flow hence my trying the compatibles which certainly seem to be behaving better, but certainly do not seem to last very long compared to the OEM/refilled versions. I must admit I usually do not weigh the carts after refilling ( PeterBJ I assumed if slightly underfilled it would just not last so long, and The Hat always advocated only filling to about 75% for top fill and I have done that anyway because I get overflows if I try to completely fill the cart with that method.


The incorrect low ink warnings certainly look like electrical as the prism is covered in ink and therefore should not trigger the yellow warning. I will certainly try stratman idea of cleaning the contacts.

With regard to the German method I do not think that it is practical to convert carts drilled that way and then use top fill. If damage has been done as suggested by PeterBj changing the refill method is not likely to restore the poor feeding of that particular cart. Just my opinion most DIY hot glues do not adhere very well to the plastic cases.

The warning on low magenta has continued and yesterday turned into ink empty. I replaced with a spare compatible and picture of the old cart is attached. As you can see plenty of ink left, and the output has been fine. Going to be wasteful on ink but cannot see there is much I can do. Looks electrical to me?

There could be a couple of things happening with your cartridges one being that the chips on these cartridges you are using are not functioning properly and therefore confusing the hell out of the EPROM resulting in accrete ink levels.

If the EPROM is uncertain it always airs on the users side by showing a low ink or our of ink warning, this is done to protect your print head, better the warning than run the risk of printing without ink in the print head.

Try using only OEM’s to see if that cures the problem and leaving the printer un-plugged from the power socket for 5 minutes will also cause a complete reset of the logic board.

Noticing the attached photo you posted above it has ink in the air maze which is not a good thing to have at all !

Will try that thanks The Hat. I see what you mean about the ink maze however whilst I can see what you mean in the photo its not actually in the cart some odd quirk of the picture . I have had faultless feeding from these IJT carts and they have been very economical on consumption. I was wondering whether the OEM feeding problems with OEM carts could be due to the ink getting to the end of its useful life and now being in nearly empty squeezy bottles (capped) I have used top fill German purged nothing seemed to make much difference until I gently cleaned the head and used compatibles on the two problem colours cyan/magenta.

Not a real test I know because I hav'nt risked trying my refilled ones once the printer was performing well.