ip4200 - 5 blink problem

Hi,

I have this printer for about 5 or 6 years, not sure, but she's been a champ. No problems whatsoever... I've been using refilled cartridges for over 4 years, I don't doit myself I go to a shop near me.
Last week I went to the shop to get a refill for the large black cartridge.
After a lot of trouble with Operator Errors that I thought were because windows 10 it started working... but... no print :-( I went back to the shop this afternoon and they swapped the cartridge, back home, installed the cartridge but no luck. Operator error is back, and this time for good.

I found this forum grab the service manual and learned that 5 blinks means a print head problem. :-(

Ok, now the question...

How do I go to service mode ??? I've tried everything.
When the manual says

<Standalone printer operation>
1) Turn on the printer.
2) Press and hold the Resume/Cancel button until the Power LED blinks in green the
specified number of times listed in the table below, and release it. The operation starts.

WTF are they talking about? the ip4200 don't have a (real) power button.
The last time the TOP button worked as a power button was in Windows XP, than some update gave that control to the driver and it haven't done a thing for years...
I have tried to hold Resume/Cancel and/or the top button while connecting the printer to the power socket but no luck nothing happens.

Is this a basket case ? I just love this printer... :-(

thanks in advance.

Vasco said:

...
How do I go to service mode ??? I've tried everything.
When the manual says

<Standalone printer operation>
1) Turn on the printer.
2) Press and hold the Resume/Cancel button until the Power LED blinks in green the
specified number of times listed in the table below, and release it. The operation starts.

...

Click to expand...

"Stand alone printer operation" is what it says, but I guess it won't operate at all, as long as the print head is causing the error blinking.

So probably you neither can do the following:
"...Entering service mode:
- make sure the printer is turned off.
- press and hold the [resume] button, and then press and hold the [power] button. (Now you
are holding both buttons down)
- release the [resume] button (but do not take the finger off the power button)
- press 2x [resume]
- release the [power] button.."
Anyway there is nothing you could do in service mode to stop the blinking.
What you could do is take out the head... let it soak overnight.. try again..
But chances are quite small that this head would work again.
Sadly chances are bigger that the error of the head has damaged the printer's electronic, resulting in a possible damage of another head you put in...

PS: may I call this "canon's catch 22"?

Wow, just saw a video about soaking the print head... It might work, and what about some WD-40 on that contact array ? ok, ok, electronic contact cleaner... But that might be the problem, it's kinda cold in the attic (bellow 10ºC now, I guess) and humidity is high too, I will give it a try.
When I've been working with something for so long I don't accept well if it stops working without any reason.
What's so special inside the print head that can fry or be fried so easily by the logic board ? Is there some high voltage or high current circuits in the printing process ? I really don't know a thing about how ink-jets operate.

Thanks for your answer.

update: the contact cleaner didn't help. I'll do the soaking tomorrow, now it's tooooo cold.

Canon "bubble jet" print heads (also HP) use to wear out simply by the thermal inkjet printing process.
3rd party inks or cartridges may accelerate this, because very high temperatures at the nozzles do need a constant flow of the right sort of ink for cooling.
Canon heads are easy to renew... if they are still available... I suspect for the 4200 no more ..

About 26 € on ebay. But if it's so easy that the logic board is kaputz too...

@Vasco, sadly your precious beautiful old printer has come to its very end, there are no more new QY6-0059 print heads available for the iP4200 model, you can try EBay but they are only reconditioned and not new, beware because most never work properly.
You'd be better off putting your €'s into a new machine...

Standalone operations and service mode operations are two different things.

Standalone operations allows you to do some of the cleaning and testing operations from the printer driver's maintenance tab, but without the the printer being connected to a computer. This might come in handy when testing a used printer without having access to a computer.

Service mode operations include a more detailed nozzle check with grid pattern for all nozzle sets, info about the printers usage, unlocking a printer that has been locked due to the ink absorber being filled up and more.

Neither of these operations work if the printer cannot print normally in user mode. There is one exception, if the printer has been locked due to the ink absorber capacity being used up you can unlock the printer from service mode.

martin0reg correctly explains how to enter service mode on the iP4200, but doesn't mention how to perform the service mode operations and the service manual is in error, see this.

Vasco said:

WTF are they talking about? the ip4200 don't have a (real) power button.
The last time the TOP button worked as a power button was in Windows XP, than some update gave that control to the driver and it haven't done a thing for years...
I have tried to hold Resume/Cancel and/or the top button while connecting the printer to the power socket but no luck nothing happens.

Click to expand...

This is due to an error in the printer. This is not caused by the OS or printer driver. Even without being connected to a computer the printer should be able to turn on using the power button. The most likely cause of this error is that a defective print head prevents the power supply from starting. If you remove the casing of the printer and remove the print head the printer might be able to turn on. See this for disassembling the printer, or a translation here.

The power button is not an approved double pole switch that isolates the printer from the mains when in the off position. Instead it is a small single pole push button with a low voltage and current rating that toggles the power supply between a stand by mode and operating mode. You can read more about the power supply here.

Vasco said:

What's so special inside the print head that can fry or be fried so easily by the logic board ? Is there some high voltage or high current circuits in the printing process ? I really don't know a thing about how ink-jets operate.

Click to expand...

The print head is a specialized IC with logic circuitry and power circuitry. The logic part operates at 3.3VDC and the power parts operate at 16 and 24 VDC. The logic part is most likely CMOS and a CMOS input is high impedance and must never go above V+ or below V-. If the smallest amount of water is left where it does not belong it can cause a leakage current from the 16 V or 24 V that will cause the voltage on an input of the logic to rise above the allowed 3.3 V and burn out some part of the logic and ruining the print head. See this.

A damaged print head might damage the logic board and a logic board that has been damaged in this way might damage a new print head. So replacing the print head is a gamble and I cannot tell you the odds for success.

I think it is very difficult to find a new and unused print head for the iP4200. Canon only sell spares 5 years after the printer was discontinued. Many of the print heads found online are used print heads that have been cleaned externally to look like new and has been repackaged in counterfeit plastic/aluminium bags and cardboard boxes.

So sadly i think the printer should be considered a total loss.

Amazing well of information, I thank you all.
I have the heads soaking in water and I'll give it another try tomorrow.

Vasco said:

Amazing well of information, I thank you all.
I have the heads soaking in water and I'll give it another try tomorrow.

Click to expand...

@Vasco, good luck with the soaking, theses heads have been known to come back to life, but only for a short while because the five orange lights are usually fatal, be sure to thoroughly dry the head in a warm place for an hour or two before refitting...

The Hat said:

be sure to thoroughly dry the head in a warm place for an hour or two before refitting

Click to expand...

Or over night to make sure!