Canon Pixma ip3600 Problem

[Casey Dorion]

The green is solid and the yellow is flashing 4 times

I followed the directions.
disconnected cable from the printer from the computer

shut the printer of

unplugged the computer



Re hooked the printer

same thing



Checked the ink tanks and found 2

were empty

Replaced them, same results



Normall when a tank is empty, the light will flash

These 2 tanks did not have that


And/or when trying to print, a screen will come

up indicating there are tanks running low.

That did not happen.

Read in the instructions that if the tanks go dry

the printer could be damaged.

Any ideas?

Thanks for reading

 

[PeterBJ]

The solid green light and 4 yellow flashes means ink might have run out. see this clip from the service manual:

If the red LED on a cartridge is constantly lit it means that there is sufficient ink in the cartridge. If the red LED is flashing it means that the ink is running low, and you might need to replace the cartridge soon. If the red led is not lit it means the cartridge is considered empty and it should be replaced.

What cartridges do you use?
1 New Canon OEM
2 Refilled Canon OEM. If so then what ink do you use and do you use a resetter?
3 Compatible cartridges
4 refillable or refilled compatible cartridges.

If the red led on a new OEM cartridge does not light it could mean that the chip is defective or a defect in the printer, maybe dirty chip contact springs.

If the cartridge is a refilled refilled and resat Canon OEM, the chip might have become defective. It is a rare occurrence, but it has happened to me. A refilled CLI-8 M cartridge behaved normally when installed, the red LED came on. But when I closed the lid the printer gave an error message. When I opened the lid on the printer, the LED on the magenta cartridge was no longer lit. Resetting the cartridge again didn't correct the error. But with another Magenta cartridge the printer worked again. I think the defective chip might have been damaged by a resetter running low on battery or maybe by static discharge. Avoid touching the chips.

So if you open the lid on the printer again after having changed the cartridges that were not lit, are all cartrtidge LEDs lit or are some missing/flashing?

 

[Casey Dorion]

Thanks for the reply
I use Compatible cartridges and have
used them always.
The LED on the cartridges is not on
and never were EXCEPT when the
ink was running low.
Looks like I have a dead printer.

Thanks for the help

Casey

 

[PeterBJ]

That's a strange behaviour from the compatible carts. All the compatible carts I have seen and used behaved like Canon OEM cartridges regarding the red LED, so a constant red light means enough of ink is present. If Canon had chosen green LEDs instead of red, the behaviour of the LEDs would be more logical. But red LEDs are cheaper and more efficient than green LEDs.

The chips makes contact to some contact springs in the print head carriage. Here are the contact springs in an iP3600. The contact springs are marked in red. You could try cleaning the springs with a rag or a Q-tip moistened with an electronics contact cleaner or isopropyl alcohol before giving up on the printer. A broken contact spring would also give the same error message, so also check that no contact springs are broken.

 

[Casey Dorion]

I gave up and got a new printer

Thanks for your help

Casey

 

[PeterBJ]

Thank you for the feed-back.