Canon Pixma MP780 dead after cleaning print head

[twohansen]

I followed the "windex" cleaning directions found on this forum for cleaning a plugged print head. Now my printer seems to be dead and won't respond. A dashed line appears in the bottom of the LCD display window but no buttons work and no lights are lit. I've tried unplugging and plugging back in but printer remains totally unresponsive. Any suggestions?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I've had that problem with several MP780's in the last couple months. One of them was not even being worked on, it was just being used in the normal way. With another one, I swapped power supplies with a known good printer and it made no difference. I took them along with three other MP780's into an authorized Canon repair shop and they wanted a minimum of $250 to repair each one. Fortunately, they will "recycle" them at no charge. I wouldn't spend any more time or money on your printer.

I have also had bad luck trying to buy more MP780's on eBay. The problem is that you really need to see the printer before you buy it so I would suggest Craig's list. You want to make sure, of course, that it passes a nozzle check, but you also want to make sure the the purge unit is working. You can do this removing all the cartridges, do a deep cleaning (I think it is called "head refreshing" from the control panel on the printer), do a nozzle check to make sure nothing prints, put the cartridges back ink, do a normal cleaning and finally a nozzle check to make sure all nozzle print correctly. This is something that a seller should allow you to do.