Canon Pro1 blinking orange and white, 16 blinks, 8 of each

[Shovels]

Hi. New to the forum. I've a 2nd hand Canon pro1 which has been firing out prints for me since this time last year. I've moved from Canon inks to an own brand by 123ink.ie that I was assured was very high quality by a photographer friend. I went to print last week and the printer wouldn't let me saying the matte black was too low. I ordered some more and tried to install this morning. I was greeted by the familiar start up hums and pumps only for the blinking orange light to come on at the 11th hour. Blinking intermittently between the orange and white light, 16 blinks in total, 8 of each. Apparently this equates to an empty cartridge (I'm probably wrong), but the doors to the cartridge won't open as the orange and the white light are busy blinking at each other. I've gotten quite frustrated and the bit of research I've done so far has me going nowhere.

I'd appreciate any help you can offer. The printer was bought in and is situated in Ireland.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shovels]

Hi. New to the forum. I've a 2nd hand Canon pro1 which has been firing out prints for me since this time last year. I've moved from Canon inks to an own brand by 123ink.ie that I was assured was very high quality by a photographer friend. I went to print last week and the printer wouldn't let me saying the matte black was too low. I ordered some more and tried to install this morning. I was greeted by the familiar start up hums and pumps only for the blinking orange light to come on at the 11th hour. Blinking intermittently between the orange and white light, 16 blinks in total, 8 of each. Apparently this equates to an empty cartridge (I'm probably wrong), but the doors to the cartridge won't open as the orange and the white light are busy blinking at each other. I've gotten quite frustrated and the bit of research I've done so far has me going nowhere.

I'd appreciate any help you can offer. The printer was bought in and is situated in Ireland.

Thanks in advance.

Apologies, on the computer I'm error B500 in the printer dialog box.

 

[The Hat]

but the doors to the cartridge won't open as the orange and the white light are busy blinking at each other. I've gotten quite frustrated and the bit of research I've done so far has me going nowhere.

OK, let’s start, are you getting 16 LED orange only or are both blinking orange/white, now the 16 blinks = no ink in one or more cartridges and both LED’s blinking = purge unit cable disconnected from Relay board.

The most likely cause is mismatch of cartridge chips, so are you using all compatible carts or a mix of both 3rd party and OEM carts..

The next thing to look at is this B500 error, that’s a strange one, because that relates to ink leakage (Loss of Pressure) or cart not pushed home all the way into its socket.

The next thing to try is to power off the printer and wait 15 minutes, then power on again and press the resume button for 2-5 seconds and see if that will give you back control, and while we’re on that subject, can you post up your latest or last nozzle check, that’s important..

When you have tried some of the suggestions and instructions about come back and we’ll take it a bit further, O’ when you’re dealing with this bitch you need to have plenty of patience.. The more information we get the better..

 

[Shovels]

OK, let’s start, are you getting 16 LED orange only or are both blinking orange/white, now the 16 blinks = no ink in one or more cartridges and both LED’s blinking = purge unit cable disconnected from Relay board.

The most likely cause is mismatch of cartridge chips, so are you using all compatible carts or a mix of both 3rd party and OEM carts..

The next thing to look at is this B500 error, that’s a strange one, because that relates to ink leakage (Loss of Pressure) or cart not pushed home all the way into its socket.

The next thing to try is to power off the printer and wait 15 minutes, then power on again and press the resume button for 2-5 seconds and see if that will give you back control, and while we’re on that subject, can you post up your latest or last nozzle check, that’s important..

When you have tried some of the suggestions and instructions about come back and we’ll take it a bit further, O’ when you’re dealing with this bitch you need to have plenty of patience.. The more information we get the better..

Thanks for coming back to me on this.

I plugged the printer out overnight and have just fired it up again.

-White power LED flashes as normal.
-Usual pumps and whirrs
-Pulls through a sheet of paper (had put a sheet of A4 in the rear manual feed tray in the hope of running a nozzle check).
-Settles down into intermittent blink of orange blink from resume button, white from power button.
-Pattern seems to be orange, white, orange, white, orange. 8 of each, last white lasts longer, seemingly to signify the end of the sequence? Video on link below (Google Photos):

- https://photos.app.goo.gl/phyQbsBb3eDLgYzg8

- several attempts at holding the resume button for 3-5 seconds (variants of), had no effect. Lights carried on blinking.
- All 123ink.ie own brand ink cartridges in the computer.
- I had just replaced the Gray and the Cyan last week and realised I'd no matte black in the box and had to order some. This might be relevant as the printer accepted and charged the new cartridges, but I obviously never replaced the matte black. I might have installed the cartridges incorrectly or the system may have sucked too hard on the empty cartridge. Not sure, but may be relevant to yourself?
- Code B500 still appears in the printer utility.
- Haven't run a nozzle check since last autumn, and the system won't let me now.

Thanks again for coming back to me on this.

 

[The Hat]

Thanks again for coming back to me on this.

The situation you’re in today is not much better than yesterday, the printer is having a few issue that don’t make any sense just yet, like she’s throwing tantrum, now you say you have 123 carts like these, and from what I can see these carts are not colour coded.
click to enlarge..

What you need to do now is removal all your carts including the empty one, and then check very very carefully when putting them back in and that they go in the correct colour position (Check twice), but I’d recommend that you wait till you get a new Matte black cart. (Push firmly)

I know this sound silly and you may think I’m saying you’re stupid, but believe me this is an issue that can affect any Pro 1 owner, (Including Me) it’s too easy a mistake to make and usually causes the printer to lock the ink doors allowing no access.

When you get her up and running again its vital to run a nozzle check before you start to run any print jobs, it’s your insurance that all inks and nozzles are firing together and your print will come out perfect.

Here are the instructions on how to get the ink tank doors open, unconventionally, you can do this with or without the printer been powered on, same difference..

 

[Shovels]

I'll steel myself and give it a try at the first quite moment I get. The matte black has arrived. I'll let you know how I fare.

Thanks

 

[Shovels]

Hi. I removed the covers on both sides and dropped the ink tank covers. Took all the cartridges out and reinserted them. Looks like they were all in the correct slot. Replaced the matte black while I was at it.

Rebooted the printer. Went through the usual start-up and then reverted to the same orange white blinking pattern, same amount of flashes. Error B500 still comes up in the printer utility. Unable to run a nozzle check.

They are all 123ink cartridges, your pic above shows the insertion end, the back of them have the colour and code on them, even the little red LED that blinks faster as the ink goes down.

 

[The Hat]

I’m sorry because I have no other answers for you, that error is saying a ink leakage from around the ink supply tanks, and you have carried out the only procedure for correcting that issue.

The only other thing it could be is the printer is playing games, and you could try re-fitting all of your old OEM empty carts and see if that causes a reset to her ladyships memory. It sounds crazy but it’s like trying to deal with an adolescent child ..

They are all 123ink cartridges, your pic above shows the insertion end, the back of them have the colour and code on them, even the little red LED that blinks faster as the ink goes down.

P.S. 123 ink cartridges usually give no problems..

 

[Shovels]

You've been very generous with your time, thanks. I'll refit the original inks and see what happens.

 

[Shovels]

Hi,

Replaced all the 123ink.ie cartridges with the original Canon cartridges. This gives back control of the printer, just the blue ink light on the top comes on. Replaced the cartridges and go to run a nozzle check, this sends the printer back to square one, same sequence of blinking lights and the error B500 in the dialog box of the printer utility. I rang Canon. They don't offer much over the phone, but I was very nice to the guy and he conceded he thinks it's probably the waste ink cartridge that needs to be replaced. Just wondering if this new information furthers my cause in any way.

Thanks again.