Hello from a Canon printing Brit

[dayvaitch]

I found my way here while attempting to prolong the lifespan of my Canon MG3250. I need to reset the ink absorber counter, which will in due course put the machine to sleep permanently, so I'm told. The absorber pads are now as clean as when I bought the printer, but the counter doesn't care. It's like a robot programmed to administer a lethal injection, and I need to find a way to disable it asap.

 

[stratman]

Welcome to the forum, dayvaitch.

I do not know if this will work, but, have you seen the following page concerning entering Service Mode and then using a Service Tool to reset the waste ink counter?

https://easyfixs.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-to-reset-canon-pixma-mg4200-series.html

 

[dayvaitch]

Will definitely give that a go and report back here. Thanks, it's the most promising I've seen yet, and actually explains what's going on unlike a lot of places.

 

[PeterBJ]

That was an excellent find by @stratman The link to the servicetool v3400 is OK, Neither AVG Internet Security nor Malwarebytes Antimalware found anything wrong in the download, even if I suspected that something was wrong as the service tool is less than half a MB. After unpacking the .rar archive it contains 2 files, the service tool which is 434 kB and a 10.9 MB file without extension. It is actually a huge .png file, which can just be deleted. It just shows the service tool window in 24695 x 24363 x 24BPP! Somebody made a mistake with an image handling program! Irfan View can shrink that to 73kB, see this, click to enlarge.:



I had never heard about service manuals for these printer series, but I searched and found a simplified service manual + parts catalog in one .pdf file. Here is the link: https://qdoc.tips/mg2100mg3100mg410...essimplifiedmanualeqy8-13dl-020-pdf-free.html Have patience the download is a bit slow to start.

The procedure linked by stratman checks with the service manual, so I am sure it is OK.

 

[stratman]

Thank you, @PeterBJ .

 

[dayvaitch]

Thanks Stratman and PeterBJ, this is all looking a bit daunting esp. replacing the platen Home and Away absorbers but will give it a go. Printer is going to die soon anyway so nothing venture.. my wife will say chuck it away and buy a new printer but I'm loth do do that unless I have to.

 

[stratman]

You're welcome. Good luck with the reset. Let us know how it goes.

 

[dayvaitch]

Stratman's EasyFIXS page is now bookmarked for future reference. Entering service mode on my printer wasn't exactly as described (no blue LED on the 3250 for a start) but I got there. The Service Tool works a treat and I've reset the counters as per instructions. All the counter information appears on the test print as well as the EEPROM print (all that's missing is the hex dump which I wouldn't know what to do with anyway).

All that remains is to tackle the hardware - I may well give up before the total dismantling required to get at the platen absorbers. May just stick the printer on a piece of newspaper and hope for the best.

Once again, many many thanks for all this.

 

[PeterBJ]

Congratulations with the reset. Did you also download the service manual? Pages 21/34 to 25/34 have more details about the absorber replacement. I admit that these models are not the easiest to change absorbers on. Placing the printer on a newspaper in a shallow tray might be better to contain a possible ink spill.