new IP4500 ink levels

[stevec]

I have just taken delivery of an IP4500 which was bought as a 'new' unit which had had the cartridges installed by the seller for testing to see if it worked. I was told it was bought as part of a package and was not needed as the seller had a printer already. The printer looks unused apart from some faint marks on the shiney cover and the area under the print heads in the 'cleaning' area does not look as if it has lots of ink around it. The ink level monitor shows the black dye cartridge full, the black pigment about 2/5ths and the colours about 1/2. Does this sound about right for a new printer with factory shipped cartridges? Can I remove the cartridges to examine the ink levels without upsetting anything?
I haven't sorted the print head alignment out yet. The manual is not very clear about what it does and doesn't explain the chart it prints out when printing the 'current settings'. Still, early days yet.

 

[embguy]

I think the seller had used the printer to print quite a few pages. Canon iP4500 comes with full cartridges.

You can take out cartridge and put it back without any problem.

 

[on30trainman]

Yes you can take the cartridges out and examine how much ink is in them. Only thing that will happen is that the printer will run through a cleaning cycle when you next try to print. As Embguy stated - a brand new printer should show, and have, full cartridges. There is a way through the service menu to see how many pages have been printed. I have a printout for the ip4500 Service Manual around here somewhere - can't find it just now. Maybe you could find one on the web somewhere.

Steve W.

 

[jflan]

I would say that the seller was less than truthful, calling this a briefly tested new unit with the carts down as much as you say.
I don't think that I would worry too much about it though, but it would be interesting to get the EEPROM printout (as per on30trainman) to see exactly how many pages the printer has produced.

 

[embguy]

<Service mode operation procedures>
1) With the printer power turned off, while pressing the Resume/Cancel button, press and hold the Power button. (DO NOT release the buttons. The LED lights in
green to indicate that a function is selectable.)
2) While holding the Power button, release the Resume/Cancel button. (DO NOT release the Power button.)
3) While holding the Power button, press the Resume/Cancel button 2 times, and then release both the Power and Resume/Cancel buttons. (Each time the
Resume/Cancel button is pressed, the LED lights alternately in orange and green, starting with orange.)

To print out the EEPROM information: - make sure you have paper on the printer
4) When the LED lights in green, press the Resume/Cancel button 2 times. (Each time the Resume/Cancel button is pressed, the LED lights alternately in orange and green, starting with orange.)
5) Press the Power button. The LED lights in green. It will print out the content of its EEPROM.

The meaning of some of the abbreviations:
ST= installation date and time
TPAGE= Total number of pages printed since day 1
CT(PBK=001 BK=002 Y=001 M=001 C=001) Ink Tank replacement counts - I changed my pigment black once. Therefore, BK=2. It is on the second pigment black. PBK stands for photo black NOT pigment black.

Update:
This procedure applies to most of the Canon multifunction printers too.
MX850 - Use [stop/reset] button instead of the [resume/cancel] button in above procedure.
MP730 - Not working

 

[stevec]

Thanks for the prompt replies. I will do an EEPROM dump later this afternoon and let you know.

 

[stevec]

There's certainly a lot of information on the EEPROM dump printout. I'm not sure what it all means. Total of 316 pages printed (a couple by me last night). No cartridge changes. I haven't checked the cartridges yet. How do I get them to move to the centre of the printer to access them?

 

[embguy]

Over 300 pages is not a quick test...

With the printer power on, open the cover. The printhead will moved to center.

 

[stevec]

Just what I thought. Still... not eaten too far into it's life cycle!
Thanks for the info. My old Epson needed lots of button pushing to get the tanks accessible. Just looked at the ink. Black dye full. Black pigment about 2/5th. So they agree with the ink monitor. Cyan 3/4s, magenta 7/8ths so more than the ink monitor says. Yellow 2/3rds also more than the monitor says. Reminds me of being at junior scholl when we had real ink monitors to fill the ink wells (that dates me). I remember getting my thumb stuck in one, but then haven't we all (well those of us over...er...a certain age).

 

[jackson]

Reminds me of being at junior scholl when we had real ink monitors to fill the ink wells

Those goose quills were a bugger, eh?