Canon i850 Error 5100 and bad purge unit

[Trigger 37]

Hello, I'm working on a Canon i850 that is giving me error 5100 which according to the manual is one of three problems, Timing strip has grease on it, Carriage is faulty, or the logic board is bad.

(Sorry, I forgot to mention that the timing strip did have some grease on it so I cleaned it with Alcohol. I don't believe the carriage is fault or sticky since when I execute power on/off cycles the carriage moves quite well as normal, finally, I don't think the logic board is bad as it seems to execute all functions so far)

I took the printer apart and found that when the unit first powered on, it would come to ready(green light) but after 55 seconds the purge unit would cycle and attempt to lock the carriage in place over the "Ink Caps". All iSeries Canon printers do this to lock the printhead and carriage in place and to keep the printhead from drying out.

However, on this printer, the Purge unit which has the job of moving the Caps out of the way when the printhead is moveing back and forth, and also the job of raising the Caps when the printhead is in the home position, and locking the printhead,...Is not working. What I mean is that the purge unit goes through all of the steps but somehow it does not raise the caps to seal the printhead. It rotates through a cycle but does not come to a stop with the Caps in the raised position.
As a result, the carriage is never locked in place. In addition to this, it can't do a cleaning cycle.

After I removed the entire carriage from the printer I could check the bottom of the purge unit. You will not believe that it is clear to me that this unit was never built correctly, as I believe the purge unit has never worked. The ink tubes that come from the bottom of the purge unit are totally clear, and there does not appear to have ever been any ink in them at all. There is ink on the outsides of the tubes but this comes as a spray when the wiping action flips the ink off the bottom of the Printhead.

If I am correct, how did this unit ever pass any test. Why does it not generate the Cyclical Green-Orange-Green-Orange-Long Green, and the error message 5100 on the Status Monitor.

So now I'm in the process of removing the Purge unit and I have one screw out that holds it in place. However, I can't find another screw, even though the Part Manual shows (2) screws to remove the unit. I do see a large dimple that seems to snap in place and hold the unit it,..but I have not been able to force it to release. It is captured in 3 different directions,... i.e., it can't go forward, backwards, or to either side.

If anyone knows how to get it out, please let me know. If anyone knows what could cause the Purge unit to get out of sync or have bad timing, please help.

 

[MarcellaL]

Hi,

I never heard about this error but one time my printer did some funny noises and I turned to a tech support site that help me solve it. I am positive you can find some answers there.

Here is the page for Canon i850 Support

hope it helps

Marcella

 

[mackenziema]

The purge unit has 2 screws. One of them is hidden behind the paper handler, which comes off with two screws of its own.

The clear tubes on the bottom of the purge unit are the ink exit tubes as far as I can tell. The black tubes connect the top to the pump thing.

I fixed an error 5100 on an i850 by repairing its purge unit. There was some broken plastic around the white lever that locks the carriage in the rightmost position, and a spring had sprung. A little epoxy and it's working fine.

 

[Fell32]

Good to know that you fix the problem without tech support. If it works for Tiger then well and good otherwise consulting tech support will help i guess...

 

[Trigger 37]

To all that have read this thread. I can't believe how old this note is and how far I have progressed. It has been a little over two years and since that time I have repaired many dozens of printers and have become what i consider an expert on Canon Printers. So much so that I have created detailed Repair Manuals with high resolution digital imagegs of the step by step instructions anyone can use to "Fix their own printer". I have completed Repair Manuals for all of the can i Series printers from the i550 thru the i9900, most all of the Canon S Series printers, all of the Multifunctional printers starting from the F20,30,50,60,80, MP700,730, and on up throught the MP 960. This also includes the Pixma series starting with the ip2000, 3000..... throught the ip6700d. I have recently finished the MP450, 500, and 600 printers, as well as a few models of HP Deskjet and OfficeJet printers.

So you can see this has been a very busy 2+ years and people have asked me how did I do all of this. Well it started with my very own first Canon i560 printer that I had to repair, and then I started buying printers that had failed and fixed them. Finally I was buy printer buy multiple pallets and repairing them. This gave me access to all of these printers and as I took each one apart to find and fix the problem, I documented each step of the process with digital closeup pictures. I decided to make a Repair Manual that anyone could use and would provide much more that just repair. The goal was to educate people on how to take care of their printers on a day to day basis such that they would never get into a bad condition. However, if something did fail, they would know how to take it apart, clean it, repair it, and put it back together.

I still have over 50 printers in my home and continue to find and fix new problems and as I do I update the documents that I have already produced. If anyone is interested in a SAMPLE of my Repair Manuals, just send me an email with your request and I will respond.

 

[Manuchau]

e-mail sent...thanks

 

[aguacate]

To Trigger37:

If you think you have documented how to fix the following, I would be interested in your manual:

I have a Canon i560 which I have been using for a couple of years without problems. I recently found a that it prints a red thin stripe (about a quarter of an inch wide) accross de picture towards the last inch of the print. It happens only with photo paper (not on plain paper).

I noticed the photo paper runs a little faster (skips) when is close to the end and then comes back to normal speed and prints the rest very well. The entire picture comes high quality with no problems at all, except for the stripe described above.

It seems like the printer moves the paper faster for a second (which doesn't allow it to get enough ink for about a quarter inch), then the reddish stripe, then normal printing again until the end of the picture. It might have something to do with paper thickness.

Please, help (would that be a problem with the printer rollers or the print drivers??).