Canon IP 4500 orange light blinks 5 times

[philqol]

well you were dead right there the hat. sadly.
managed to do a few prints, left it idle for a fair while, as you can tell.
5 flashes back again. this time not been able to solve it.
i have an old ip 4300 in the shed. i 'll try this printhead in that i think.
in case its this ip 4500 itself, rather than the head.
btw, when you say expired, do you mean damaged or time expired ?
i didnt realise they had a time limit for use.

 

[PeterBJ]

The iP4300 uses the QY6-0061 print head and the iP4500 uses the QY6-0067 print head or the replacement type QY6-0076, so the print head from the iP4300 cannot be used in the iP4500.

 

[philqol]

yes thanks. i've just checked that. they look identical but i see the circuit is visually different on the pcb at the rear. back to the drawing board.

 

[The Hat]

Hi Phil
I am sorry it didn’t work out for you but thanks for coming back with your bad news anyway; I would definitely try to get a new head for the 4500, because it’s a great machine.

When I said the print head had expired, I meant exactly that, sadly in some models it’s measured by how many times it fires the nozzles, but in most cases it’s caused by over heating or a short circuit.. (Ink starvation)

 

[philqol]

thanks the hat. yes thats what happened to my 4300. overuse and obvious burnout which was visible. i bought this 4500 secondhand not that long ago. have had very little use out of it since.
all i can see visually are what look like ink bleeds into the brown tape on the base very minor, certainly not burn marks. yes i suppose its worth getting a new head, but they seem expensive.. also just pushing my finger on the ink sponges. they are absolutly saturated. i might take the case apart and try to clean things up a bit. no idea if that will help though, but thought it might be worth a try.
strange the way it resolved itself then came back. clearly this is common.

 

[The Hat]

Hi Phil
Normally when a head goes you can’t see any visible signs of burns, if a head is starved of ink it has a tendency to overheat the nozzles which can cause the electrical circuitry to short out.

A replacement print head is expensive but you’ll have a new printer that should last you for years of happy printing.

If you’re referring to the sponge that you can see under the plastic fingers, in the platen area then this sponge can be carefully lifted out and washed and then put back in again, BUT

If you do that then you’ll have to bring the print head to the centre of the carriageway and pull the power plug, this will give you a lot more space to work with, you can move the print head left/right out of the way with your hand.

The sponges on your printer have to be put back in the same way it came out, so once removed press it onto a sheet of paper to make an impression of it (image) this will help to get the correct orientation for the re-installation.

Print heads can give a false failure warning (Very rarely) but by cleaning the back of the head (electrical contacts) it can correct itself, but this does not very often (50 to 1)..

 

[philqol]

guys, more help needed please.
i put a new yellow cartridge in this problematic ip4500 yesterday.
this cartridge is now completely empty. the ink has soaked into the foam and the tank side of the cartridge is empty. all the other cartridges are full. only the yellow appears to be leaking.
my instinct is to remove the casing and look inside the printer and attempt some sort of clean up operation. clearly this yellow ink has gone somewhere, presumably flooding the overflow area, and who knows, short curcuiting the printhead ?
cheers if you can help with this.
phil

 

[The Hat]

Hi Phil
You’re certainly getting a load of different problems with you printer to say the least.

Firstly does your print head still function without any error messages, how about this new yellow cart, was it OEM or aftermarket type and what did the printer do when you first put in this new cart and how soon afterwards did it empty ?

When you refer to the foam, do you mean the purge unit (Parking station) to the right of the printer ? It seems unlikely that a new cartridge would simply empty out all of the ink without fault or some assistance.

There is no point of removing the top cover from your printer just yet until you get to the bottom of your immediate problem.

If the ink has disappeared while the printer has been idle then it won’t short out the print head and damage it, and you are perfectly right the ink did go somewhere but that is another day’s work later..

 

[philqol]

thanks for the reply.
no, when i say foam, i mean the foam inside the cartridge. sorry for the confusion.
so the ink compartment side of the cart is empty. the foam side saturated. and the base of the printhead was saturated. i wiped this with cotton wool.
i also placed some tissue on the sponge pads whwre the printhead rests.
this foam was also absolutley sodden.
this has not happened on any of the other carts. just the yellow.
YES THIS HAPPENED WHILE THE PRINTER WAS IDLE.

i am still getting the 5 flashes. this is a permanent state regardless of whether the printhead has carts in or not.
the cartridges in it at the moment are mainly refills that were re chipped. bought on ebay. only the magenta cartridge is an official canon cart.
all red lights are solid. so the head must have accepted the carts.
why would the yellow cart empty out like this ??
thanks.

 

[mikling]

thanks for the reply.
no, when i say foam, i mean the foam inside the cartridge. sorry for the confusion.
so the ink compartment side of the cart is empty. the foam side saturated. and the base of the printhead was saturated. i wiped this with cotton wool.
i also placed some tissue on the sponge pads whwre the printhead rests.
this foam was also absolutley sodden.
this has not happened on any of the other carts. just the yellow.
YES THIS HAPPENED WHILE THE PRINTER WAS IDLE.

i am still getting the 5 flashes. this is a permanent state regardless of whether the printhead has carts in or not.
the cartridges in it at the moment are mainly refills that were re chipped. bought on ebay. only the magenta cartridge is an official canon cart.
all red lights are solid. so the head must have accepted the carts.
why would the yellow cart empty out like this ??
thanks.

Whoa, here we go again on those wonderful compatibles that empty by themselves!

http://www.precisioncolors.com/Maintenance_Canon.html