Canon ip5000 with stuck printhead carriage

[jbclem]

I've acquired (for $8) a Canon ip5000 printer. The previous owner said was working perfectly and one day the printhead carriage stayed locked in the home (right side) position. After I brought it home I plugged it in and pushed the power button. There was a little noise from the printer, the carriage stayed in the home position, and within a few seconds the power light went off. If I try the power button again, nothing happens, the power light doesn't even light up. If I unplug the power cord, wait a while, plug it in again and try the power button, the power light will light up then immediately go off...the carriage remains locked in the home position, no sign of movement or noise.

The encoder strip looks clean, but beyond checking that I'm not sure what to do since the power light goes off so quickly. Any suggestions?

John

 

[ghwellsjr]

You're going to have to take the printer apart in order to remove the cartridges from the print head and the print head from the carriage. Maybe then the printer will power up and act normally.

To get the side panels off the printer, open the front flap and the top cover. You will see two shallow rectangular holes on the top with a narrow white section in them. Press gently on these white pieces and you will be able to start to pull off the side pieces. The rest of the disassembly should be fairly obvious.

In case you cannot get the printer to behave normally, which means that the carriage moves to the center powered up, you can always salvage the five cartridges and recycle them at Staples for $3 each. You'll be ahead by $7 so all is not lost.

 

[jbclem]

Thanks for the idea, I'll give that a try. One reason I bought this printer was that the printhead is probably perfectly good and I've been looking for an ip5000 anyway, so I'll have a spare printhead...and the ink cartridges(that I can see) are almost full and look like original ones.

 

[jbclem]

I was able to remove the gray side panels, but the printer sides and top are still covered by a black plastic piece. Although I've read that the ip4000(ip5000 supposed to be the same) dismantling is a matter of finding the snaps, but I see no arrows or obvious snap points in the black plastic piece(it seems to be a solid black plastic piece but maybe it's several pieces...hard to tell). This piece covers the carriage(in the home position) pretty well so it has to come off somehow. I don't see any screws anywhere, so it must be snaps. Any ideas about this?

 

[jbclem]

Continuing....with the right side gray panel off, you see three white plastic cogwheels. Turning the large one clockwise will unlock the printhead and now I can move the printhead carriage to the center and access the ink cartridges and the printhead. I can also check this white sliding piece (with spring) above the purge pad (apparently it can get gloomed up and stuck from excess ink).

I have also found a german printer website with some english articles, including this one that shows how to remove the top of the printer, with photos.

http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=1831&seite=7&t=step_2_removing_the_printers_top

Back to my problem...freeing up the printhead carriage didn't change anything. And I noticed that when I plugged the power cord into an extension cord(without turning on the printer) I would hear a little zap and the yellow light on the printer would flash. Then when I pushed on the power button the green light would light up for a second and go out. I could keep repeating this only if I unplugged the power cord and waited a few minutes before plugging it back in. Then every time I would get the zap and the yellow light would flash once.

According the the ip4000 service manual I downloaded, when the power turns off immediately after power on...the problem is one of two things: the AC adapter or the logic board ass'y. I'm not sure what the AC adaptor is, unless that is a term for the power cord, which is just a straight power cord with the two round plug-ends. I just ohm tested that and moved/wiggled every inch of the cord while testing but it tests out perfect.
The small zap noise I heard(from the plug to extension cord connection) with the printer turned off...is that normal or indicative of a short. Anyway, unless there is an AC adapter that I don't know about, it looks like replacing the logic board ass'y is the next thing to do. If I can find a cheap one, I'll try it. Otherwise it looks like I just bought myself a used printhead, power supply, and print cartridges for $8. And still don't have a printer that works!

Any suggestions would be welcome...

 

[ghwellsjr]

The AC adapter is where the AC cable goes into the back of the printer. There are two tabs next to two screw heads with abnormal holes in them. Bend the two tabs away from the AC adapter and you will be able to pull it out. There is a cable going from it to the rest of the printer.

The zap you hear when you plug in the printer is a current surge to charge the capacitors on the switching power supply and is normal.

I have worked on several MP780 printers which have the same print engine as the iP4000 and almost the same as the iP5000. The ones that would not power up did not have a problem with the AC adapter, it was always the logic board according to my local service center and cost $250 to replace.

Have you removed the print head (and lowered the locking tab) to see if the printer will power up normally without the print head?