Canon Pro 9000 Problem

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

Canon Pro 9000, OEM carts, OCP ink.
This printer has been fantastic for a long time. I havent printed with it for some time, and it has just developed a problem. This printer has never had any problems of any kind. This is a sudden development.

After refilling the carts, some of the cart lights do not light. Removing and reinstalling the carts in the print head or just moving them in place gets all of the lights on until after the print head moves after closing the print head cover. Then the dreaded orange error light comes on. The printer wont try to make a single print or do any kind of checks.

Any help will be appreciated.

Wil

 

[The Hat]

Canon Pro 9000, OEM carts, OCP ink.
This printer has been fantastic for a long time. I havent printed with it for some time, and it has just developed a problem. This printer has never had any problems of any kind. This is a sudden development.

After refilling the carts, some of the cart lights do not light. Removing and reinstalling the carts in the print head or just moving them in place gets all of the lights on until after the print head moves after closing the print head cover. Then the dreaded orange error light comes on. The printer wont try to make a single print or do any kind of checks.

Any help will be appreciated.

Wil

Hi Wil.
Yes that can happen to anyone it's just one of those things.

First off I would say it might be your resetter is not completely resetting the chips properly,
but I dont think that is the cause of your problem.

Try turning on the printer and leave it to come to rest itself
and then note the number of times the resume button flashes.

If its four times then you cartridge chip is at fault but if its five times then the print head will need replacing,
so lets hope its four for your sake..

 

[PeterBJ]

Something similar has happened to me a few days ago with an iP5200. The magenta cartridge was getting empty and I replaced it with one I had previously resat and refilled. The cartridge led was lit in a normal way when I inserted the cartridge, but after I closed the lid the yellow/orange led started flashing. IIRC it flashed 14 or 15 times, then paused and started flashing again. This pattern with only the yellow led flashing is not serious, it is an operator call alarm. From the service manual 14 or 15 yellow flashes means a problem with recognizing one or more cartridges, i.e. a chip problem. Clicking "show printer status" gave an on screen message that told me to open the lid and replace cartridges that were not lit. I did and replaced the magenta cartridge which was not lit, and the printer was back to normal.

The magenta cartridge that failed had previously been resat and refilled several times, but a chip can fail even if it is a rare occurrence. Maybe a resetter that is running low on battery can cause this failure? When I attempt to reset the failed cartridge, it behaves normally, one short flash, pause, and constant light. Even if the cartridge seems to be OK, it is still rejected by the printer.

So I suggest to open the lid of the printer after the yellow light has come on and check if all leds are lit. And what is the pattern of the alarm blinking?

 

[trashguy9]

I vote for the resetter causing this problem. I had several carts do the same thing with my previous resetter. Posted my problem here on this site and the "Hat" was kind enough to send me an extra resetter he had and since using his resetter, I have not had that problem recur. Thanks again Hat!

Larry

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

Thanks to everyone. The problem seems to have been "Operator Error" with the resetter.

It has been some time since I refilled and I forgot to wait for the second steady light from the resetter when resetting the chip. After doing it correctly, the problem vanished.

Thanks again!
Wil

 

[Tin Ho]

For whatever reason if garbage was written into the chip to the wrong location in the (serial EEPROM) chip some sensitive data in it may be overwritten. A resetter is supposed to reset only some part of the chip. The part that is not supposed to be touched if altered may yield the content of the entire chip unacceptable by the printer. That's when the chip becomes bad. Repeated resetting won't restore it apparently.

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

After correcting my operator error, I final got back to printing 25 8.5 x 11 prints on the magnificent Canon Pro 9000. Ill share a few things that make it great.

1. I dont know if this is common with all Canon inkjet printers. When you turn the printer off with the printer On/Off switch, the printer goes into some cycle that that ends with the ink cart outlets being sealed closed and then shutting the printer down.

Since I discovered this and turn the printer off after each print job, I havent had a single bad print head check. What is so encouraging about this is that after discovering this process, my printing has been interrupted with long periods, several months, between print jobs.

The two important points are:
(1) Dont leave the printer on for long periods without printing.
(2) Always use the printer on/off switch to turn the printer off.

2. It isnt well known, but Costco (Kirkland) photo printing paper is an under reported gem. The paper now is available in 4x6, 5x7, 8.5x11, 11x14 and 13x19.

The paper has a glossy finish, and if you can use that finish, the rest may be of interest.

The 8.5x11 latest price is $18.75 for 150 sheets. The 13x19 price is $44.99 for 50 sheets.

I have used this paper for a few years and like it very much. I had my wife compare identical prints from Red River (which I like very much) and Kirkland. She chose the Kirkland. The profiles and ink have a bearing on all of this, and Ill get to that in just a while.

3. I have been using OCP ink for a few years, and it is exceptional. I can notice no fading in prints that have been hanging since 2009. In the quantities which are available, the price of the ink is a non-factor in the cost of a print.

4. I insist on the highest quality in my prints. I use xRites best system to produce profiles for monitor and paper/ink combinations. I shoot RAW only and process in Lightroom and Photoshop. I am not a happy camper unless the print is like the final image on the monitor as far as possible with the differences in transmitted light from the monitor and reflected light from the print.

I use Canon OEM carts for the OCP ink. Im of the school that insists that profiles are necessary for any combination of tools. Many on this forum disagree, and that is their right, but when using any third party ink, I require that all remnants of the OEM ink be removed before refilling. Then profile ink and paper with the new ink.

The prints obtained from the OCP ink and Kirkland paper using this workflow has just been fantastic. The colors are vivid and accurate. The colors just seem to jump off the page.

5. Im not selling anything, just reporting. I hope some of this may be of interest to some.

Wil

 

[The Hat]

Hi Wil,

You can get your printer to turn its self off after you have finished using it.

Go to Maintenance and click on the Auto Power button, in there youll find two settings.

The first is to enable the Auto Power on, then set the Auto Power off,
there are five time setting from five to sixty minutes duration,
use which ever setting suite you the best..

Happy Printing..

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

Thanks The Hat. I just checked, and it is set to turn off at 10 minutes. It is truly amazing what an improvement in trouble free printing makes by Canon's method of turning the printer off.

Wil

 

[Tin Ho]

Wil, there is one thing about Canon printers that is not brought up.

All Canon printers will move the print head to park at its parking pad after idling for something like 30 seconds. By turning off the printer the print head is also moved to park at the same parking pad. So essentially turning off the printer or not the print head will park the print head to keep the ink from drying up from the print head. The parking pad will seal off the nozzles to keep the ink from drying up.

In addition, if the printer is not turned on for a long time the printer will memorize it. Or if the printer is left on but idle for a long time the printer will detect that too. So next time you start up a print job the printer will automatically do a cleaning cycle to prime the nozzles right before it starts to print.

The problem you ran into should really have nothing to do with leaving the printer on for too long. I sometimes left my printer on for days and I never had any issues with print head.


In my opinion your print head issue is likely to be caused by other causes. What I can think of is the parking pad is probably not sealing the print head properly when the print head is parked. Or the ink you use is not good that it drys up too easily.