Chip conundrum on newer Canon printers

[easytimes]

I suppose there will be no "AHA!" moment with this particular tank, to absolutely know what happened to cause my confusion and the tank's uselessness. Ink could have gotten on the chip's innards on the first try. However, in the spirit of contribution, and for any who might someday need this information... I am fairly sure I can testify that "gC1" is the yellow tank chip code. I fished the initial problem chip from the trash bin, prior to dump day, and that was the code on it. Of course, nothing about that code gives me any clue as to what the other code colors might be. If Canon used a particular method to create those digits, I've yet to see it.

I try to learn something from any problems I encounter... but I'm thinking "be careful" is the main thing I can learn from this one. I hadn't performed any refilling for a while, due to the wife's switching many our club members to email. In that process, I probably became a bit cavalier about refilling and forgot to RESET THE CHIPS BEFORE REFILLING. Hard lesson, that one.

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

 

[The Hat]

easytimes
Another suggested remedy for you to try is to put the offending yellow chip that had been trashed earlier
back on to an older cartridge whether it is a 220 or cli-8 cartridge it doesnt matter and then try resetting it.

It might only have being knocked out of position on the original cartridge and therefore
not making proper contact with all of the pins on your resetter.

Just check the mounting points on the fail cartridge and try to reseat a working chip into position again,
hold another cartridge beside it to make double sure of the alignment.

It might surprise you yet and you may still get that "AHA" you were looking for;
I would suggest you test all of the chips that failed the same way..

 

[easytimes]

easytimes
Another suggested remedy for you to try is to put the offending yellow chip that had been trashed earlier
back on to an older cartridge whether it is a 220 or cli-8 cartridge it doesnt matter and then try resetting it.

It might only have being knocked out of position on the original cartridge and therefore
not making proper contact with all of the pins on your resetter.

Just check the mounting points on the fail cartridge and try to reseat a working chip into position again,
hold another cartridge beside it to make double sure of the alignment.

It might surprise you yet and you may still get that "AHA" you were looking for;
I would suggest you test all of the chips that failed the same way..

Well now... you can have MY hat on this one.

I had previously tried all sorts of things, some things I tried numerous times, but to no avail. But just to give it one more try, I put it on a discarded CLI225 tank, and no luck in resetting it. So I tried another one from my stash of removed chips... voila... worked like a charm on the same CLI225 tank. Then, harkening back to my systems troubleshooting days, and not to leave any stone unturned, I put the original yellow chip back on the yellow tank, and gave her the old college try, one more time. HOLY COW!!! It lit up like the wife's 3' high Christmas tree... well, before she left for Florida, anyway.

After that, I thought it would be worth trying, so I removed the nearly full yellow tank from the IP4700 printer, and replaced it with the problem child yellow ink tank, WITH the delinquent chip attached. Works like a charm. I feel no AHA! from this, but whatever works... let's not question it. There's no way to prove it, anyway.

I will attempt to lay out my suspected scenario, from what I know as fact. I did fill the tank without resetting the chip, first. That's my memory. The tank leaked a little when I attempted to reset the chip in its full condition. It was then that I got all the confusing feedback from the resetter, and at the end of the situation, it completely stopped working with that chip. Having had electronics occasionally become wet, and getting them back after waiting for them to dry, I figured that was how this went down. I threw the chip in the can and it dried, so when I pulled it back out and tried it, the dry chip worked. Well, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

I go back to my original premise. Don't be dopey like me... reset the chips BEFORE you refill the ink tank. You can get more than inky fingers from that particular mistake.

Thanks again Brian, once more, it was your comment that put me on the path to my solution, even if I didn't get my Mr. Knowitall AHA moment. Now I have two yellow replacement tanks for that printer.

 

[stratman]

Hellooo. Is this microphone on?

You might want to thank PeterBJ who first brought up the idea the chip was in the wrong orientation even if The Hat swoops in for sloppy thirds and gets all the glory.

Glad to hear your issue is resolving nicely.

 

[easytimes]

Hellooo. Is this microphone on?

You might want to thank PeterBJ who first brought up the idea the chip was in the wrong orientation even if The Hat swoops in for sloppy thirds and gets all the glory.

Glad to hear your issue is resolving nicely.

I agree, and that's why I thanked everyone, but at that point I was about to give up further testing. As far as orientation, I'm still not so sure that was the problem... as I indicated, the chip was pretty well covered in yellow ink, and during that time, the chip never responded... and believe me, I tried every angle and straight orientation you could do on that tank. I'm still not sure why the other chips would not reset on that tank, at that time, because I cleaned it meticulously before I tried them. The original chip being wet from the ink seems to be the initial reason for failure... or at least that's what I'm concluding to be the villain, but even that could be argued from other angles.

And... as I mentioned... resetting the chips before I filled the tanks would most likely have avoided all of this. The ink would not have gotten on the chip in the first place, and I wouldn't have been trying to reset the tank with a load of ink in it.

All that said... I still appreciate everyone who unselfishly added their voices to this problem. I've been the listowner of an old fashioned health problem mailing list for quite a few years, now, and sometimes, having someone just pay attention to your problem can be a comfort, even if they can't solve your problem. There's also the dynamic of trying to explain the problem to a group of people who know more than you do about the issue. For my part, I tend to go through what I think everyone will ask of say before I ask, but in this case, I think the time (drying) factor was needed, and that brought the final solution. But that's just my guess.

 

[jtoolman]

A brand new Yellow OEM cart and chip could have avoided all of this but now you know how tricky and crazy refilling and resetting can get. I have some stories which I don't dare share that were later traced to my having done something dumb ( which is just about everyday ) but I am learning so it's all good.

Glad you have solved it.

 

[easytimes]

A brand new Yellow OEM cart and chip could have avoided all of this but now you know how tricky and crazy refilling and resetting can get. I have some stories which I don't dare share that were later traced to my having done something dumb ( which is just about everyday ) but I am learning so it's all good.

Glad you have solved it.

Thanks jtoolman,
I must be learning... I have a brand new OEM tank, and almost by accident I have the old one back and working. That's a win/win, no matter how it happened.

 

[stratman]

I'm still not sure why the other chips would not reset on that tank, at that time, because I cleaned it meticulously before I tried them. The original chip being wet from the ink seems to be the initial reason for failure... or at least that's what I'm concluding to be the villain, but even that could be argued from other angles.

How do you explain why the other chips did not reset? Was it dried ink on the resetter's electrical contacts?

Until you can explain why the other chips did not reset then you may still experience problems with variable successful results.

 

[easytimes]

I'm still not sure why the other chips would not reset on that tank, at that time, because I cleaned it meticulously before I tried them. The original chip being wet from the ink seems to be the initial reason for failure... or at least that's what I'm concluding to be the villain, but even that could be argued from other angles.

How do you explain why the other chips did not reset? Was it dried ink on the resetter's electrical contacts?

Until you can explain why the other chips did not reset then you may still experience problems with variable successful results.

That's the specific problem I was trying to solve when I started this thread. Not much makes sense, even now. If you read back, over my earlier comments about this problem, I reset my other refills at the onset of this problem, with that same resetter, and had no problem getting a good reset indication. The initial error was not resetting when I refilled. But that night, I just couldn't reset that particular chip... but when I tried other chips on that yellow tank, and that chip on another tank, I couldn't reset those, either. That was the point that it really became a puzzle to me, and started not making any sense. But I think that could have been two or more different problems/errors at work at the same time.

It could have been a string of events that included ink getting on the contacts, whenever I would try to reset that yellow tank. The resetter still has an amount of dried yellow ink on it from that time, but I always tried to gently clean the contacts with a clean paper towel, before any subsequent attempt to reset.

At my age, I have learned not to "KNOW" very much, because I sometimes truly believe I have done this or that, when in fact I may not have done it the way I thought I did. One thing is pretty sure... I have done a refill session since I first asked this question, and EVERYTHING worked very well, so I'm thinking that I may have missed some unwiped ink leakage that caused at least part of the strange inability to reset at a particular time. Unless I could do an instant replay on video of my actions, I may never know what actually happened. I'm thinking the error I made to cause this is lost in my progressively unreliable memory.

But I would like to say... thanks for offering your help. Even if I sometimes forget to say it, I'm always appreciative when someone makes an attempt to help me. I hope this thread might be helpful for others to understand how important the details are in refilling these inks. I sure learned that. Now if I could only remember the next time.

 

[stratman]

Chalk this up to a resetter gremlin and best to move along and forget the whole miserable experience.

May all your refilling be effortless and your printing fabulous.