- Joined
- Nov 27, 2010
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- Location
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- Printer Model
- Canon MP990
Your local printer repair guy is totally wrong. The sponges under the printhead parking area are purge pads. Their purpose is to distribute vacuum evenly under the printhead nozzles to make sure all nozzles are cleaned.
The ink absorber pads are pads of a felt like material. they are placed at the bottom of the printer enclosure. Their purpose is to contain the ink pumped from the printheads for nozzle cleaning. They of course have a limited capacity, and to avoid ink overflow the printer firmware estimates when the pads are nearly full and gives a warning and when the pads are estimated to be full the printer is locked.
There are no ink level sensors for the absorber pads. The remaining absorber capacity is estimated/calculated by counting number of nozzle cleaning both automated and ordered by the user.
To unlock the printer you need a special software tool, which can be found at E-bay. For older Canon printers some say you can get away with resetting the counter without replacing or washing the absorbers just once. Others say you risk a nasty ink spill when the ink absorbers overflow. If you try this then do so at your own risk. It is recommended to place the printer on some tray to catch a possible ink overflow.
The ink absorber pads are pads of a felt like material. they are placed at the bottom of the printer enclosure. Their purpose is to contain the ink pumped from the printheads for nozzle cleaning. They of course have a limited capacity, and to avoid ink overflow the printer firmware estimates when the pads are nearly full and gives a warning and when the pads are estimated to be full the printer is locked.
There are no ink level sensors for the absorber pads. The remaining absorber capacity is estimated/calculated by counting number of nozzle cleaning both automated and ordered by the user.
To unlock the printer you need a special software tool, which can be found at E-bay. For older Canon printers some say you can get away with resetting the counter without replacing or washing the absorbers just once. Others say you risk a nasty ink spill when the ink absorbers overflow. If you try this then do so at your own risk. It is recommended to place the printer on some tray to catch a possible ink overflow.