ip4200 Shall Rise Again!

[sneezer2]

Well anyway, at least this one did!

In addition to the ip3000 that I've been working on I have an ip4200 that is about four years old.
It's been in storage most of that time with no special measures taken to preserve it. Prior to
putting it away, it just quit. All the warnings had been exhausted and I just was
not going to buy new carts for it. I had the ip3000 working OK so reverted to using it for
everything.

Now the ip3000 is having geriatric trouble and my work on it has not progressed much. I had ordered a
resetter, which just arrived in the mail today. When I tried it, it did nothing. Opened it up and found
one of the cells dead. Went to Walmart and got new LR44 cells. The resetter appeared to
successfully reset 3 of the 5 cartridges but the Yellow and Magenta would not respond. On the same
trip to Walmart, I had stopped at Office Depot and bought a set of their substitute cartridges.
Since the resetter did not work, I popped in the OD carts and - whadd'ya know - everything worked
as it should. Before leaving the house I had removed the print head and washed it out, then
put it in an "ultrasonic" bath for a couple of minutes. Plenty of ink was coming out of the jets so
I figured I had a good enough chance that I could "waste" the OD carts if necessary. Well, not a waste.
One low-level cleaning, one nozzle check and a few trial documents later I am going to install it for
full service.

This experience tells me a couple of things:
1) Be careful of the resetters. The one I got is blue although the picture on the website was red.
That doesn't matter but "Made in China" can mean many things. In this case it meant a dead cell.
Also, when the cells were replaced, it only worked partially. My suspicion here is that the makers
of this little thing probably haven't figured out the codes entirely, so it would work in some
circumstances but not in others. In other words, the chip on the cart may be in different states
and the resetter may not deal with all of them. Good idea but not yet fully functional.

2) These little printers are tougher than they look. I expected failure because I thought the ink would
be all caked and dried inside the head. It wasn't. A simple wash and buzz was all it needed after
four years in a box.

 

[avolanche]

sneezer,
Can you post the name of the dealer for the blue chip resetter so we can avoid this one?

 

[sneezer2]

I deliberately avoided giving the name of the dealer since I feel it is irrelevant. The resetter appears to be the same
one you would get anywhere as long as you want the "red" or "blue" one. There are larger ones also available with
no certainty that they would be any better. I have no doubt that the conditions mentioned originated with the
maker in China and that avoiding this dealer would really serve no purpose.

That said, avolanche, if you really want to know, email me and I will tell you separately.

 

[pharmacist]

So I think you stick with the original Sudhaus Redsetter, which is the best quality. All the others are just copies of it.

 

[sneezer2]

How do I find the original Sudhaus resetter? Before purchasing the one I have I spent a couple of hours
looking around, through this forum and by general searching to find out what resetter may be available
and what distinction there is between them.

I found several, none of which mentioned that it is or is not Sudhaus, all of which claimed a 100%
guarantee that they would work. I may be I was just unlucky but I never found any reference to
Sudhaus. I did find several references to Redsetter but was unable to determine what that is or where
to get one.

In the end I bought what I hoped might work in the full knowledge that it might not. I found that it
apparently worked on some but not others. One question I have is that if others are copies, why wouldn't
they also work. I still do suspect that there is something missing here, i.e. that there is likely to be some
issue with the programming or coding in the chip that has not been resolved and that if you try to reset
a chip when it is in a condition that is not recognized by the resetter it may not work no matter which
device you have. This would explain the frequent claims that some chips are defective.

I would like very much to be corrected on this point if I am in fact wrong. Also helpful would be some real
information on the type of programming involved, what the chips actually do and what a resetter actually does.
Up to this point it is all very vague and I just haven't seen much information on this topic that I could
feel confident is really accurate and complete.

 

[msmart]

I know the Sudhaus resetter is supposed to be great, some have recommended the RKS resetter, I ended up buying the OM.

The RKS costs more and comes with a 2-year warranty. The OM is cheaper and comes with a 1-year warranty. I decided it was a wash and bought the cheaper one for my first experience with resetting. I'm happy with the OM resetter so far, used it about 15 times now.

More info at Inkjetreset.com, mapsy is member here. Her companion ebay site: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Tales-of-Tamoor

 

[stratman]

sneezer2:

The old cartridges you have may have damaged chip. Maybe the resetter you bought is defective. All we know at this point is that your resetter worked on some but not all of your old cartridges, and, your printer does function with new Office Depot cartridges.

1) Retry resetting those cartridges. Try several times for good measure. Maybe it is a contact issue between those chips and the resetter.

2) Try cleaning the contacts on the chips that aren't resetting. Try Isopropyl alcohol and non-lint leaving cloth, q-tip or swab very carefullty and judiciously.

3) Try flashing a different Yellow and Magenta cartridge, preferrably an OEM Canon as some aftermarket chipped cartridges are not resettable with ANY resetter.

4) Sudhaus Resetters are available on eBay. Search on "Canon Chip Resetter". Otherwise. search Google for more local sources. The place I originally saw the Sudhaus Redsetter for sale was at http://www.patronenhandel.de/shop/. You don't mention what country you live in. Consider editing your profile to display your country at the minimum to facilitate suggestions on where to find things. If you live in a dicatorship, well, they probably are already watching you. ;-)

5) Lemon's are out there. Maybe Mapsy's warranty is best for you. I bought the cheapest "blue", made in China resetter and it works like a charm.

6) The idea of this forum is to exchange ideas and experiences. I can understand you not wanting to divulge info that could hurt you in some way, but, not stating who you bought it from appears superficially goofy. Your illogic of telling us your resetter came with a spent battery, doesn't work on two of your cartridges, and vague insults on things made in China doesn't square with your unwillingness to say who because you don't want to penalize the retailor since it may not be their fault. C'mon man. Maybe the retailor has a stockpile of crappy resettors just like the one you bought. Maybe they know it and just want to sell them to trusting individuals like you. This forum is not just for your benefit.

 

[sneezer2]

stratman,

I still doubt that the chips are defective. I admit the possibility but I have not heard any solid reasoning
why that should be so. I was around the electronics industry for over fifty years and can't count the
number of times I have repaired equipment that no-one else could or that no-one else would even
touch. Don't need to brag, everyone has a life and that was mine. But the point is that my experience
leads me to doubt that so many chips would be defective. I think the programming is incomplete and that
would be no surprise since the printer manufacturers do as much as they can to hide what they are
really doing.

Yes, and my resetter may be defective. I have outlined what I think is a way that it could be defective.
There could be other ways.

As for your itemized points:

1) I have retried doing those two cartridges and they don't reset. There is no doubt that there may be - I
would even say is - a contact problem. It is a cheap resetter - the little blue one that you can see a number
of places and the contact arrangement is not particularly effective.

2) As far as I know, the contacts are clean but there would be no harm in cleaning them a bit anyway. I wasn't
getting anywhere with them at the time and wanted to move on. I'm involved in a lot of stuff right now but
will likely do that when I get a round tooit.

3) I don't have any other cartridges to try as I've been very lucky to use the ip3000 for five years without any
hassle until now. I'm not going to buy any more for now but if the printer continues to work the way I expect
for a while I will reward it with a new suit (a full set of OEM's). There won't be any point in trying to reset those
until they are empty or nearly so. I don't see the logic of trying different Yellow and Magenta cartridges in
particular as I see no reason why those two colors would be different with respect to the chip. Again, my
suspicion is that those two are in a different logical state.

4) pharmacists post was the first I had heard of the Sudhaus Resetter. Since then, I have looked around and
found a couple of apparent sources for it. Most of the links in this forum and elsewhere for the patronenhandel.de
site lead to a 404 error. Yours is OK. But that was confusing until I looked a little closer at the full link texts.
Yes, I could edit my profile. That should be useful. However, though I don't think I live in a total dictatorship
yet, I'm sure "they" have been watching me for a long time and not just over ink.
5) Lemons are out there, I agree. I also bought the cheapest "blue" resetter, made in China and it worked like a
charm on three of my cartridges.
6) Your lecture is noted. I'm not worried about divulging something that would hurt me. I still will not divulge the
name of the retailer in the open forum because I don't want to be unfair to that person. It's not illogical to point
out that one cell was spent because it is clear that was a fault and knowing that may benefit someone else. This
could not have been the retailer's fault as if he had done something to the resetter, it would show another symptom.
Three cells in series go bad all at the same time generally if, say, they had been used. Dead cells happen, especially
among the ones made in China. Maybe the retailer does have a stockpile of crappy resetters but then maybe any
number of other retailers may also have the same stock, considering that it's the cheap bluey made in "guess
where". I don't think it's fair to single out this person publicly for something that's probably not his fault. Maybe he
will even replace it if I take the trouble to ask. Anyone who seriously thinks it's important to know the name of
this retailer can email me and I will tell them. I think that's a fair compromise. In fact, you can email me and I will
tell you. If you then want to post it, I can't stop you but at least that would be in the context of this thread.

Finally, I have no reason to make "vague insults on things made in China". My wife was born and raised in mainland
China. Most of my inlaws are either still there or do business there. I am very familiar with the quality of products
made there both good and bad, and have myself spent probably more time in both mainland China and Taiwan
than you ever spent on your mother's knee. And, please, that's just a figure of speech, so I hope you don't take it
as a vague insult on either you or your mother. Just a figure of speech.

 

[avolanche]

I deliberately avoided giving the name of the dealer since I feel it is irrelevant. The resetter appears to be the same
one you would get anywhere as long as you want the "red" or "blue" one. There are larger ones also available with
no certainty that they would be any better. I have no doubt that the conditions mentioned originated with the
maker in China and that avoiding this dealer would really serve no purpose.

That said, avolanche, if you really want to know, email me and I will tell you separately.

I certainly don't feel it is irrelevant to know the name of a dealer selling a product that is,as you stated,possibly not fully functional.We posters feel free to recommend(and also tell folks to steer clear of)printers,inks,etc.Why not resetters?You say it "appears" to be the same as others available "anywhere".My understanding is that there are several different resetters around.I'd like to know which NOT to purchase......that's all.

If you are unwilling to post the source of an inferior product,it's certainly not doing anyone on this forum a favor.Just seems odd that you would withhold that kind of information.

 

[on30trainman]

I have the Blue resetter (3 battery version) that I got from Inkjetreset.com (mapsy) last fall (2008) and it has perfectly reset many CLI-8 and PGBK-5 cartridges - no failures or non-reset cartridges so far. But even mapsy sells various versions of the resetter. My version has a little plastic button that is depressed as the cartridge is inserted in the resetter - guess that is what turns the resetter ON. I notice that some of the resetter pictures I have seen on E-Bay show the row of chip contact pins with one position having two pins. My resetter has a row of four single pins.

Steve W.