MP780 persistent Check Printer Press [OK] message

[irha]

My happiness was short lived

Right after printing 4 small pictures, I got the same message again, so I tried pressing OK without actually doing anything and it went away. I then printed one more picture and now the message is back and is persistent. I can actually see the pads on the far right out of which one was displaced last time, and they look just fine. I don't know if it is a different problem this time or may be the problem is not that to begin with. I will try clearning the cmos battery and see if it fixes anything.

Or may be I should just move on and buy the MP560 that is on sale today at Amazon for $80 (this one also accepts generic carts and supports duplex, though doesn't have faxing).

 

[ghwellsjr]

Bummer. A generic "Check Printer" message sounds like the light in your car that says "Check Engine" which nobody knows what that means except to take your car into the dealer for them to figure it out. Well, maybe Canon want you to take your printer into an authorized Canon repair center. But I doubt you want to do that.

If the presumed problem is "There may be an obstruction that is not allowing the Print Head Holder mechanism to move" as stated in your first post, then we have to ask ourselves the question, "How would the printer know that there may be an obstruction?". The only thing I can think of is that it is using the timing strip to determine how fast it is moving. If there were some ink or other contamination on it, this would cause the printer to think that it was not moving as fast as it should.

The timing strip is a thin, clear piece of plastic that stretches along the inside of the printer just behind the print head. I believe it can be removed although you may be able to clean it without removing it. It has tiny lines marked on it and there is an optical device that measures the relative position and speed of the print head. I'm also not sure what is the best cleaner to use on it, but I would think that water or Windex window cleaner should work fine. You might start by examining it to see if there is anything on it that shouldn't be there.