MYSTERY - Refillable Cartridges No Longer Work in Canon MX922

[vienna01]

This is a strange & surprising problem.
ADDED: Jan 6,2016
SOLVED - See last 3 posts in this thread.
Thanks to mikling and others who explained refillable cartridge behavior in MX922 printer.

Two different vendor's refillable cartridges that worked well for a couple of months no longer work.
Here is what happened:
Indicating the Cyan cart was nearing empty, I removed it and replaced it with a refillable cart from Precision Colors[filled with their quality ink]. I had refilled that cart a few days ago.
When the full refillable cart was installed, the printer's cartridge error light started blinking. I removed & re-seated this replacement cart several times. I turned off/on the printer. I used the cleaning option. The cartridge light still blinked.
Another almost empty non-OEM cart that I had JUST removed from the printer was from another vendor. It had worked correctly for at least the past month. I refilled it and inserted it into the MX922 printer. It BLINKED! I tried re-seating etc. Still BLINKED. The printer would not work. I examined and cleaned the contacts on both refillable carts

I was CONFUSED. The printer won't work with either refillable cart.
The refillable cart [just refilled with ink] that had worked correctly for over a month no longer was accepted by the printer.

I had a new sealed OEM cartridge. I installed it. I worked. It did not blink.
--------------------------------------Commentary---------------------------------------
Mystery-
>Why would 2 refillable cartridges from 2 different vendors that had previously worked in my printer, no longer work? Has Canon changed the software/firmware of the printer?

>Any suggestions for tests or settings I can try, to help me understand(or Fix) what is happening?

Has this problem happened to anyone before?

Discussion:
If the OEM cartridge would not work, I would guess that the receptacle for the Cyan cart had become damaged. Since the OEM cart does not blink and works correctly, I think the cartridge receptacle is OK.
Did I recently unknowingly install a revised set of drivers that is smart enough to reject non-OEM carts that previously would pass? I don't recall re-installing the printer. This printer is currently connected to a PC running Windows 10. That should not matter. It has been connect to the same Win 10 PC for over a month.

Another Strangeness:
When today I first replaced the non-oem cartridge with another non-oem cartridge today, the printer BLINKED slowly and indicated the ink was LOW. It did not indicate EMPTY. I then replaced the non-oem cartridge with the SAME non-oem cart that had been accepted before. I had just refilled it with ink. Even though it was accepted before, today it no longer is being accepted. It is reported as EMPTY now.

If the printer is detecting a non-OEM cart, I think the printer would be reporting that the cartridge is "not recognized" or similar. I am surprised it is saying the cartridge is EMPTY.

Addition Info: As a test, I removed the OEM cart. I disconnected the printer from the power for about 30 seconds. I turned on the printer & installed the non-OEM cartridge. The error light blinked SLOWLY as before. I closed up the printer & tried a nozzle check. The printer indicated that the Cyan was OUT OF INK. It did not say it could not recognize the cartridge or something like that. I removed the NON-OEM cart and re-installed the OEM cart. The light no longer blinked. The printer now indicated that CYAN was FULL.

Last Action:
I removed the non-OEM cart. I installed the OEM cart. Print is normal. I have not tried removing other non-OEM carts currently in the printer to test if the same problem happens. I have a black dye OEM but don't want to waste it.

 

[jtoolman]

I do not know why this has happened BUT I would NEVER EVER use refillable or compatible carts on my CANONs. Reset and Refill your OEM carts if at all possible and you will never have this problem. Your chips are not being recognized by your printers firmware. Regardless of the fact that they case from two different providers. These Chinese made and very likely use identical chips.

Joe

 

[vienna01]

I do not know why this has happened BUT I would NEVER EVER use refillable or compatible carts on my CANONs. Reset and Refill your OEM carts if at all possible and you will never have this problem. Your chips are not being recognized by your printers firmware. Regardless of the fact that they case from two different providers. These Chinese made and very likely use identical chips.

Joe

I understand what you suggest. Thank you for you feedback.
However for some months these refillable carts have been accepted by the printer.
From what I understand the OEM carts for the MX922 can no longer be reset. If I do not find a good solution for this just appearing problem, I hope I can turn off the ink monitoring as for other Canon printers. Then I could use the clear sided carts and monitor them visually.

 

[mikling]

I have been running into something similar but the culprit is not electronic. I had a customer who lives near my area and he also ran into something similar after over a year of use. A changeout and it happened again. I placed the non working cart into my printer and it worked. So we knew something was causing the problem and it was not electronic.

Here is what we discovered. When you examine how the carts are inserted and clipped in, you see that the insertion action requires a perfect fit. To remedy the situation, we placed some tape on the clip that forces the cart to stay in for a tighter fit. To test the situation, press down on the offending cart and see if the blinking goes away. If it does some thin tape to keep the cart down in the clip area will resolve the problem. The aspect that my customer's cart worked fine on my printer indicates that there is a small tolerance issue kicking around...maybe on the printer itself. It's hard to say.

Joe, I would tend to agree with your statement but here is the situation with the OTHER than Pro series printers. The desktop printers are delivered with setup carts. These setup carts are special construction which hold very little ink...near empty reservoirs with a separator wall. Add to that, prior to very very recently, there were no resetters for these chips. So the best compromise was to run aftermarket refillables with ARC chips. These work and I've used them for what..maybe two years now.

Now there IS a resetter. But consider this, there are two resetter models. Each one has a limited number of resets, then it is FINISHED and cannot be used. Another one needs to be acquired ( Possibly a fixed number of keys are entered into the memory and issued on each reset)
These allow 50 or 100 resets...depending on the model. Hmmm.....and they are more costly than a set of aftermarket carts. Now if these are used with the setup carts which hold very little ink then... you're buying resetters every year. PLUS the only carts which should really be reset is the XL sized cart which is very costly. So even with the appearance of a resetter, I am leaning towards sticking with the aftermarket, despite their compromises. These resetters are suitable for refill shops however.

One other compromise with the aftermarket carts are that they do not have the features that the Canon cart has. One feature that I have seen that is missing and sometimes causes problems is the slotted separator wall. On the aftermarket carts, sometimes you will encounter a situation where, the carts appears to not feed ink, despite ink being present in the reservoir. If you refill it, it works again. Here is what is happening. The sponge is choking itself. It is sealing against the separator wall too well and is stopping air from entering the reservoir. Canon places slots there to ensure that air can go past the sponge and enter the reservoir to allow ink out. These slots provide greater reliability..however I believe it is a Canon patent and the aftermarket carts do not have these slots. To cure the situation, simply nudge the sponge away from the wall a bit by using a pointed tip or even simply knocking the cart on the table to "shift" it a bit.

The final issue is that these aftermarket carts will not take to any kind of pigment ink for the FAT one. Many formulations will not work on these sponges .

These are the known issues surrounding these aftermarket carts and as long as you know the resolutions....then they can work well.

 

[pearlhouse]

The final issue is that these aftermarket carts will not take to any kind of pigment ink for the FAT one. Many formulations will not work on these sponges

Please explain further. R U saying not to use your pgblk ink in your refillable 250PGBK cart..FAT ONE???

 

[mikling]

Thus far only the 1128 pigment ink works properly on these aftermarket carts. I have had several users who attempted to fill the fat one with some other type of pigment ink and it would not absorb into the cart. If you prime it with dye ink, it might allow the other pigment ink to work. However, the 1128 absorbs and flows properly on these sponges right from the get go.

 

[vienna01]

MIKLING:
SOLVED- You were 100% Correct. The problem was my refillable cartridge was not being seated properly.
Today I removed the OEM cartridge. I replaced it with one of my 2 refillable cartridges.
I carefully pressed down. The light DID NOT BLINK. The printer is now working with refillable cartridges. I did not need to use tape. THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING THE SOLUTION.
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In respect to use of use of refillable cartridge with pigment ink raised by other comments:
I have been using the pigment ink from Precision Colors over the last couple of months. Yes, not a long time. So far I have been pleased with the appearance of both dye & pigmented ink from Precision Colors. As I understand things- The MX922 uses pigmented ink for text and dye ink for continuous tone images. I have not compared OEM pigmented to Precision Colors pigmented. I have not compared OEM to non-OEM inks in a careful test.

 

[vienna01]

Murphy's Law has struck me AGAIN.{If something can go wrong it will]
TITLE: MX922 and NON-OEM REFILLABLE CARTS Problems
My MX922 just reported that the CYAN cart was LOW. I replaced it with a PrecisionColors refillable cart that previously worked fine & reported fine.
This time the MX922 cartridge LIGHT blinked when I put in the non-OEM cart. This time I thought it was just a matter of physically resetting the cartridge better[See above. That solved same problem before].

Try as I might I could not push on this CYAN cart so that the light would stop blinking. I happened to have a CANON OEM CYAN cart. I put this in. It didn't blink. It reported that the cart was full. CYAN is not an issue now.

Later today both my DYE Black Cart and my PG Black carts reported they were in need of replacement.

The Black DYE said it was EMPTY[RED].
The Black PG said it was LOW.

I removed the Black PG cart. It was an non-OEM refillable from PrecisionColors that had been working fine AND REPORTING CORRECTLY. The cart just removed appeared to be totally dry on the non-sponge side. I refilled it with PrecisionColors PG ink. I replaced it into the printer. It blinked indicating a problem. I tried many times to fix the blinking by physically pushing on the cart, removing & replacing it etc.{that worked a few weeks ago] The blinking DID NOT STOP. I began using the printer to print. The BLACK PG cart reported it was LOW.

Then Murphy's LAW began.
Then my Black DYE reported it was EMPTY.
I removed the "Empty" black non-OEM cart. It appeared totally empty on non-sponge side.
I filled the Black DYE cart[recall it is a non-OEM refillable cartridge]. It installed properly AND IT DID NOT BLINK {GREAT!!!}.
The behavior that I expected. The Black dye cart reported it was full. [Great!]

THAT IS THE MYSTERY-
THE Black PG non-OEM cart now in the MX 922 is blinking and reporting LOW even though it is FULL.
The BLACK DYE non-OEM cart now in the printer is not blinking and reports FULL.

Recall I replaced the BLACK PG non-OEM cart when it reported LOW.
I replaced the BLACK dye non-oem cart when it reported EMPTY.

The Black dye seems correct. Reports correctly and does not blink.
The Black PG reports incorrectly & blinks.

If someone replaces a non-oem cart in the MX922 when it is ONLY reporting LOW, does it then report incorrectly & blink?
If so how to FIX this.
FYI-THE PRINTER OUTPUT TEST PAGE LOOKS GREAT

 

[mikling]

It sounds like there is some confusion here.
When the cart is LOW, it will blink......and you should obtain the yellow warning on the screen. With more use the electronic counter will be driven further down and will continue to blink till it reads empty and then you get the red warning on the screen. No more blinks. That is the only point, the cart will reset upon removal.
Do not think that the chip reads and sees or smells ink because it is a dumb counter and no more. If you refill it when low it will NOT reset as per the written instructions. When it is low, it you should ideally top it off anyways because when the sponge is completely driven till empty, it is not good for reliable performance. Always keep some ink in the reservoir side. Just print, when one reads empty, top them all off even though they still might have more ink. Each time, you open the lid, to reset one cart, just add some ink to the others and the ink level for the others will NOT reset even though they are reported LOW. Only at empty will the chip reset.

 

[vienna01]

Again you helped reduce my knowledge shortage. Since my knowledge shortage was so LARGE I am still confused. Please don't give up on me yet.

Assuming I have 2 sets of refillable cartridges. One of the dye cartridges in the printer registers low[yellow indicator]
When I open the printer and replace that LOW cartridge with a FULL[refillable] cartridge the printer still blinks at the replacement location.
Also the printer STILL indicates that this color is LOW not FULL. This is what is happening. It this expected behavior?

Is there a way for me to get the full replacement cartridge to STOP BLINKING[solid light] AND for the printer to indicate there is a FULL cartridge in the slot now?

Replacing with an OEM cartridge I saw different behavior:
When I replaced a LOW refillable cartridge with a FULL NEW OEM cartridge the light no longer blinked and the printer indicated the cartridge is full.
Does this happen because the CHIP logic of the refillable cartridges is NOT EXACTLY like the OEM chip behavior?