Canon i860 Print Head Shorting?

lottaphotos4

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Aug 27, 2013
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Hi,

My Canon i860 printer had never given me a problem prior to several weeks ago.
It prints great, every time, and if I can get this problem fixed I'd like to get a couple more years out of it.

So, two weeks ago I tried to print a page of text (all black and white); it came out blank. All of the ink cartridges are new (Canon brand).

I gave up, and went back to try a day later, and the printer would not turn on, and the print head was stuck hard all the way to the right (under the plastic housing).

Tonight I got around to opening it up, and with some tinkering, found out the following:
1) It's still getting power, because when I remove all of the ink cartridges and open the little bar on top of the printhead assembly, the printer turns on and the print head goes through a normal start-up motion (to center position then back to the right).
2) If I then close the little bar at the top of the printhead assembly, the printer immediately turns off.

Best as I can guess is when the little bar goes into the down position, the contacts on the back of the printhead come in contact with the pins on the rear assembly, and that is when I'm losing power.

The question is why?

I was getting no clear warnings or indicators that the printer was having a problem. Maybe (MAYBE) I'd noticed a slight slowing of the start up motions over the last two months, but I don't use the printer every day, and just figured it needed some warm-up time.

It's behaving like it's got a short, but since after raising the bar (after lowering it and causing a shutdown) it powers back up, happy as a clam, I don't think it's actually a short. (Keep in mind this is all being done with all of the ink cartridges removed.)

So,....my two best guesses are some sort of short, or I've read a lot about a "waste tank" being full (although I've had no indications or spillages, so that's just a stab in the dark).

The printer is in excellent shape....been sitting on the same shelf since it was purchased, and treated gently. No drops or bangs.

This "shut-down" is repeatable. The moment the rear of the print head contacts the pins behind it (these are the control pins that allow the computer to tell the printer what inks to use, so the contacts touching the pins should NOT cause a shutdown), the printer shuts right down, no motion on the printhead.

Any help you can give would be appreciated, as would keeping it as simple as you can. I'm just an idiot with a cranky printer and a screwdriver.

Thank you!
 


Unfortanately, Phillip Corcoran's reply is a bit trollish, and doesn't help. (I have high a high opinion of posters on Tom's in general...how did Phillip get made a MOD?)

Would have assumed that it went without saying that I'm not looking to buy a new one now....or I would have already.

So if you aren't up to providing a helpful reply, Phillip (and especially as a MOD), perhaps the proper course would have been for you NOT to interject a useless suggestion.
 
His response is, unfortunately, potentially correct. Modern inkjets are built to a price. If it's still in warranty you could try to chase it up, but... how much is your time worth vs the cost of a new printer?

The other option that comes to mind is either dirty contacts, or the printer believes the ink cartridges are counterfeit.
 


Correct or not, I don't come to Tom's for "it isn't worth it".

I come here for somebody with technical knowledge to help me out. If I just wanted to piss money way when I have a printer that's still in decent shape....i probably wouldn't have spent an hour tearing it apart, testing it, and a half hour writing up my question, right? Clearly I think it's worth my time to fix the problem rather than throw away good hardware. (I'm really surprised I have to explain this here. This place used to rock with helpful people.)

The ink's Canon brand, so the printer hasn't suddenly started thinking it's counterfeit.
Contacts....cleaned them and the problem persists, so I don't believe that's it----question for you SOMEONE, if you know (or anybody else that's readin' along)....the electronics within the printhead itself, do they burn out, short out, wear out, or give out over time? I'm asking is it likely that somewhere in there something gave out such that now when the contacts meet the pins the printer shuts off? Could that be some sort of reaction to the waste reservoir being full? (Found a couple of things online today that indicate it may be the waste tank being full, as well as an article on how to remove, clean, and replace it.)

Guess I was just hoping that rather than "printers are built to a price" somebody here might actually share their experience with taking one of these things apart and fixing them.

Thanks for your reply SomeoneSomewhere, at least you made a stab at it with the contacts and ink guesses. Appreciated.

 


LOL--thank you. Me and my purple fingers found that out.
Still shuts off the moment the print head contacts touch the control pins.