- Aug 27, 2013
- 35
- 2
- 18,535
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!
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!
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