Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of PhilPerkins
PhilPerkinsFlag for United States of America

asked on

BJC-600

My BJC600 starts up and the error, all the print quality, evelope, and thick paper lights blink.  It also beeps twice.  It does feed paper but nothing prints.  I replaced the printhead and put in new canon ink cartridges.  I unplugged it for a long period.  Still not working.

Any answers, ideas, or things to try?  email if more info is required
Avatar of jrhelgeson
jrhelgeson
Flag of United States of America image

Do you have the canon printer driver installed?
Have you looked in the manual to see what it means?
What did it say
Avatar of zzx
zzx

Do you have the same errors if you start the printer while its not connected to the PC?

Avatar of PhilPerkins

ASKER

Connected or not -- it doesn't make a difference.

The printer does not load the ink as it is supposed to at the beginning of its start-up process.  The built-in test print routines move the paper and the printhead but does not produce an image or text.
 
Ok its just that a dead printerport on the PC can cause these type of errors

Sounds to me like your printers got a logic problem although I've personaly had 2 dead canon ink cartriges in a row best to contact canon
First of all let me verify the condidtion of your lights,
Error light Flashing,
Evelope light Flashing,
Thick light Flashing.
 If this is correct the printer is indicating a bad print head.  When you say you replaced the printhead, do you mean the part with the four little screens that suck the ink out?  The reason I ask, is because this part costs $100.  I recnetly had the same thing happen to mine, it is very common in BJC - 600 series printers one year old or older.  If you have not already done so, I would take out the new print head, and rub the terminals with rubbing alchol, both the print heads, and the connections on the printer.  If this does not work, you may have a bad, or wrong printhead.  You might condiseder having the dealer you puchased the print head from install it.  Most autorized dealers will when you puchase the part beacuse it is so exspensive.  
 
for Tom H.  -- all correct on the lights

Also correct on the part description - cost was $139

I tried cleaning the terminals with no luck.  

Before I did that I took out the purger unit and cleaned old ink off of it.  Then I reinstalled it the purge unit.  After many cleanings one of the print quality lights went off.  I then did single head cleanings and (after lots more cycles) the other lights turned off too.  But no ink makes it to the paper.

Then some of the test cycles printed text.  Sometimes red, sometimes yellow.  Some startups show on out-of-ink blinking light even though the light was off when I tunred the machine off 30 seconds before.

I'm leaning toward a bad printhead replacement.  What do you say?

(by the way, I say I'd look around before buying another cannon product - no support!)
Yes, I would agree about the print head being bad.  

Also, I would never by anohter canon printer, no support, and $100 part that goes out after one year!
Looking at my printer, I would say that you have don't have a faulty print head  because that would beep 3 times, not 2 as you state. Tom H- I respect your comments, but surely the first course of action is to read the manual!

You can verify this. Turn your printer on, count the beeps. Then turn off again, remove print head and repeat the test. If you have a different beep count it's not the print head.

This could be a "Waste ink tank full" warning message, wich would flash all the lights as you described, but there is no mention of beeps in the manual... If the Bk light is on then the tanks are full and the printer will not respond at all.

I strongly suggest you don't muck about with new print heads. If it doesn't work for God's sake send it back! It is guaranteed, and does cost big bucks, so why risk it?


Incidentally, I have a Canon BJC-620 as well. I'll read the manual for that and see if it has any more data.
Phil,
I have your answer for you.  I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.

If you have the BJC 600 (not the 600e) you should have the following lights:
(*=blinking, O=on solid)

  Power    Error    Online    Color    HQ    BK    Plain Paper    Envelope    Thickness    BEEP
1   ...           O           ,,,,           ,,,         ,,       ,,                ,,,                  *                      *               2
2   ...           O           ,,,,         |  Corresponding LED Blinks  |          *                      *               2

Item #1, means "Waste Ink Warning"
Item #2, means "Ink Cartridge Check"

If you just installed a new print head, you will need to *prime* it in order for it to start printing.

NOW, if the ERROR light is blinking, that means something else.  If it is blinking, you should be getting 3 beeps, which means "Non-User-Recoverable error"
oops, I hate it when EE re-formats my text.
Cheers, Joel. so we both think it could be the waste ink tank. Could the 3 beeps indicate the tank is full, and as it has to be fixed by Canon it would be a "Non User-Recoverable Error"?

Still, PhilPerkins hasn't done anything and it's been a month since the proposed answer was posted without feedback, so I guess he's not interested.
The only thing it *could* be in that case would be a "Print Head Error", which is unlikely.
I'm back.

I was traveling and held over for an extra period of time.

Here's what's happened.  I got tired of messing with it and sent it out to the company I bought the print head from.  For a flat bench fee of $50 they replaced another $25 in parts and setn it back.  It works now.

They replaced the waste ink tanks (I had tried to clean them out once before) and some other small parts in the print head carriage.  Would I spend the money again to fix this one? - No.  For a few dollars more I could have bought a new printer and received a new warranty to boot.

Sorry for the delay in responding.  It may just be one of life's mysteries as to what was the exact problem.
Well, I was right (do i get the points)?
Joel,

We were both right. As you can see, I suggested first (in my message Monday, March 30 1998 - 07:03AM PST) that the waste ink tank could be the source of the problem.

Phil- With this last post it seems likely that your attempts to clean the tanks yourself may have caused a fault in the print head, and may not have resolved the original problem of the waste tank error.

It's better to leave this sort of thing to the engineers unless you really know what you are doing. Mind you, Canon do charge extortionate prices for maintenance, especially if you have used non-Canon cartridges (which they automatically assume causes print head problems), so I don't blame you for trying.

It's your question, Phil. If you want to hand out points it's your decision as to whether you accept the answer, reject it and allow another answer to be posted, or delete the question and reclaim your points.

No, if anything, give it to tstaddon..

jr
Okay to give points to tstaddon  - but how to do it is the current question.

Answers, tstaddon?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of tstaddon
tstaddon

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial