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Canon BubbleJet printers not printing after cleaning
(From: Handy (handy@redshift.com).)

Take out the cartridge that you want cleaned. Find that hole that ink comes out of, squeeze the cartridge until ink comes out of that

hole - actually drips. Put it back in the machine, clean it at least FOUR times. Usually on the fourth time for some reason, it works.

Just clean the one that you think needs cleaning.

Canon BJC 600 problems
(From: Rob Connelly (connelly@ix.netcom.com).)

I have found that sometimes the BJC 600 series gets confused and needs to be reinitialized. If you haven’t already done so, unplug it

from the wall, wait 60 seconds for the internal supply capacitors to completely discharge, then plug it back in and try again. When you

remove it from the AC line it goes through a complete warm up cycle and resets itself.

Also, the contacts that mate with the print head are notorious for oxidizing. You might want to carefully clean them (lightly) with a

pencil eraser and some isopropyl.

If these remedies don’t work, the Canon 1-800 number will put you in touch with their tech department, and they are really quite good at

determining what the problem is over the phone.

(From: Al Savage (asavage@iname.com).)

When I was working on printers, we’d see a few of the 600s in with corrosion on the ribbon cable end under the printhead. NewKote

apparently had a venting problem with their copykat ink cartridges, where in some situations ink would spurt (leak? drip?) and somehow

corrode the ribbon cable.

I never tried to replace one and see if it could actually be repaired with just the cable, but I did try vigorously cleaning the cable

end: no conclusive repair.

BJC 600 print head error - lights flashing

“Upon powering up the printer the two lights flash indicating a print head error. However by cleaning the electrical contacts (with

alcohol) on both the print head and the printer the printer works temporarily. Within a day or two the problem resurfaces. When the

printer does print it prints excellent quality. The nozzles seem to be is good working order.”

(From: Al Savage (asavage@iname.com).)

Although printhead failures are common on the 600 series, so is failure of the ribbon cable to the printhead. This is an acknowledged

problem from Canon, when aftermarket ink reservoirs are used (i.e. Pirana or NewKote). Somehow the ink gets up to the cable/printhead

interface and corrodes it. When I was working on them (about 18 months ago) Canon and NewKote were pointing fingers at each other. It

appeared to be a reservoir venting problem.

Printer and Photocopier Troubleshooting and Repair Collection
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Samuel M. Goldwasser
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