QUESTION: bought used ip5000, needs light maintenance

[BD]

Hey, all.

I bought a second-hand ip5000 recently. The seller says that the
"waster absorper" (their spelling, not mine) needs replacing, and that
this should be inexpensive to replace.

I don't know bupkus about the inner workings of these things; is there
a checklist, or some high-level process I can run through which will
give me some indication as to additional maintenance that might be
required - bits that need replacing, etc.

I just got it, and will be installing it and testing it tonight. ;-)

Thanks,

BD

 

[Burt]

Hey, all.

I bought a second-hand ip5000 recently. The seller says that the
"waster absorper" (their spelling, not mine) needs replacing, and that
this should be inexpensive to replace.

I don't know bupkus about the inner workings of these things; is there
a checklist, or some high-level process I can run through which will
give me some indication as to additional maintenance that might be
required - bits that need replacing, etc.

I just got it, and will be installing it and testing it tonight. ;-)

Thanks,

BD

Did the seller tell you that the printer was working well prior to the waste
absorber filling up? First step is to print a nozzle pattern to see if all
is working ok. If that is not ok you need to run a light cleaning cycleor
two to clear the nozzles. If the nozzle test pattern is still not ok run
one deep cleaning. If not ok you will need to consider cleaning methods
beyond what Canon recommends. You will find lots of info on the Nifty-stuff
forum. Go to the FAQ's and check out the first FAQ - what to do if the
printer doesn't print properly. If that doesn't clear the printhead you
will have to buy a new printhead - rather expensive - and also deal with the
waste ink tank. If you have to take it to a repair facility you will spend
more than the printer was worth.

If the printhead is OK and you get a good nozzle test pattern, the next step
is to deal with the waste absorber. If you can talk to the seller you
should ask about the history of this issue. If this issue just came up for
the first time he/she probably got rid of the printer because this is
generally not a user-repairable item for most people and the cost to get it
done by a technician isn't warranted for the value of the printer. If it
has given the signal that the waste tank is full you can't just keep using
it as it will soon stop working. Most of these Canon printers can be reset
with a code that is input with the front panel buttons. Inside the printer
there are absorbent pads that catch the overprint ink from borderless prints
and from the cleaning cycles that apply a vacuum to the ink cartridges to
pull ink through the printhead to keep it wet and clear. From what I've
read, you are good for at least one reset without tearing the printer apart
to get to the pads. I don't know how easy or difficult it might be to open
the case and replace the pads, but if you are extremely handy and can get a
few tips from others that have done it you can clean the pads, dry them, and
replace them (very dirty job). I've also read that they are not as
absorbent after being cleaned and replaced. You can look for posts from a
participant named Tony on this NG and direct a question to him as he has
been really helpful with answering problems such as this. Canon doesn't
make these pads easily available to the public, but Tony mentioned that
underlayment for carpets that looks similar to the pads can be cut to size
and used to replace the dirty ones.

If I were you and the printhead checked out OK I would find the codes and
just do a resest if the previous owner had not done that before. If he had
then you will have to consider tearing the unit apart to clean or replace
the pads.

With kindest intentions --- I would have been reluctant to buy a printer
under such circumstances unless it cost you next to nothing and you were
willing to risk the purchase price that the printhead was perfect and the
printer waste tank had not previously been reset. Also, these printhead
have a proscribed, limited useful life, and a printer that has gotten up to
the waste tank situation may have seen a lot use.

 

[BD]

The next step

is to deal with the waste absorber.

I took the printer to a shop, looked at the waste absorber (it was
damp), and the printer needed a reset to clear that; the gal showed me
the process for doing a reset once I cleaned the absorber.

It was funny - the gal at the shop opened it up, and looked inside -
and cringed. The white rollers were blue, which to them meant that this
thing had seen HEAVY use.

Oh well.

Yeah, it's caveat emptor - it was not terribly expensive - $30 plus
shipping, such like that.

I'll test the head. If all works well I'll clean it up as much as I
can, and likely sell it off to one of a couple of guys I know who are
interested. I recently bought a brand new iP4000 as well, so I hardly
need 2 - the 5000 was a bit of an impulse thing: $30 - eh - I figgur
that's almost cheap enough for me to not care much if it's DOA.

With kindest intentions --- I would have been reluctant to buy a printer
under such circumstances unless it cost you next to nothing and you were
willing to risk the purchase price that the printhead was perfect and the
printer waste tank had not previously been reset.

Yep, it was a risk. But I did go in eyes open. ;-)

Thanks!!

 

[Burt]

I took the printer to a shop, looked at the waste absorber (it was
damp), and the printer needed a reset to clear that; the gal showed me
the process for doing a reset once I cleaned the absorber.

It was funny - the gal at the shop opened it up, and looked inside -
and cringed. The white rollers were blue, which to them meant that this
thing had seen HEAVY use.

Oh well.

Yeah, it's caveat emptor - it was not terribly expensive - $30 plus
shipping, such like that.

I'll test the head. If all works well I'll clean it up as much as I
can, and likely sell it off to one of a couple of guys I know who are
interested. I recently bought a brand new iP4000 as well, so I hardly
need 2 - the 5000 was a bit of an impulse thing: $30 - eh - I figgur
that's almost cheap enough for me to not care much if it's DOA.


Yep, it was a risk. But I did go in eyes open. ;-)

Thanks!!

That was really nice of the person at the shop to open the printer and show
you the pad and also tell you how to reset the waste ink counter. If the
print head works OK it would probably be worthwhile for $30 to keep it.
This is the last generation of canon printers that can use the bci-6 and
bci-3ebk carts. Cheap aftermarket carts and good refill inks make this a
reasonable printer to keep. If you install it on your computer in addition
to the ip4000 you can use them both enough each week to prevent clogging and
prolong the useful life of the ip4000.

 

[zakezuke]

I took the printer to a shop, looked at the waste absorber (it was
damp), and the printer needed a reset to clear that; the gal showed me
the process for doing a reset once I cleaned the absorber.

It was funny - the gal at the shop opened it up, and looked inside -
and cringed. The white rollers were blue, which to them meant that this
thing had seen HEAVY use.

Oh well.

Yeah, it's caveat emptor - it was not terribly expensive - $30 plus
shipping, such like that.

I'll test the head. If all works well I'll clean it up as much as I
can, and likely sell it off to one of a couple of guys I know who are
interested. I recently bought a brand new iP4000 as well, so I hardly
need 2 - the 5000 was a bit of an impulse thing: $30 - eh - I figgur
that's almost cheap enough for me to not care much if it's DOA.

$30.00, well worth it IMHO even if you need a new head. I considered
one for $50 recently that was a display model at Compusa. Had I not
already bought the ip5200, I would have been pleased to buy the ip5000
for $50 and shell out for the head.

The blue rollers, i've seen that my self, on my ip3000. Though mine
had a splash of yellow. I gave mine to a friend stating flatout that
worst case scenero it'll need a new head and a diaper change. The head
blew a gasked right before I delivered it, and canon replaced it.
Worked just fine, I just wanted an upgrade. After 836 CDs, a
replacement printer isn't out of the question.

Since you were shown how to reset the waste pad, you may also be
interested to know how to see how much use the printer has had.

1) Make sure printer is off and is plugged in
2) Hold down [RESUME] (Triangle pointed down) hold down [POWER] and
wait.
3) Release [RESUME] but Continue to hold [POWER]. Double click
[RESUME]. Release [POWER].
4) Check to see you are in service mode by clicking [RESUME], than
[POWER]. This should cause the printer to print a simple diagnostic
that'll list it's ROM number and list CDR SENSOR=OK in red for the last
line, whether the printer is set to US or not. pressing [RESUME] twice
then [POWER] will print the ROM info.
5) Press power once to resume normal operation

This is assuming the current printhead will print anything at all.

 

[BD]

This is assuming the current printhead will print anything at all.

Yes, that is useful; thanks. We did get a printout, but realized that
the yellow and one of the blacks were pretty much pooched. The seller
included some replacement carts, so we just popped them in.

Yep, the gal was super nice - it's just some little mom 'n pop type
store, and the gal seemed to have no interest in keeping secrets. She
talked about cleaning the pad, went through the pad sensor reset
routine, I told her I'd need a pen, and she said nah, just phone her if
I couldn't remember it.

I did say that if/when it came time to get a new head I'd get one
through them. Gotta at least give the possibility of future business
when someone's being so nice like that.

So, the current plan is to buff it up a bit (the top cover has some
scuff marks), clean the guts as best I can, which may require a service
manual to assist me in disassembling stuff to get at hard-to-reach
places, make sure it works, and then decide whether to keep or to sell.

I have a spankin' new iP4000 which I bought last week as well - the
5000 was a 'what the hell' kind of purchase. And, I have 2 buddies who
are interested.

Buuut, if I can get a sense of the overall useage, that will partly
dictate my next step.

Next stop: Cotton Swabs -r- Us!

 

[BD]

pressing [RESUME] twice

then [POWER] will print the ROM info.

Okay, I have the ROM info.

Lots of zeros. ;-) Not sure which code will indicate # of printed
pages, but, lesseee...

Second 'chunk' of info, second line:

PAGE(All-00000 PP=00000 HR+MP=00000 ...)

I guess it's been reset or something, yes? Assuming I know what I'm
reading?

 

[zakezuke]

pressing [RESUME] twice
then [POWER] will print the ROM info.

Okay, I have the ROM info.

Lots of zeros. ;-) Not sure which code will indicate # of printed
pages, but, lesseee...

Second 'chunk' of info, second line:

PAGE(All-00000 PP=00000 HR+MP=00000 ...)

I guess it's been reset or something, yes? Assuming I know what I'm
reading?

Oh, you must have reset the printer?

Since you picked up the service manual, I can be lazy about
communicating the details. In mine it's page 1-19, but that's ip4000
not ip5000, the last pages before technical reference.

"19. ASF feed pages (total, plain paper, High Resolution Paper & Matte
Photo Paper, Photo Paper Pro & Photo Paper Plus Glossy & Photo Paper
Plus Semi-gloss,
Glossy Photo Paper, Postcard, Envelope)
20. U-turn cassette feed pages (total, plain paper, High Resolution
Paper & Matte Photo Paper, Photo Paper Pro & Photo Paper Plus Glossy &
Photo Paper Plus
Semi-gloss, Glossy Photo Paper, postcard, envelope)" --ip4000 service
manual page 1-19

But we can pretty much establish that this printer experenced heavy use
in a small business enviroment. To get that high a volume of waste
ink, well I don't honestly know an accurate page count to get it, only
that i've seen 8000+ pages in the rom information without the waste
counter being full. But rather than monkey with a printer whos been in
service for a year or two it does make sence to just replce the
printer, and ditch the old one.

But this is a high demand printer as it doesn't take the chipped
cartridges.

 

[BD]

But this is a high demand printer as it doesn't take the chipped
cartridges.

Well, that's the thing. ;-)

I'm just not sure it's worth ditching. I need to try to clean the
diaper first, which means getting some decent disassembly instructions.

The service doc I downloaded doesn't have any real detail in that
regard.

Any suggestions?

 

[Jeff H]

But we can pretty much establish that this printer experenced heavy use

in a small business enviroment. To get that high a volume of waste
ink, well I don't honestly know an accurate page count to get it, only
that i've seen 8000+ pages in the rom information without the waste
counter being full. But rather than monkey with a printer whos been in
service for a year or two it does make sence to just replce the
printer, and ditch the old one.

We have 2 ip3000 printers that we use for point-of-sale. The first one
started nagging to be reset recently with a page count of just over 18,000.
We reset it without changing the pad so I'm curious to see how long before
print quality deteriorates.

Previously we had 2 i550's that both had close to 30,000 pages before we
replaced them. They were only replaced because we wanted to play with the
then new ip3000's - they were reset and given away in perfect working
condition (original printheads and all)

Cheers,

Jeff H

 

[zakezuke]

We have 2 ip3000 printers that we use for point-of-sale. The first one
started nagging to be reset recently with a page count of just over 18,000.
We reset it without changing the pad so I'm curious to see how long before
print quality deteriorates.

Previously we had 2 i550's that both had close to 30,000 pages before we
replaced them. They were only replaced because we wanted to play with the
then new ip3000's - they were reset and given away in perfect working
condition (original printheads and all)

I can't say I have "seen" 18,000 pages, but I believe it's with in the
realms of reason. I've heard that figure quoted before. In my case, I
think my issues were a result of over deep cleaning and a blown gasket,
compounded by ignoring it for weeks. But like your self I wanted a new
ip5200, the ip3000 for me was the cheep $65 printer to see how decently
canon's do CDs, and how well aftermarket ink works.

But needless to say I am starting to see the i550s in goodwill, still
in very decent condition. The between the ip3000 to ip4200 is pretty
huge and hard to ignore given it's low entry cost.

 

[BD]

I bought a second-hand ip5000 recently. The seller says that the

"waster absorper" (their spelling, not mine) needs replacing, and that
this should be inexpensive to replace.

Update:

I got the printer apart, and the pads in the bottom peeled out like big
raw fillets of fish. There must have been a half-cup of ink in there.
LORD knows how much usage this thing has seen.

Took me 2 hours to rinse the pads. Probably a bathtub full of BLACK
water. I really should have taken pictures.

But, I'm gonna clean it up and get it working. ;-)

 

[measekite]

So far, unless your time is worthless, you spent more money than
purchasing a brand new printer plus a spare set of oem carts and you are
not done yet.

 

[BD]

So far, unless your time is worthless, you spent more money than
purchasing a brand new printer plus a spare set of oem carts and you are
not done yet.

ZEEEEEEEEE...RO value.

 

[zakezuke]

So far, unless your time is worthless, you spent more money than
purchasing a brand new printer plus a spare set of oem carts and you are
not done yet.

I would agree that buying a new printer saves time. This is fair
comment.

However the ip5000 is a pretty top notch Pixma which takes the older
generation ink, which as Measekite is so fond of pointing out, is $9.60
to $10.30 per tank at costco for the color, $33.99 for a threepack of
the big black. This is a cost savings of about 33%, or about $15 to
$20 per set vs the ip4200/ip5200.

So it's a choice between a $100 ($80 on a good day) printer which takes
$72 ink, $150 printer which takes $72 ink, or shelling out $60 to $80
for a head, a diaper change, and replacement ink which floats at about
$52 to $60/set.

If you throw aftermarket ink into the equation, that $60 to $80 and
labor and peanuts for ink wins in terms of lowest possible long term
costs, with the least headaches.

 

[BD]

So it's a choice between a $100 ($80 on a good day) printer which takes

$72 ink, $150 printer which takes $72 ink, or shelling out $60 to $80
for a head, a diaper change, and replacement ink which floats at about
$52 to $60/set.

At this point it's run me a little over $100. Diaper change is free, as
I'm doing it myself (diaper rinse, really) - and I'll use Hobbicolors
ink.

The only real unknown for me now is the head. Looks like the diaper
alarm reset that I did also reset the page counter (oh well), so I have
no way to know what condition the head's in. I'll ask the seller, but
who knows if they'll know...

I guess all's I can do is try to do the best I can for the least
additional money, and see how much mileage I can get out of it.

Question: Aside from the ink/head/diaper replacements, are there any
other relatively pricey bits that I should expect to have to replace as
a long-term maintenance task?

 

[BD]

you spent more money than

purchasing a brand new printer plus a spare set of oem carts and you are

Oh, is that right? How much did I spend on it?

And how much is a new one? Don't just pull a number out of the air,
post a link. Not to the 5200, but to the 5000.

 

[zakezuke]

At this point it's run me a little over $100. Diaper change is free, as
I'm doing it myself (diaper rinse, really) - and I'll use Hobbicolors
ink.

As long as you are aware of the choice, and make a choice based on good
information, you're good. For an ip5000 I "would" do the same, well I
would except I didn't find any so I was stuck with the ip5200.

The only real unknown for me now is the head. Looks like the diaper
alarm reset that I did also reset the page counter (oh well), so I have
no way to know what condition the head's in. I'll ask the seller, but
who knows if they'll know...

I guess all's I can do is try to do the best I can for the least
additional money, and see how much mileage I can get out of it.

Question: Aside from the ink/head/diaper replacements, are there any
other relatively pricey bits that I should expect to have to replace as
a long-term maintenance task?

Those are the two big ones, and in fact the diaper change is among the
larger tasks. There really isn't a good checklist that i'm aware, so
i'm falling back on the ip4000 manual. Grease application could be a
good idea as well. There are a few things in print options such as
roller cleaning, in your case you might want to use index as they are
stained blue.

To be honest, while i'm all for head replacement, and diaper changes...
anything far beyond that i'd get another printer.

 

[BD]

To be honest, while i'm all for head replacement, and diaper changes...

anything far beyond that i'd get another printer.

Yup, unless I just like mucking about with it. I have a brand new 4000,
so it's not like the 5000 is anything I'd rely on.

I'll finish this one-off cleaning, get it as spiff as I can, or until I
lose interest, and then test it out. If it works - I dunno. Standby
printer, in case the 4000 falls on its butt or something. Or, I may
just sell it. Couple of guys I know are interested.

 

[BD]

roller cleaning, in your case you might want to use index as they are

stained blue.

Had to think about this one - I gather you meant Windex. I've been
using rubbing alcohol up to now. Not for the pads, mind - that was just
water.

I might try Windex - see if it cuts through the stain better than
alcohol has been.