Problem with Canon Pixma ip4000 printer

But canon shipped a replacement... cool. And given the nature of the error it should be a new one, with new ink, and a new head. Bonus. I wish mine would screwup that badly, but unfortunatly it's just too damn reliable.

Great. did they say if it would be a 4000 or a 4200?

They said something about me having to take out the printing head of the old one when the replacement arrives (I wasn't clear on exactly what that meant, or maybe I misheard). That might mean they're shipping a 4000 unit that doesn't have a head. But they'll be shipping it Thurs., so I'll be able to relate the conclusion soon.

Shnaggletooth

Cool, good luck with that!

You should phone them back asap, and explain you can't remove your old head. This leads to a new printer with a new head and new ink, and unless you take a hacksaw to your printer, you in all honesty can't remove the old head.

The alternative is phoning them when you get the referbished version and telling them you can't remove the old head, and waiting a couple of days for a new one, but odds are you wouldn't get the free ink. This is assuming they will honor the warranty, which it looks like they may.

It's pretty well standard procedure that you keep your old printhead when the problem doesn't seem to be printhead related.

But in your case you CANNOT remove the printhead because the printhead assembly won't center.

You better call them again and ask the not-too-smart service tech how you're to go about removing it when you can't get to it . . . ;-)

-Taliesyn

Ok. I see that Canon are going to replace it and that is great. The 12x blink is a fatal error so replacement is appropriate. There probably is a way to centre the carriage, but I suggest as others have said that you should call and tell them that the carriage does not centre and they should send you a printer with a new head, much better for you. Tony

I'm a former Canon service center tech, & my advice is to call Canon ASAP, explain the problem the way you've described it here, & ask them nicely if they will cover it under warranty anyway. Under the kind of circumstances you're describing, Canon are often willing to stretch their warranty period a little.

I told the service tech that I could move the printhead manually (it just won't snap-to center on power-on as it's supposed to, and therefore the printer won't work at all).

Shnaggletooth

I think I will call them tomorrow. Hopefully they haven't shipped out the new unit already.

Shnaggletooth

I should've read the whole thread before replying. ;)

Like I said in my other post to you, I'm an ex-Canon service tech, & they try hard to do the honourable thing by their customers. I've seen hundreds of cases where they've honoured the warranty on a machine that's failed shortly after going out of the official warranty period.

On most Canon inkjets it's easy to do it manually, via either of two methods:

(1) If the printhead moves at all when you turn it on, do so, then unplug the power cord as soon as the the has moved out of the 'parking' position.

(2) Turn off the printer & *gently* drag the head over to the center.

Thanks for the handy tips. I should print this out and store it should mine ever go.

Welcome to the printer group. Nice to see any kind of Canon representation here. HP's been served very nicely by Bob Headrick.

-Taliesyn

That is exactly my experience, on one occasion they replaced a printer 3 1/2 months out of original warranty. The customer had reported a fault one month before warranty expired, the printer was replaced promptly and it failed with a different problem one week after the warranty on the replacement printer ended. HP are just as good in my experience. Tony

And I forgot another good method: (3) If the model is one of the ones where the carriage parking position is completely inaccessible (usually to the extreme right), you can often extract it by pulling the toothed rubber/cloth carriage belt to the left. (Watch out for the inevitable stray ink &/or white grease in the area!)

Well, I'm reading this from RPD, where I've been a reg for a few years now, but we often see printer-related questions here.

Thanks for the kind words, Taliesyn, they're much appreciated. :)

Do please bear in mind that I'm very much an *ex* Canon tech though, as I haven't serviced any Canon printers in a professional capacity since about '99, (when I finally finished switching over to the networking side of the IT industry), so I have had no 'official' connection with Canon, (other than as a mostly-happy customer) since that time, & don't claim to speak for Canon in any 'official' capacity. That said, I worked for Canon (Business Equipment Service, Australia) for several years, then went on to work in, then manage Canon-authorised service centres for another 6 years or so, so I'm pretty familiar with their equipment, their service policies, & service procedures.

Good point, Tony. Canon will nearly always (totally unofficially) 'reset' the warranty period on a fault originally repaired within the 'official' warranty period. For example, the old BJC-600 had a couple of nasty design faults that, at some sites, resulted in recurring printhead (ie; expensive!) errors through no fault of the users, for several years after the original purchase, but Canon kept on fixing the printers for free until they finally came up with a permanent fix for the design fault.

The lesson here for Canon users who run into a fault shortly before or after the original warranty period is to *get straight on the phone* to Canon, ASAP! Because Canon *wants* to keep you happy, & will usually cut you some slack if they think it'll turn bad word-of-mouth into good word-of-mouth. :) (And in the printer market segment, there's another good reason for this attitude, which is that they make way more profit from the consumables than they do from the original sale, so they don't mind eating a repair bill to keep you from switching to the competition.)

You are a resourceful honest person, you don't get a printhead and free ink.

Perhaps not, but he (?) /does/ get Karma points, self-reliance points, & the respect of one or two Canon Service staff, none of which are things to be sneezed at. ;)

Well, karma is nothing to sneeze at... it's just sad when you solve a problem your self it means no free ink or replacement printhead. If I was still running my epson r200 during it's warranty period, I would be thankful if it broke, as that means good karma and free ink.

But I would also agree from my limited experence getting on their good side and doing "some" troubleshooting does by-pass much of the checklist and saves time. Though I kick my self for telling them "oh no, the print head moves around, you told me to unplug it, so it's not moving" "Well you don't get a new printer with ink" "damn it".