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I thought I killed my Canon BJC-3000 printer, and started digging into trying to figure out what went wrong. Found some disappointing information including:

• Canon calls the little sponge that the cartridge parks over the "waste ink tank". The printer firmware (IIUC) keeps a count of how many times the heads are cleaned. After a certain number of cleaning cycles, the printer is disabled with a "WASTE INK TANK" FULL ERROR. Fortunately, there is a way to reset it, but it is not officially documented. (See below.)
• The instructions on some other Canon printers say to not turn them on or off via a powerstrip. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't sound like a robust design.

(This is normal at every inkjets: to prevent drying of the printhead printer should move its head to a park position. If power suddenly turned off, head can't reach this safe position. So you can SAFELY unplug printer if you are sure about the printhead park position.)

• Naturally, it is not good practice to connect or disconnect a printer with the power on. Unfortunately, I tried to cheat, because I wanted to try it on my Linux box, which was up, running, and with a lot of windows / documents open that I didn't want to lose.
• Canon (at least for other printers) cautions against moving the print head carriage by hand. One of the BJC-3000 error codes is "home position" meaning the home position is lost. I have moved the printhead carriage by hand with no ill results on various HP printers, and I did it with the Canon (because the cartridge did not seem to want to move the removal position). I was afraid it was not going to resynchronize, but it apparently did.

When I finally (partially) sorted things out, it seems that I burned up the printhead in the cartridge. After printing in Linux for a while, I checked the ink level (black) and found it was low (lower than I ever let it get before, but not totally empty). I refilled it, and, in the course of refilling it, I did things like move the printhead with the power off, disconnected the signal cable with the power on, and so on, which I thought might have caused the problem (because I didn't yet have any indication that the burnt out printhead was the problem).

If low ink did cause the printhead burnout, I wonder if:

• any Linux driver checks for and detects low ink
• a Windows computer printing through the Linux computer gets the low ink indication
• I can modify the Linux driver to pay attention to ink level

If not, I probably will want to leave the Canon printer connected to a Windows rather than a Linux box.

More below.

See:

• About These Pages

Contents

Probable Sequence of Events

After finally figuring out the problem, I think the actual sequence of events was something like this:

• I decided to move the printer back to a Windows computer because I could not print from my wife's and son's Windows boxes to the Linux box (I could print from my Windows box, and (two weeks ago!) was starting to dig into Samba to find out why I couldn't from my wife's and son's computers)
• in the course of getting ready for the move, noticed the black ink cartridge was very low (but not empty) and planned to refill all the cartridges — perhaps at this point the printhead was already burned out??
• connected and disconnected the printer cable with the computer and printer on — this may have led to the EEPROM problem
• the EEPROM problem may have kept the print head from moving to the removal position, which is why I moved it by hand
• after reconnecting the printer to the Windows box, the printer would not work and I got the three orange flashes
• finally found the instructions to reset the EEPROM
• after doing so, got the seven orange flashes which indicated an overheated printhead

Three Flashes

After whatever happened, happened, I noticed that the power on light was flashing orange 3 times and then green (and repeat, forever). That indicates an EEPROM problem (of some sort).

Reset the Printer (EEPROM)

Later, I followed the advice of the second poster on this page. That is: reset the EEPROM by:

• pulling out the AC cord,
• holding down both the power and resume buttons
• while plugging the AC cord back in.

After that I started getting seven orange flashes (followed by green, and repeat, ...).

The seven orange flashes indicate an overheated printhead.

Beeps

I never heard any beeps. Maybe because, although the computers the printer has been connected to have sound cards, they were not plugged into speakers (at least while the printer was connected).

Ink Coverage

According to this page, a BC-33e ink cartridge is rated for 280 pages at 5% coverage. (At $50 a cartridge, that is not far from $.20 a page for ink. Or, looking at it another way, the ink to print a ream of paper (which costs $2 to $5), will cost almost $100.)

Oops, the previous calculation is wrong, I should have based the calculation on the cost of the ink cartridge alone, not the entire ink cartridge plus printhead assembly. I don't really know what a single black (large) ink cartridge costs, I've seen the smaller color cartridges sell for about $7, I'm going to guestimate the (large) black ink cartridge at say $12, which then means about $.05 a page for (black) ink, or about $25 to print a ream of paper (black only). Even so, I do much better by refilling the cartridges, getting on the order of 10 black refills for $10 to $15.

The only way ink jets make sense is if you refill the cartridges yourself. Notwithstanding the new "waste ink tank" boondoggle I just became aware of, many Canon cartridges are among the easiest to refill.

(By contrast, a $50 laser jet cartridge that covers 3000 pages works out to about 1 2/3 cents per page, or ~$8 to print a 500 sheet ream of paper.)

Cleaning / Replacing the Waste Ink Tank

• fixyourownprinter.com; this page contains some hints for replacing the waste ink "tank" on a BJC-3000:

I am not familiar with the internal layout of the bjc-6000, but expect it is not too dis-similar to the bjc-3000. In the bjc-3000 the "waste ink tank" is actually a "felt" like material under a white polystrene foam like material. To get to it, you have to remove the case of the printer and it is at the very bottom beneath the printer paper rollers and electronics.

CAUTION UNPLUG YOUR PRINTER FROM THE MAINS SUPPLY BEFORE YOU DISMANTLE IT. WARNING - OPENING UP YOUR PRINTER WILL VOID THE LIMITED WARRANTY GIVEN BY CANON.

If your waste tank is full, it won't be white but will be black+other colours and will have the appearance of being soaked with waste ink.

CAUTION: HANDLE WITH GLOVES ON AS THE WASTE INK GETS EVERYWHERE AND IS NOT EASY TO WASH OUT!

I washed my felt pad by soaking and rinsing in lots of cold water and dried it with a hot air drier and reused it. But it is a very messy process.

In the UK you can get a new "waste ink tank" by contacting:

Electroversal, Unit 1, Ribocon Way, Luton LU4 9UR Telephone: 01582-582-023

Resetting Waste Ink Counter

Knowledge Base: Canon BJC-3000 — includes instructions for resetting the waste tank error, printing a test page (w/o a computer), and setting the model. (I'd like to refactor these to be much more succinct and easy to remember / follow.):

Waste Ink Counter Reset

1. Power off printer and covers closed
2. Hold down the Resume button then press and hold POWER, the Green Indicator will light.
3. While holding down POWER , release RESUME
4. Double click (2 clicks) RESUME then release BOTH POWER and RESUME and wait still the printer stops blinking.
5. When the indicator lights steady, press RESUME three(3) times. The indicator should be ORANGE.
6. Press Power to set data

To Set Model

1. Power off printer and covers closed
2. Hold down the Resume button then press and hold POWER, the Green Indicator will light.
3. While holding down POWER , release RESUME
4. Double click (2 clicks) RESUME then release BOTH POWER and RESUME and wait still the printer stops blinking.
5. Press resume 4 times, Green Indicator should be lite.
6. Press POWER to enter the MODEL setting mode.
7. The Indicator will be GREEN to indicate the printer is set to BJ-F300, To Set BJC-3000, press RESUME 1 time only, the indicator should be ORANGE.
8. Press POWER to save

To Print A Test Page

1. Power off printer and covers closed
2. Hold down the Resume button then press and hold POWER, the Green Indicator will light.
3. While holding down POWER , release RESUME
4. Double click (2 clicks) RESUME then release BOTH POWER and RESUME and wait still the printer stops blinking.
5. Press POWER.

Error Codes

A list of error codes is at BJC-3000 Printer: Error Codes — copied here (for my convenience):

Error Condition	Indicator	Beeps	Error Code	Possible Solution
Paper Feed / Delivery	Orange	2		Remove any paper jammed
Paper Jam	Orange	3		Remove any paper jammed
Ink Out	Orange	4		Add Ink
BJ Cartridge Misinstalled	Orange	5		Re-install cartridge or replace it
NO BJ Cartridge	Orange	6		Re-install cartridge or replace it
BJ Cartridge Error	Orange	7		Re-install cartridge or replace it
Waste Full warning	Orange	8		Waste is almost full , needs service very soon

Service Errors	Blinks	Beeps	Error Code	Possible Solution
ROM Error	1 x Orange	10	6100	Try unplugging Printer
RAM Error	2 x Orange	10	6300	Try unplugging Printer
EEPROM	3 x Orange	10	6800	Try unplugging Printer
Home Position	4 x Orange	10	5100
Temperature Sensor	5 x Orange	10	5400	Try unplugging Printer
Waste Full	6 x Orange	10	5B00	Needs Service
Cartridge OverHeat	7 x Orange	10	5200	Replace the BJ Cartridge(Printhead)
Cartridge OverHeat	8 x Orange	10	5200	Replace the BJ Cartridge(Printhead)
Cartridge Displaced	9 x Orange	10	5200	Replace the BJ Cartridge(Printhead) or reinstall
Cartridge Displaced	10 x Orange	10	5200	Replace the BJ Cartridge(Printhead) or reinstall
Cartridge Displaced	11 x Orange	10	5200	Replace the BJ Cartridge(Printhead) or reinstall
Other Hardware error	12 x Orange	10	6500
Other Hardware error	None	None	5910	Needs Service
Other Hardware error	None	None	5C00	Needs Service

Recommended Linux Driver

(Actually, I think there are several that will work, don't know if any of them pay attention to the ink level indicators.)

From Adolfo:

"BJC-3000 equals S400. Follow the advice given for this one. gimp-print 4.2.1 works with this printer. CYMK only, photo cartridge not supported."

Reinstall (on Windows)

This page recommends reinstalling the driver software, after uninstalling and clearing relevant parts of the Windows registry. I think this is aimed at printers using the USB interface.

Canon BJC-2110 (or BJC-3000) Printer Not Responding or Not Functioning Properly

ISSUE: When trying to print, the printer does not respond or function correctly. The printer may attempt to print and the computer stops responding, or the printer may not respond at all. If the printer drivers are removed and then reinstalled, the drivers appear to run through the install process properly. After restarting the computer, the printer is not recognized in the Printers folder in Control Panel.

Suppliers

I see Canon BC-33e (normal) and 34e (photo) print head and cartridge sets for $42.50 to $47 on the net (haven't checked shipping):

• Bison Business, $42.50 (ca. 28 June 2003), shipping ??

Canon BC-33E - Replacement Ink Cartridge BC-33E For BJC-3000, S400, S600, & C755. Color. CNM4611A003

Replaces F45-1491-400 and F45-2071-400. (???)

Contributors

• () RandyKramer -- 28 Jun 2003
• If you edit this page: add your name here; move this to the next line; and if you've used a comment marker (your initials in parenthesis), include it before your WikiName.

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