Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Printer Offline

I have a Canon ip5000 and have been using Apple's printer software for a long time (currently CanonPrinterDrivers 2.9).

A few weeks ago I started getting Printer Offline notices. It wasn't restricted to a single source (e.g. sometimes Word, sometimes Safari) and, after trying a number of things I ended up reinstalling the drivers.

That worked for a while but it happened again. The third time it happened I did a printer reset in which I had to re-select the printer. That also worked, however it went offline again yesterday....for no apparent reason.

I guess I can keep on with the fixes every time it happens but that'll become a giant pain. I'd really like to get at the "why" so I can do a permanent fix.

Any ideas?

It appears the Offline repetitions may have been early warnings of impending printhead failure...just a guess, nothing scientific.

The printer is now issuing this dialogue box:

Error Number : 1403 Print head problem. Open the printer's cover, then open the Inner Cover, remove the print head and then re-install it. If this message appears again, the print head may be faulty. Replace the print head with the new one.

Removing and re-installing does not fix the problem. I also used the Print Utility to try to clean the head but it won't allow that to happen either.

Being an older printer my problem is that replacement printheads are not available. Since I really like this printer (and really hate throwing stuff away except as a last resort) I'd like to try to get this one working.

The only thought that comes to mind is a physical cleaning and, since I just get one shot at it, I don't want to mess it up. The head is easily accessible and removable.

Does physical cleaning sound like a reasonable idea and, if so, what's my best approach?

I applaud your reluctance to discard your old printer, but at today's prices for printers your best approach is a new printer. With a little shopping around, you can get a new printer that is faster, has more features including builtin WiFi compatibility for little more than the cost of a new set of ink cartridges for your old printer. No matter how you look at it repairs on printers in the same class as yours are not financially or mechanically practical.

Thanks joemike. I've been doing quite a bit of looking around and have found that I've been slowly, however reluctantly, coming to the same conclusion.

It has been an enlightening process, though. There are a few "show stoppers" for me with a printer. Needed to be inkjet, needed to have automatic duplex printing, and needed to have separate cartridges or each colour and, finally, the cartridges had to be refillable.

That sure got me down to a short list in a hurry, and I'll be getting another Canon.

It was also interesting how little capacity some manufacturer's cartridges have. One my black I'll drop from 22 mil to 18 and on my colours from 12 mil to 9. However, some other manufacturers are as little as 3. And some (Epson, Lexmark, Dell) don't have any way to refill. Canon and Brother seemed to be the most flexible.

Yep, modern inkjet printers have tiny cartridges that are expensive and use all sorts of elaborate software to prevent refilling.

There's huge money in inkjet ink. I read an article recently that claimed that gallon for gallon, inkjet ink is the most expensive legally-obtainable liquid on the open market, with even cheap 'discount' inkjet cartridges coming in at more than $5,000 a gallon.

Those are the two brands I recommend to my family and friends. I would also add they generally seem to me to be the most Mac friendly.

FWIW I agree with Tacit's remarks. The manufacturers charge a pittance for thir printers so they can sell ink where they make their money

What ticks me off further is that, in addition to providing smaller and smaller cartridges for the same dollars, some printers are set up to consume that diminished amount of ink even faster. Some will have automatic head cleaning cycles, and a cleaning cycle uses a lot of ink.

I'm an average printer user, and in the 6 years I had my Canon ip5000, I never once cleaned the heads.