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Paper jam error when there's NO PAPER JAM!


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I've had a Canon Pixma MP600 for slightly more than 4 years. It worked perfectly every day until yesterday. Turned it on and it presented me with an error message saying that something "incompatible" was plugged into one of it's camera ports. Nothing was plugged into any port. I searched the Web for the message and found several forms saying that it was really a paper jam error, and that the error occurred probably because a tiny lever inside the back of the printer was stuck on. The way to unstick it was to use a piece of heavy paper, fold over ~1cm. of top of the sheet, insert the sheet over the rubber rollers in the back as far as it would go with the folded part facing up, then withdraw it. The idea is that the folded part of the paper would act as a "hook" to pull the lever back. The explanation said I would feel resistance and a click, which I did.

What did this do? It changed the error message to "you have a paper jam". I opened every panel and used a flashlight to try to find ANYTHING stuck in the printer. There was nothing. I tried unplugging the printer for over a minute, then plugging it back in/turning it on. Same result. Rebooting the computer also had not effect.

Called Canon tech support. After putting me thru several procedures, the rep concluded that the printer needed to be serviced by an authorized Canon shop. I called the shop, and the (very honest) guy I talked to said that the total cost of repairing it would probably be $100 and that I could buy a new one for that.

I'm an environmentalist, and I hate to chuck something as poisonous to the environment as a printer if there's any way to fix it at no or very low cost. So, I'm asking if anyone on this forum has encountered a similar problem with a Canon printer and were they able to fix it themselves?

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I had something similar happen once in the past. I had to run the maintenance tasks (clean paper feeder, etc) before it was fixed. It may also help to use compressed air to clean out the feeds.

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I had something similar happen once in the past. I had to run the maintenance tasks (clean paper feeder, etc) before it was fixed. It may also help to use compressed air to clean out the feeds.

I tried compressed air (have a compressor in the garage for filling tires). Did nothing. As far as running maintenance tasks. . . can't, because nothing works; after you turn it on, it screws around longer than normal with "Canon" on the LCD, then the error message appears and nothing none of the buttons does anything. In addition, the Canon support tech had me go thru several procedures and concluded at the end that the printer would have to be serviced.

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Are there no maintenance tasks available to you through Windows?

May have been, but I doubt the printer would have done anything if I had tried. It was not accepting any commands to print or scan, so why would it accept commands from the printer software? In any case, to try that now would be a royal pain. I gave up on the MX600, bought a new MG6120 for about the same as it would cost me to get the 600 fixed, and it's a better printer (6 cartridges instead of 5, so photos look perfect, and it's wireless). I have removed the MX600 software. I could, of course, download and reinstall it, but I think the outcome would be no different. Remember, the original error message was that something "incompatible" was plugged into one of the ports when nothing was plugged into any port. Only after trying the "folded paper" trick did it change to a "paper jam". This suggests very strongly to me that the motherboard inside the printer has gone south. . .which is why the service technician told me it would probably need that part and with the bench charge cost at least $100, and advised me to buy a new one for about the same price.

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Sounds like a fairly thorough check, of a dying printer, but the key point is:

I ... bought a new MG6120 for about the same as it would cost me to get the 600 fixed

At which point it makes no sense at all to continue trying to repair the old one.

.

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. . .At which point it makes no sense at all to continue trying to repair the old one.

Well, except that if I could get it running again, I could (a) sell it to offset the price of the new one, (b) give it to the many non-profits in my area who want things like that, or © have a backup in the event the MG6120 has problems.

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