Printer "waste ink tray full".

[Justin Passing]

Canon Printer TS8350 Error 5B00
This may be a "real" issue or something which Canon build into the firmware to limit the printer's life.

I can find instructions for other somewhat similar printers. One replaces the waste ink pad, and then there's a sequence of button presses to reset things.
This particuar printer doesn't have those buttons, there's just an On button, then the touchpad.

It's not an expensive printer, £120 or so a few years ago, so I suspect the sensible option is to scrap it for a replacement. Much as that course is sad.


I could dismantle the printer and clean the foam pad - I can't find a replacement. The button-pressing routine for a different Canon printer, isn't something one would guess.

Has anyone successfully resolved a similar issue?

 

[Wayners]

I've tackled printers with a can of air to blow out dust and wet wipes.
Unplug for a few hours to reset.
About all you can do other than reinstall

 

[flameport]

The only sensible option for inkjet printers is to never buy or use them, and buy a cheap old laser printer instead.

 

[evdama]

I use an old laser for in house printing and keep the inkjet for work going external.
A litre of isopropryl alcohol is a good investment for any household and its good for cleaning printer gubbins like a waste sponge or print head.
Inkjets are a royal pita whatever the price
Infrequent use is often a killer.
Top of the range still have built-in obsolescence,with more bells and whistles to justify the price.

 

[aveatry]

I have had this with a canon printer and managed it for about 2 more years by cleaning the little pad that the head wipes itself on. Reach in with long tweezers and there are 2 of them about the size of a postage stamp soak in alcohol and damp on a paper towel until no more ink comes out. Also clean the area around where that sat. Pop them back in and all is well for a few months until I have to do it again. I kept it going but the print head eventually worn out.

 

[spile]

Old mono laser and Epson Ecotank work for me. Reliable, quality output and very cheap to run.

 

[bernardgreen]

My HP 5532 ( Hewlett Packard ) has the print heads in the ink cartridges. No wasted ink. Cartridges may be a bit more expensive than ink only cartridges but there is no wasted ink. And no cleaning of dried ink from the print head

 

[RepairingDave]

I managed to do it a couple of times with an Epson printer. and also redirected the pipe from the printer heads to a bottle rather that the waste ink pad. - The first time I paid a service center to reset it, but they refused to do it a second time.

If the printer won't let you print and you can't find a service center then you have nothing to loose.
It is worth getting the software side sorted first as cleaning the pads is the part with a known solution - make sure you do clean them if you reset the waste ink counter as you don't want them becoming so saturated that the ink starts to leak.

This video might help:

it looks like there is a clear ink counter option if you can get to that menu

 

[Lusi83]

Just seen this - so I guess a bit late but it might help someone else .
I've had this issue on a canon and an epson printer. If you can get your hands on a service manual (Canon) or software (Epson) you can reset it to ignore the error once at least. (although there is a risk of leaking ink -or damage to purge unit -but then it will be a write off anyway if you don't do anything) I believe it is inbuilt/planned obsolescence.
I came across this first on a Canon good few years ago. In that case I had had a problem with blocked print head, I followed the advice of doing multiple deep head cleans. None of which worked. So i bought a new print head (£50 ish) and then a week or so later ran into this problem...
Basically once the printer records it has done a certain number of prints - or head cleans - it decides the pad will be full and comes up with this error. I actually took that one to pieces - the ink pad was located in the base and I had to fully disassemble it to get to the pads which were far from full. If I remember correctly the Epson pads were much easier to get to but also not saturated. (you do still have to do the software reset, even if you have cleaned the pads)
The biggest lesson I learned from my experiences is not to try and sort out a blocked print head by doing multiple deep cleans - basically that just pumps lots of ink through the print head - and greatly adds to 'waste ink count' -so speeds up this error.
If one deep head clean doesn't solve the problem, try doing multiple prints of a page which is just a block of the 'problem' colour - ideally using genuine ink. If that doesn't work you can buy head cleaning kits etc - but I generally move the print head to the middle of the carriage (you might have to turn the power off at the wall as it is going through its start up to get it in the middle -don't try and force it), Slide paper towel under the print head then force warm water through using a syringe/tubing attached the problem ink cartridge port. I usually try and suck any remaining ink out first -and then check if any ink/watery ink of the problem colour is on the paper towel. If there is I will put a bit more water through (changing the paper towel so it is always dry enough to absorb the liquid) - if there isn't I will suck out the water and then put more clean in, do it a few time etc. This has always worked for me...I've done this to a couple of canon printers, an epson and a brother....
When you go to print again you might need to do one deep clean to replace the water/get ink into the print head - and for the first few pages the colour might be watery...(in my experience Canon the cartridges are in the print head so not really a problem - in the brother the cartridges are separate and travel through tubing first so more of a problem )
Hope that helps!

 

[Wayners]

I stick with HP printers because the print head is built in the ink cartridge.
Any problems swap the cartridge jobs a good un.
As for cleaning it's tricky even if you have access to professional printer head cleaners. Domestic printers aren't built to be messed with it seems.

I do think we print less now than 10 years ago which means you get printer problems. We can go weeks without printing anything.There was a time we printed pictures and emails. Bank statements, letters and tickets and all sorts of other stuff but not now. I starting to question if we actually need a printer