Canon i960 ink level

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

nosredna - 29 Apr 2005 20:46 GMT

My i960 has always told me when a cartridge was empty, even in the
middle of a print job ("open printer and replace ink cartridge now").
The other day, instead of that message, I got the *four blinks* of the
yellow light on the front of the printer, which means "out of ink."
However, when I used the Printer Utility to check the levels, none of
the cartridges appeared to be empty. Three colors had ! marks above them
in the utility, though. I pulled the cartridges out, and it's kind of
hard to tell whether they're really empty, because there's still some
color showing. Anyone here had this experience?

Reply to this Message

Olin K. McDaniel - 30 Apr 2005 03:50 GMT

>My i960 has always told me when a cartridge was empty, even in the
>middle of a print job ("open printer and replace ink cartridge now").
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>hard to tell whether they're really empty, because there's still some
>color showing. Anyone here had this experience?

I presumed the i960 was quite similar to the i950, which is what I
have. However from what you write, nothing seems to fit what I see
with mine. Unless yours uses some completely different ink cartridges
than my i950, that statement that you can't tell if they are really
empty just does not appear reasonable. Mine's cartridges have two
chambers, one for the liquid ink and one filled with sponge-like
material. If the chamber for liquid is empty, it should be obvious.
Further, there is a small wedge built into the bottom of that chamber
that has a different refractive index than the liquid, so when the
liquid level drops below the tip of that wedge, a detector below the
cartridge can tell it. That's how it knows to report a cartridge is
empty and needs replacing.

Does this not fit the description of the i960 cartridges also?

Olin McDaniel

Reply to this Message

nosredna - 30 Apr 2005 04:15 GMT

> >My i960 has always told me when a cartridge was empty, even in the
> >middle of a print job ("open printer and replace ink cartridge now").
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Olin McDaniel

That was very helpful--thanks. I pulled the four that have (!) marks
over them in the utility, and they are, indeed empty. I had never really
scrutinized the tanks before, when removing them. The strange thing to
me is the four flashing lights instead of the warning on the screen to
change the ink tank, like before (for the past two years). I would think
that I would get the flashers only if I ignored a screen warning. From
time to time (like today), when I'm using the Printer Utility, I get
this message: Error Number: 19 Utility function cannot be used because
the printer is performing processing. Make sure the printer has finished
the processing, and try again.
The printer is not performing processing when I get this message. I'm
not printing and doing anything--just trying to get the Utility to do
its job. The last time this happened, I reinstalled the printer driver
and all was well. Strange that I'd have to do that.

Reply to this Message

Robesse - 30 Apr 2005 21:41 GMT

In my experience with Canon ink jet printers, an early/false warning of "low
ink" or "out of ink" is typical. I routinely take out the "low" or "empty"
cartridge, put it back in and get more milage out of it. If you let it
"rest" a bit the ink remaining in the packing seems to settle. I have also
found that gently tapping the cartridge (on a sheet of clean paper!) will
also help to settle the remaining ink and milk a few more pages out of the
little bugger.

I have noticed that I am most likely to get a false empty on yellow and
least likely to get it on black.

-- Rob S

Reply to this Message