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Author Topic: Printer Recycling Suggestions?  (Read 3318 times)

tharrington

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Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« on: August 18, 2020, 12:22:00 pm »

We had a thunderstorm here last week that damaged a couple of our electronics, including (sadly) my canon pro-4000.  Although it was on battery backup/surge protection, I think it may have damaged the network card.  Anyway, after calling Canon tech support, I find myself in the same position I was in years ago when I encountered a problem with my 8300... to service or not.  Between the $1500 service call and $675 for a new head (which canon recommends purchasing just in case there is a problem with the current head) it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend money on a repair when a new one can be purchased for $2900.  Especially true, since Canon tells me that the $1500 only covers parts and labor associated with the "diagnosed" problem.  While my business insurance is covering the printer, it pains me to see an error code (EC51-3000) on this otherwise pristine printer.  I read a post on here describing a method of entering service mode, but for the life of me can't get it to work.  So, having exhausted any workarounds I can come up with, I'm left with deciding what to do with the printer.  I ended up completely disassembling my 8300 as I wanted to understand how it was put together, but I don't plan to do that again for the 4000.  I'm curious to know what others have done with these large printers.   
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mearussi

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2020, 09:37:51 pm »

A "Free to good home" post on Craigslist is how I've gotten rid of all my dead printers. Usually works pretty fast too.
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Richard.Wills

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2020, 09:12:22 am »

I take it you've tried connecting over USB?

     Press and hold the Power button while touching Area4 (lower left) of the operation panel. (DO NOT release the buttons.)
    When the Canon logo is displayed on the operation panel, release the finger touching Area4 (lower left) while holding the Power button, touch in order of Area2 (lower right,) Area3 (upper left,) and Area1 (upperright) of the operation panel, release the finger from Area1 (upper right) and finally release the Powerbutton within two seconds.
    ​When the service mode is successfully launched, the orange lamp blinks above the operation panel afterthe home screen is displayed.

When our 8300 got too long in the tooth, GumTree add. Two guys came and colected it the next day (and carried it down our really steep staircase, while not tilting beyond 15 degrees). Really strong guys.
I did forget to give them the roll media spindle, which came in quite handy for our 8400!
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deanwork

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2020, 06:29:41 pm »

Battery backup / surge protectors will not protect against lightning. I learned that the hard way. It’s lightning right now at my place and I ran down there and unplugged everything. It’s a pain in the ass this time of year but I have to do it.

Yea you should check the usb. The simple Ethernet card can be replaced. The main board or the head board is what costs.

I give my old printers away on Craig’s list also. Someone has carried away every single one, working or not.


I take it you've tried connecting over USB?

     Press and hold the Power button while touching Area4 (lower left) of the operation panel. (DO NOT release the buttons.)
    When the Canon logo is displayed on the operation panel, release the finger touching Area4 (lower left) while holding the Power button, touch in order of Area2 (lower right,) Area3 (upper left,) and Area1 (upperright) of the operation panel, release the finger from Area1 (upper right) and finally release the Powerbutton within two seconds.
    ​When the service mode is successfully launched, the orange lamp blinks above the operation panel afterthe home screen is displayed.

When our 8300 got too long in the tooth, GumTree add. Two guys came and colected it the next day (and carried it down our really steep staircase, while not tilting beyond 15 degrees). Really strong guys.
I did forget to give them the roll media spindle, which came in quite handy for our 8400!
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tharrington

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2020, 11:20:20 pm »

Thank you all for your replies. I sincerely appreciate each and every one! 

Regarding the USB connection, is there anything I need to do to initiate the usb connection? I did try simply connecting the printer to my computer via USB just to see if the computer might recognize the printer, but nothing happened.  However, I don’t think I tried the service mode procedure while connected via USB.  Worth a try...anything to get past the error message :).   

I didn’t know that surge protection wasn’t protecting against lighting. I guess I have learned the hard way too. What is the reason for this?  We were thinking about putting one of those whole home surge protectors on, but would that be insufficient as well?  I guess I’ll be getting some good exercise too with as many storms as we’ve had lately.

Craig’s list will most likely be in my future. I think I will continue trying to revive it until the new one arrives.
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mearussi

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2020, 11:46:01 pm »

Thank you all for your replies. I sincerely appreciate each and every one! 

Regarding the USB connection, is there anything I need to do to initiate the usb connection? I did try simply connecting the printer to my computer via USB just to see if the computer might recognize the printer, but nothing happened.  However, I don’t think I tried the service mode procedure while connected via USB.  Worth a try...anything to get past the error message :).   

I didn’t know that surge protection wasn’t protecting against lighting. I guess I have learned the hard way too. What is the reason for this?  We were thinking about putting one of those whole home surge protectors on, but would that be insufficient as well?  I guess I’ll be getting some good exercise too with as many storms as we’ve had lately.

Craig’s list will most likely be in my future. I think I will continue trying to revive it until the new one arrives.
I lost two printers (Epson 9800 and 7800) and one laptop charger thinking they were protected by a surge protector, but some drunk took out my local power pole and proved me wrong. I use a UPS now which has protected my desktop computer for many years successfully so hopefully my present printers are better protected.
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Richard.Wills

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2020, 07:04:19 am »

I lost the ethernet connection on our 8300 for a few weeks from lightning, but then by magic it came back, once I'd bought a long enough USB cable.
Certainly by default, the USB port is available on the 8300/8400, can't imagine why you'd need to go into service mode to enable it.
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Garnick

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2020, 07:55:46 am »

Although I have zero experience with a Canon printer driver, I imagine it is somewhat the same as installing and adding an Epson driver, with which I do have experience with several Epson Wide Format printers.  After the driver is installed and the printer is on and ready one has to add the printer in the system preferences (Mac).  Part of adding the printer is setting the connection - Network/Ethernet or USB.  I assume the Canon driver requires the same sort of setting.  I also assume you are working in Windows, in which case my description for the Mac will not necessarily be of any use to you, although perhaps part of it might help at least.     
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Lessbones

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2020, 11:22:15 am »

I started a pretty extreme teardown of a PRO6000 yesterday (for reasons I'll not get into right now) and in taking off the back plate to expose the main boards, it appears that the network/usb card is socketed.  If I were you I would try unplugging that card and seeing what happens then on boot.  Unfortunately both ethernet and USB are on the same card, so if that's fried it's likely that both are damaged.  But you may have some luck pleading with canon to send you another one if you can successfully boot with it removed.  Also, there is the usb stick slot on the front, so if you were able to get it up again, you might still be able to print through that.... not really a replacement, but at least it wouldn't be total trash.
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deanwork

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2020, 03:31:50 pm »

Good idea, and check on eBay. When printers go down people take them apart for parts to sell. You should be able to buy a new one also.

This same thing happened to me on a Mac. The lightening zapped my Ethernet card and the modem it went into.

Do a google search for that error code canon printer .... code.......



I started a pretty extreme teardown of a PRO6000 yesterday (for reasons I'll not get into right now) and in taking off the back plate to expose the main boards, it appears that the network/usb card is socketed.  If I were you I would try unplugging that card and seeing what happens then on boot.  Unfortunately both ethernet and USB are on the same card, so if that's fried it's likely that both are damaged.  But you may have some luck pleading with canon to send you another one if you can successfully boot with it removed.  Also, there is the usb stick slot on the front, so if you were able to get it up again, you might still be able to print through that.... not really a replacement, but at least it wouldn't be total trash.
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tharrington

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Re: Printer Recycling Suggestions?
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2020, 08:11:40 am »

I lost two printers (Epson 9800 and 7800) and one laptop charger thinking they were protected by a surge protector, but some drunk took out my local power pole and proved me wrong. I use a UPS now which has protected my desktop computer for many years successfully so hopefully my present printers are better protected.

Oh gracious- that’s awful!! It is interesting that you mention the UPS... I said battery backup/surge protection but it is in fact a UPS unit. I should have said “UPS” rather than describing the UPS :). Does this make any difference regarding protection from lightning strikes in general?  Unfortunately, I wasn’t running the Ethernet cable through the UPS unit and I fear that’s how it got through. As Lessbones suggested, I will definitely try removing the network card and see what happens.


Although I have zero experience with a Canon printer driver, I imagine it is somewhat the same as installing and adding an Epson driver, with which I do have experience with several Epson Wide Format printers.  After the driver is installed and the printer is on and ready one has to add the printer in the system preferences (Mac).  Part of adding the printer is setting the connection - Network/Ethernet or USB.  I assume the Canon driver requires the same sort of setting.  I also assume you are working in Windows, in which case my description for the Mac will not necessarily be of any use to you, although perhaps part of it might help at least.     

Thank you Garnick. I’m actually using Mac so what you said is indeed pertinent to my situation!  Unfortunately, the system is not seeing the printer using USB via system preferences. I still haven’t been able to enter service mode, but who knows if that would even help.

Good idea Lessbones and Deanwork. If removing the network card doesn’t work, putting certain parts up on eBay may be a good alternative to Craig’s list.

In order to wrap things up with this post, I’ll report back here later with any success I come across based on everyone’s helpful feedback. Again, thank you all.
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