Canon Printer Problems and Fixes

Canon reports faults as numbered support codes, and the number is genuinely informative once you know how the ranges work. Codes in the 1000s are usually paper, ink tanks or the print head not being seen. Codes in the 5000s are mechanical or service faults, which are the ones worth stopping on rather than repeating. B200 sits on its own and points at the print head.

The print head being a separate, user-removable part is the important difference on most Canon inkjets. It lifts out of the carriage once the tanks are removed, which means the commonest serious faults on these machines, B200 among them, can often be cleared by taking the head out, cleaning its gold contacts and the matching ones in the carriage with a dry lint free cloth, and refitting it. It also means the head can be replaced without replacing the printer, although on consumer models the price of a head is usually close enough to a new machine to be worth comparing.

The other Canon-specific one is 5B00, the waste ink absorber. It is not a fault in the ordinary sense: it is a pad inside the printer filling up with the ink used during head cleaning, and the printer stopping when its counter says the pad is full. It needs service rather than a setting change, and the counter exists to stop ink reaching the desk.