Call to Arms for the dreaded U052 Wrong Printhead Error

[macnicol]

This is a "call to arms" for all of you Canon customers who have had this problem and have had their printers disabled because of it.  Please respond with the model of your printer and if you were able to fix it, what you did to fix it. 

We need to put pressure on Canon to respond this product defect.  It appears to be bad firmware that does not allow the user to override the problem and to continue to use the printer even in a degraded mode.  From my investigations the problem is NOT a printhead issue - no way one can be printing fine and then have this error alert without having changed the printhead or ink cartridges!

Canon, PLEASE take this issue seriously and provide a solution across the affected models.  If nothing else there should be a trade-in allowance for those printers that have been affected by this product defect.

I have had many Canon printers because they have superior functional specifications. I want to be able to continue using Canon products but only if I can have confidence that this product defect will not destroy my investment.

If Canon is unresponsive our next step should be to aggressively publisize this product defect on social media and on major product vendor outlet sites as negatives reviews.

Forum Users, please reply with your affected model number(s) and with details of any succdessful fix procedure.

[flawedexistence]

Yeah, my MP830 went the same way.  Threw it out and bought a Brother.  Works great.  The odds are against any of the purported fixes working on your machine.

[varmsb]

MG5220 just got a U052 error.  I was just printing earlier today without an issue.

[paulvgreenstock]

MG5250 was a lovely printer for a couple of years and now this !!  U052 !!  Ive tried all the advice I can find to no avail. So off to the scrap heap and never buy Canon again.  And recommend that other people avoid them too.

[stuffed1printer]

Thanks for the link to the Youtube video of dismantled Canon printer. I too pulled mine apart before putting in bin. I came across the little tubes that suck the ink; not sure how it happens if the printer is turned off unless it creates residual vacuum that keeps the inkhead damp with ink. Whatever! seems to be a design fault that cannot be fixed unless the cartridges carry the printhead themselves. I seem to remember a printer, either Epsom or Brother that had the printhead in the cartridge so a new cartridge solved the problem. Possibly you do not get such a quality of print with this method. Perhaps a colour laser is the way to go. Multifunctions should be avoided so that when the printing stops your scanning and software doesn't. Buy a stand alone printer and know that  inkjet technology will not allow a long productive life. That way you can buy generic inks with impunity and avoid large costs; dump the printer when it gives an error code. Perhaps somebody knows a printer scanner fax setup that is in seperate modules.

[SallyAma]

Hmm...if you use certain words they don't like, Canon (and most forum hosts) have a program that seeks out those words/terms and deletes the email. Words like l*a*w*S*u^i^t are among those. I've had it happen to me,a nd I should know better as I helped my company determine which words to monitor on a forum.

[hawkan2580]

well, you can add me to the list of very unhappy canon ex customer with the UO52 error on my mp610 ...

I don't for a second believe it is a coincidence that all of a sudden, there's heaps of folks everywhere with the same error code coming up pretty much at the same time.. That smells of built in error by design miles away. Too many, within too much of the same printer life span for it to be a pure fluke.

Sure, ink can clog up print heads, there are plenty of things that could go wrong for a lot of customers. But if we pretend that this had been a car and all of a sudden, all fuel injections failed between 3000 and 3200 milage on all card in x range of cars from a manufacturer and they pretend it is not A, a design flaw that they should wear or B a planned fault by design ... IE< life span of a printer should be no more than 4 years of use... so we make sure of it...

Very bad form of Canon indeed... Very unhappy and will spread how unhappy I am every chance I get.....

[hawkan2580]

I am inclined to carry this printer into canon's office, first one I find and smash it on their floor.. If they want to be part of making more waste, I say let them sort it out a bit as well... Or : don't just collect money for bad product that increase waste... now you have to pay someone's salary to clean part of it up (even if it is just in their office and it still ends up as waste, I feel slightly happier knowing that I've reduced the profit margin on That machine at least...

[ryokonyc]

My MX892 has the same Error - U052, cannot even use the scanner or fax since.

I spoke to a Canon Tech support person but all he could do was the same process that many of us had tried and did not work.  Since my printer is just out of warranty, he suggested that I take it to the local authorized repair shop.  I resented to waste more time just to be told that the repair would cost me as much as a new printer.   Error U052 is clearly a widespread issue as so many people are coming forward and it should not be treated as our gamble whether it breaks before or after the warranty.  It is only 1 year and 3 months old and it was barely used since it was a back-up printer.  I would love to know how to check the print counter, since it stopped working after so little use.  Anyway, this is NOT acceptable performance, especially for Canon product.  

The tech mentioned that the issue could be caused by A) print head malfunction or B) internal mechanical issue.  He then offered to send me a new print head for free of charge, which was a nice gesture.  I will repost the update of whether installing a new print head could resolve this issue or not.   I am not too convinced that the new print head can solve this issue, since I agree with others that the error appears to be software/system glitch, but it is worth a try so that I don't have to waste more ink-cartridge stock.  Hopefully it works!  If not, I will go with Brother printer as others here suggested and repost a review.  

[vcalvetti]

Well, this finally happened to me. Ive had this MP 560 that has served me admirably for several years that is only used once every few months mostly for scanning documents. Today when I tried to print up a pre-lease agreement for a new apartment, I got the U052 error. Went through all the suggested fixes, nothing works. I know this is not from over usage because the last time I touched the printer was 3 months ago. 

What the latest news on this issue? What can I do to get this resolved??

[shankarab]

I bought a MX860 all-in-one printer a couple of years ago, and it started giving the U052 error last month. I have tried everything that I could find on the web, no use. This was an expensive buy for me and I won't be buying Canon again.If so many people are affected by the same error, then this is definitely a design defect and canon should fix it for free.