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.

[btos]

I'm surprised a Facebook page hasn't been created for this yet. Don't forget about Google Plus either. I think the error should have been called OU812 Printhead Dead Error.

[mrsjenj]

Wow, I am so glad I found this forum!

I have MX922 that I bought on June 21st from Amazon. Today July 31st I get the  U052 error. Last day to return the printer was July 22nd.

Contacted customer support and they are sending me  a new print head which I am guessing is going to be useless.

Should I just order a new printer  from amazon now and save myself the drama of it all? 

[skicolorado]

If you have the opportunity to return the printer, you should seize the moment.

[Fruitty]

My Epson XP -810 has arrived today. Beautiful machine with lots of features the Canon didn't have. But one thing the Canon has is not to be found with the Epson: no U052 error to ruin my day. I'm wondering though, there are a lot of Canon printers on sale. Silence before the storm?

[Geomath]

Given up waiting for Canon to pull their finger out.

RIP my MP610

I've been looking at Epson and have narrowed my choices down to just the XP-700

Any advice on this one?

This request is to all our unhappy readers as well as the dipstick Canon personnel who refuse to do anything about their self-destructing printers.

[Geomath]

I've got a garage full of rubbish including a windows 3.1 PC with a 10mb HDD - it'll just join the rest of the cr&p!

BTW ordered it direct from Epson shop! Yes, it was cheaper than Amazon UK when free delivery considered.

For some reason the Amazon sellers were in Italy and Epson is in Germany (but I hope it is coming from the UK warehouse).

It's so complicated - I would have preferred to get a Canon but not after my experiences with their treatment of U052 sufferers.

[ReverseEMF]

@Geomath: It's probably too late, but every Epson printer I ever owned (3 -- one was a gift) gave me trouble! Had one HP for a few years, and then it died! Consider a Brother!

[rchappel]

I have a Pixma MX882.  First it showed a B200 error, now it shows U052.  As you said, it was working GREAT, now it's unusable for apparent SW reasons.  I spoke to Canon support and they immediately started telling me about their loyalty program.  I could buy a replacement device for just $25 more than Amazon is charging.  

emailing me a link to a patch to fix my printer would be a better loyalty program.  If there's no resolution to this, i'll have to switch brands. 

Thanks for your great post.

[weathermaps]

Got the U052 on my MX882.  Used only factory inks. Now printer is useless.

It was the same price to buy a new printer than order a new print head.

I hope people can get canon to get to the bottom of this issue,

interesting that people in general have been having success with the non-name brand inks (on amazon)

if cannon can't reliably work with own factory inks, i could save hundreds of dollars with these alternative inks.

[summer]

I had the exact same scenario!  The first error B200 is now gone, but now the U052 just won't go away.   The entire machine is dead - scanner, copier, fax... just because it  stopped recognizing its own freaking printhead. I am NOT going to replace this with another Canon.  

I am disgusted.  Why make a multipurpose machine that loses ALL function when ONE thing goes wrong?  And... why keep making them with this printhead recognition error?  After looking online, I see that YOU, CANON, must have been aware of this exact problem for some time now.  No recall, no patch, no new hardware mailed to customers, nothing to fix it.  You just hope that I, your loyal Canon customer, assume it's my fault that I "broke my printer"... and that I go out and buy a new one.  Well... I idid that once already.   This is the SECOND Canon printer that has done this; each lasted just a little over a year. 

 No more.  CANON:  I have been planning to upgrade my Canon digital camera to a newer Rebel but now, with such shoddy equipment and such terrible customer service. I simply cannot see myself spending a couple of thousand dollars on ANYTHING made by your company.