My Canon G6020 started to experience absence of printing black text. The color was fine. I starting using the printer software tools to clean the black printer head. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I then started to flush the black print head. Each time, I would be reminded that this would consume a lot of ink and to ensure the tank was above the bottom level line before starting. In my situation, the black ink level was just below the top line (almost full). I had ran the flush test but the black tank never lowered its tank volume and continue to not move from its present ink level indication. I then referred to you tube videos looking for anything about not ink printing. One solution was to check the dispensing ink tube. It was full from the tank to the print head. The next step was to remove the black print head and check for clogs. I discovered that the print head was indeed clogged, dried up and with a thick ink paste at the ink output of the print head. I cleaned off the print head with warm water per you tube videos taking special care not to get the electrical connections wet. I then reinserted the print head, perform a second ink flush, although the print head started to print black letters, they were blotted and unrecognizable. Still the black tank ink level did not decrease. I then ordered a new print head. I then decided thoroughly clean the print head while waiting on the new print head to arrive. I then performed another ink flush (third time) at which time the black ink printing was much better. When the new print head arrived, I installed it and went about flushing the ink head to fill its contents (forth time). Right after the ink flush, the printer displayed 5B00 which is a code for the waste tank counter being exceeded d=100. I went through other you tube videos to reset the counter without any luck. The error did not go away. Since the printer is out of warranty, I decided to open up the side panel (right hand panel from the front view) and check the waste tank. Upon checking the tank, I discovered a dry absorber pad with little to no ink in the bottom of the waste tank.
My conclusion.
1. Root cause was a clogged black print head due to a long period of non use.
2. The 5B00 code does not check the waste tank contents or absorber pad, it only counts the amount of times print cleaning is performed (assuming each time, waste ink will fill the waste tank and absorber pad)
3. Cannot reset the tank level. Following you tube video, upon entering the maintenance routine (when the display goes blank with a blue background), when the green light goes from blinking to solid green, the printer will not respond to further button functions to reset the counter. It simply shuts down and turns itself off.
4. Waste tank is empty and the absorber is dry
5. A new black print head was installed and appeared to fix the problem.
Other than the lack of use, the printer had performed flawlessly in the past. I understand there is a discount offered by Canon to replace printers. I would like to explore that option since I have ink supplies and sapre printer heads I can no longer use.
Thank you,
Oscar Garrett
