Our iP4500 has worked great for several years.
Last night, as I went to print something routinely, just as the mechanical action started, the printer powered itself off and could not be revived.
If I removed the AC line power source, waited, and reconnected it, then I would get a very brief green LED then nothing.
Otherwise, while plugged in it will not power itself on.
I determined (using a voltmeter) that the power supply is outputing reasonable DC levels while it is in standby mode.
I also checked all three fuses, they are fine. I did not see any bulging capacitors, nor smelled anything, nor did I see any evidence of burning. I measured (DC Ohms) across all of the major capacitors and did not see anything looking like a short.
I removed some of the covers, removed the ink tanks and removed the print head.
Now the printer powers up, and it appears to work fine.
The carriage motors itself along its usual route, and it appears to move the print head (up and down?).
The driver reports the print head is not installed, and I see the five-blink pattern from the amber LED.
After I reinstalled the print head, the iP4500 once again died without any announcement ... with the same pattern of behavior.
The print head, to me, looks pretty normal; there is no obvious blemish, overt damage, nor anything looking like a burned spot on it.
I am hoping, but am not fully confident, that the only illness of my iP4500 is a faulty, worn-out, or damaged print head.
I know I just ran dry of blank ink a day ago and I coerced the printer into printing several more pages despite the warning.
Is that abuse, on my part, enough to fry this type of print head?
Still, I wouldn't be too disappointed if this is what is killing (non-destructively) my iP4500.
I don't know whether I can easily buy a replacement print head for this printer, but I am going to try that.
Has anyone been through a similar experience with this class of printer? Thanks; Larry
p.s. I was leaning toward buying a new Canon printer, but what put me off that was that the newer series do not have driver support for our old computer, which runs Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger. I also use a Windows 7 x64 ThinkPad with the printer. I was thinking about trying to buy the highest/last model in the iP4000 series. But if my iP4500 is still operable, then we don't need a new printer yet.
