Good day
I work as a Computer/Printer technician at a small computer store. We have been selling the MF237w for easily 5 years now with no issues, and we kept selling them as they were so reliable. But recently, like in the last 2-3 months maybe? We have been starting to get reports from customers that the machine doesn’t want to scan. Usually just restarting the computer or printer would resolve the issue. But now that doesn’t. Even reinstalling the drivers or scanner software alone doesn’t resolve the issue. The MF Scan Utility (Either 1.21 or 1.12) would report an error 155.0.0.0 (Which some have said it’s the USB cable. Tried multiple new USB cables and ones confirmed to be working. Still the same error.) Or the scan software would give an error message saying the document exceeds the scan area and if we want to continue. If we say yes, it either goes back to 155.0.0.0 or it just scans from the glass. And will refuse to even recognize the ADF. Even if you set it to only scan from the ADF, it will just tell you to put paper in the ADF and refuse to recognize it. The ADF works perfectly fine. The machine gives you notification sounds when you place paper in and makes perfect copies. If we try to scan using only Window’s basic scan software via Devices and Printers, the ADF would not be listed and when you click scan, it just instantly crashes. Other times the MF Scan Utility even just refuses to open at all. And just reinstalling the drivers or software, does not fix it.
Essentially, what we eventually got to let it at least “work” again, would be to completely remove and uninstall all Canon software and drivers, delete all Canon drivers and packages from the print server. Go into the Registry and delete all Canon related entries. Then restarting the computer and installing the printer and software anew. Only then, will it scan from the MF Scan Utility, or the directly from the printer. But it doesn’t last. After restarting the computer. Or leaving it overnight, turn on the computer the next day. And the problems are back. And you must do ALL this again for it to work again.
The customers who have come to us with this problem were all running Windows 10 or 11. My guess is to what a cause might be some Windows update that might have messed with the way Canon’s scanner software/drivers communicate with the printer.
I spoke with our regional official service/warranty centre for Canon printers, and the technician simply said “Yeah, we know these models have a scan problem. But all you can do is remove everything Canon related and reinstall it.” Another technician recommended just updating the firmware. But the new machine we are currently trying to fix this with at the office is already on the latest firmware. So that also does not seem to be the issue.
I would very grateful if I could at least get some direction to at least find the cause of this, because we already refunded a customer for a new one they recently bought from us as it was giving them and us endless troubles trying to fix it, and we still don’t have an answer for him. We also have quite a few of these in stock still which we wouldn’t want to lose. But as I mentioned in the start, I do not believe this to be a machine problem, but rather something software related between Canon and Windows. As we had customers who either bought their machine a month ago, or others who bought theirs 3 years ago, come to use and experiencing the exact same issue.
I am sorry for my excessively long post. But I hope this gives at least enough details about the problem in case someone else might have encountered this or know what the cause might be.
Thank you very much.
