Computer Printer Repair

Problem :

The error on the LCD of the printer is 6A00. Anyone know what this is about? I called Canon and they suggest I drive the machine to the nearest Canon approved repair center (which is 3 hours away) and have it looked at...so I am trying to avoid this if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


Solution :

The 6A00 is a Canon generic code for paper path jam. Some where in the paper path a sensor is activated indicating paper jam so the printer will give off a 6A00 code. As a Canon tech, I usually find the code, almost 90% of the time, is related to the purge unit being jammed with something and not being able to move. Moving the print head assembly will not clear a purge unit if its jammed with paper, paper clips, push pins, screws, cookie crisp, flower bud pods or the like. And yes I have found all those things in a purge unit. The offending item needs to be removed or the purge unit needs replacement. A Pixma MP830 would still be under Canon warranty, get it into a shop and save yourself the hassel.
Incidently, the 6A00 error pertains to all Canon printers made in the last several years, its not just used in one model. And its always a paper path error or purge unit.
I forget myself so here goes, the purge unit, called a spittoon assembly in an HP, lexmark, and other inkjet printers, is where the print head assembly parks when not in use, also its other job is to clean and make sure the print head is clean and open for printing. That is why you'll find the print head assembly parked on top of it. It also has a an electrical pump to milk the print heads and test for ink flow.

I've seen this problem with a few printers now, not consistently between any particular makes or models. However, I have found a consistent fix to connect to any network printer from vista:

Run a command prompt and type the following:

net use LPT2: \\servername\printer

This sets up a behind-the-scenes connection to the printer.

Then go through the add printer wizard, choose to add a local printer, and choose port LPT2... It will probably ask for a printer driver, and you can just choose whatever XP driver you might have been using before. The printer is then installed without any errors, and works just fine.

From poking around, it seems when the error appears that the driver is actually installed, but something between it being installed and it actually being added to vista's list of printers breaks. Doing the above just works though.

A print spooler is software that temporarily stores print jobs on the computer hard disk or in memory until the printer is ready to print them. If you've been waiting an unusually long time for a document to print, or if you see an error message about the print spooler, spooler subsystem, or spooler resources, you might need to change and then restart the Print Spooler service on your computer.

To do this, we recommend that you save your work, and then restart the computer to restart the Print Spooler service. If you don't want to restart the computer, try these steps instead.

To change or restart the Print Spooler service

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

1. Open Administrative Tools by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Administrative Tools.

2. Double-click Services. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. Right-click the Print Spooler service, and then click Properties.

4. On the General tab, next to Startup type, make sure that Automatic is selected.

5. If the service is not already running, under Service status, click Start, and then click OK. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

The Wife came up with error 5a when trying to print on our Brother mfc- 665cw today. This can be a critical problem but not necessarily so. Try these things before you take it for service:
1. Check for any paper jams:

Since the issue is usually a sensor issue a bad jam can mess up the lens, make sure it is clear.

2. Clear the print queue:

You should always clear the print queue when you have any kind of issue to make sure any tests are done in a clean environment.
3. Power down the machine:

Unplug and replug the device. Give it 10 seconds in between.
This might do the trick and save you a few bucks. Give it a shot first and see what happens.

Here's how to fix Windows 7 Printer Error 0x0000007e if you also notice that your "Language for non-Unicode" setting are correct:

1. Download the latest Windows 7 printer drivers (be sure to choose x32 or x64 depending on your machine) from the manufacturers website. I am installing an HP Laserjet 5550N in my case, and I downloaded the latest PCL6 drivers for Windows 7 x64 and extracted them on my macine.

2. Go to the extraction folder and run the setup.exe or install.exe program. This part was new to me but very slick... the driver installation loaded and asked me to provide the location of the printer I wanted to install.

3. Choose to install a "network printer" and select it from the list. Hit next.

4. At this point you can either select to find updated driver from Windows Update or choose "have disc" to manually select the *.inf file that was extracted via the driver download. I actually chose the Windows Update option for fun and grins, and it searched, located, and properly installed the correct drivers for my machine automatically.

5. Print a test page once you complete the rest of the installation screens. Note: Depending on your installation package, you may have slightly different setup screens but I suspect that the steps would be very similar.

So, in reality I never used the drivers that I downloaded since Windows Update found them for me. The end result is this though... you can add a network printer that is hosted on Windows Server 2003 to a Window 7 machine if you install the drivers locally but specify that you want to use the network printer (select the printer from the list or provide it's IP address).

I still haven't found a way to actually host the Windows 7 drivers on the Windows 2003 print server though, but with this fix you don't need to. You can still install and print to the network printer with the drivers installed locally. If I'm not mistaken, when you install a printer from a printer server the drivers are still installed locally... it's just the print server is your driver source rather than downloading and extracting the same drivers locally. So as I see it, my method is the "same difference"

HP Printer error code 20, as the name describes, is a problem with the HP printer on your system. The issue is typically caused if the printer is either not configured correctly, or your system tries to send an erroneous command to it. This error will typically show when you try and print a document / spreadsheet or another piece of data from your system, and will stop the print-out from proceeding. In order to fix this, it's advisable that you follow the steps outlined in this tutorial.

The HP error 20 will generally show in this format:

"Printer not activated - Error code 20″

There are several reasons why this error may show, including having an outdated / erroneous printer driver, not installing the printer software you need on your PC correctly, or having registry errors on your system. The bottom line of the problem is basically that when you try and print out a document / file from your Printer, there are certain issues which prevent Windows from either recognizing or connecting with the printer on your system. To fix the issue, you need to repair the various problems which cause this to occur - which can be done in quite an easy way.

The first thing to do to ensure the error code 20 is does not show up again on your system is make your HP printer the "default" printer. It might be the case that your system will be unable to use the printer as it cannot identify which one to use. Making your HP printer your default printer will resolve this issue, and should help your system to correctly print out. After that, you should also look to reinstall the HP printer software on your computer. This will essentially remove the printer from your PC and then place it back there again - allowing your system to correct any potential issues it had the last time it was installed.

It's highly recommended that you also "clean out the registry" of your PC by using a registry cleaner program. These are software tools which will fix any errors that are inside the 'registry' of your system - which is a large database that Windows uses to store vital settings and information for your computer. It's often the case that many registry settings will either become damaged or corrupted - leading your PC to be unable to use the files that it needs to run. This often causes a variety of errors to show, and is one of the main reasons for the HP printer error code 20 showing. To fix this, it's advisable that you clean out the registry of your system with a registry cleaner tool.

Source:ezinearticles.com