Every owner of a Canon inkjet printer (regardless of its model) sooner or later encounters the B200 error, which occurs a little more often with devices that use not cartridges, but a print head. Ways to solve this error will be described below, so that you can solve the breakdown yourself, without calling the master at home. But we ask you to be careful and careful about the technique. When the B200 error occurs in Canon printers, the Canon manufacturer recommends turning off the device and contacting the nearest service center in your city. As you can imagine, it is profitable for them, but not for us. And so let’s figure out how to fix the B200 error in MFPs and printers.
We urge you to read the article to the end. This error is not easy and requires testing. Therefore, take a piece of paper with a pen and write down our recommendations. Perhaps you forget to do some method, and then you already have to go to the service center. At the bottom of this article, there is a selection of videos that will allow you to see clearly how to solve this problem.
Attention! If your printer is under warranty, then do nothing, close this article, or just read it if you’re interested. If you start disassembling the device, then your warranty will be void and you will have to pay for repairs from your entire wallet. So it’s best to take your device to the store where you bought the printer and let them decide what to do with your device. Are you out of warranty? Then let’s get down to reading this article.
When this error occurs, the following window appears in front of the user:
Also this error can be in English:
Of course, you have to understand that the language has no influence on the solution of the problem. Now let’s get down to solving this issue.
This error can also be seen on the printer displays:
When this error appears, the printer behaves abnormally – the indicators on the device panel blink alternately yellow and green. Canon thus makes it clear to the user that problems have appeared on your device – error B200. This error is also called “VH monitor error” – a problem with the power supply of the print head or it is possible that some cartridge is not working for you. In other words, this is a kind of signal that there is a problem in the print head or in one of the cartridges. In addition, when this error appears, it can be a signal of a breakdown of the power supply, but the latter problem does not occur often, and we can say for sure that if this is the problem, then you are lucky.
Ink cartridge problem
Canon devices may notice that you installed a non-original cartridge and therefore you get error B 200. If you recently bought a cartridge or if you knew that it was Chinese, then it makes sense to try to insert an original cartridge and see how the device reacts.
It should also not be ruled out that even if the cartridge is guilty and you replaced it, then the head may fail, which, during the use of a non-original cartridge, overheated and, as a result, burned out. After replacing the cartridge, you may be lucky and the error will go away. It remains to check it out.
In the event that you have empty cartridges, be sure to refuel them!
Another very important point is the cartridges. If your device has 2 cartridges, remove them from the printer and insert them into the device one by one. If you get an error when connecting one of the cartridges, then one of them is faulty.
A quick way to solve the problem
- After the B200 error appears, turn off the MFP;
- Open the cover, move the carriage to the left as far as possible;
- Press the on button 5 times. (without waiting for full on / off);
- Close the cover after the last press.
Flushing
This method will not work with all Canon printers and MFPs. After reviewing this instruction, you will understand whether this method can be performed on your device. Now watch the video for ordinary users who do not have special tools:
If the video above did not help you, then we recommend watching another video, which has a special device for flushing.
Sorry, these videos are in English. But in any case, the video shows what needs to be done.
Initial diagnostics
First, you need to diagnose your printer in order to already know for sure what is wrong with it. A power supply problem is often identified by visual inspection. The capacitors on the failed power supply unit will be swollen. Just in case (if visually everything is normal with the unit), you can also measure its voltage at the connector of the control board.
At the time of starting the printer (when you press the power button), the voltage indicator should be in the interval of 0.5 s with data of 24-32 V, which is quite normal for this device. Another way to test the power supply is to connect it to a guaranteed working Canon printer. But here you have to be careful. Under no circumstances connect a working unit to a printer with a B200 breakdown, since if a print head or control board burns out in it, the new power supply will suffer the same fate. In order not to break 2 devices at once, we ask you not to do this.
If, when checking the unit, a breakdown did not appear, then you need to remove the print head from the printer and look at the monitor. Does the B200 error still occur? This means there is a malfunction in the control board and still not very good news – perhaps you also have a burned out controller with a print head. The saddest thing is that if you buy these devices, the amount will be equal to the cost of a new printer or Canon MFP, which means that a trip to the store for a printer is inevitable.
It’s another matter if after you took out the print head, the error disappeared, and a new message on the monitor informs you that there is no head in the printer, which must be installed for its further operation. This means that the control board is most likely (not 100%, but still) working as expected and the problem is solely with the printhead.
If such an error appears in the MFP, can at least the scanner be “saved”?
When the B200 error appears in a Canon printer, you can turn the following – it is necessary to seal all the PG contacts (see the figure below) with electrical tape (but do not use transparent tape for this purpose), after which the controller will not receive signals about the breakage of sensors and it will start reading the print the head is in good order. This will save you the B200 error and allow you to use the scanner (since you do not need a print head for scanning).
The trick here is that if at least one sensor fails, the Canon controller will perceive the entire system as faulty. When gluing the contacts with insulating tape, we get the opportunity to use at least a scanner. In the picture below, we showed how many contacts need to be sealed with electrical tape and also wrote how many contacts are in the shaded area. It is necessary to glue it as in the picture:
Individual cartridges can still print
When your contacts have been sealed, you can carefully remove pieces of electrical tape, freeing one of the contacts, and install the head into the device each time. If an error occurs, return the tape to the newly unsticked contact and continue the same manipulations with other contacts. So we will eventually come to a situation that only non-working contacts will be sealed, while working cartridges will print.
After doing the manipulations described below, the device will stop showing the B200 error after a couple of days, and maybe after 15 minutes. It should be noted that when using this option, the device can work from 2 weeks to 1 year.
Below are the pictures showing which contacts you can try to glue.
1.If you seal these contacts with electrical tape, you can print with a black cartridge:
2. If the device works with this option, then you will be able to print only with color cartridges:
3.In this case, you can print in black and color:
4.And the last option is black and colored:
Note: There is a video below that shows how this is done.
Can error B200 be avoided?
There is an opinion that the breakdown of the controller, generator or power supply unit occurs due to surges in the power grid, therefore it is highly recommended to use an UPS (uninterruptible power supply), which has a voltage regulation function. In addition, the following can often lead to an error: refilling cartridges with ink of dubious quality, installing a PG that has not yet dried after flushing and printing with empty cartridges.
It should be noted that it is difficult to keep track of the ink level in branded cartridges, because they are made of opaque plastic (for this reason, do not disable the ink level control function). You can of course supply a continuous ink supply system, but not all users agree to this procedure.
Summing up
If the solutions that are described here did not help you, then you should think about finding a service center that can help you. Even if they do not help, they will tell you what the reason is, and you will already start from this figure – make a device or buy a new one.
Finally, we will say that if you have an error B200, then this is very, very bad, since most often the repair will be extremely costly and will not always be effective. Before you go to the store, don’t panic and try the tips and tricks described above. It is quite possible that it is with you that the problem will be solved with “little blood”. Good luck to you!
If you have such an error, then we ask you to write a comment at the bottom of the article with the following information: printer model, how long have you been using the printer and after which the error appeared.