MX320 all-in-one printer copier repair
A friend recently brought me his MX320 all-in-one printer copier. This is an older printer without the now modern and probably also cheaper Ink cassettes that replace ink without any attached printerhead.
He said his Canon printer couldn’t be used now because the A4 paper sheets wrinkled all up when sheets were transported in automatically from the back insert because no A4 sheet did transport in straight anymore.
The MX320 printer/copier showing the top scanner insert, and the vertical back insert.
He said that there was no hurry and I was glad because opening a printer is never easy. And you have to be careful not to smudge everything up with the old Ink from the inside. I always take a paper or something to put under the printer before I place it on my carpet or table. Because I know from my own HP printers that the cartridge holders sometimes leak Ink through from the printer bottom onto my table.
My friend gave me no manual or driver cd so I tested it stand-alone without pc attached.
I inserted an A4 sheet and tried to make a copy of it as you do with a normal copier by pressing the copy color button on the front panel. And that worked and the printer started to make a scan from a flat horizontal inserted sheet on top of the scanner. And not long after the scan started also the vertical inserted A4 sheet started to go in.
But again wrinkled all up because it not went in straight. So I took a look in the printer after this test and cleaned the heavily used Canon on the paper rollers with some wet tissue paper, were you also can see and replace the ink cartridges. The cartridge holders were on the right in their parking position and they didn’t contain any ink or had totally dried out now.
A photo of the printer inside that I cleaned a bit in the hope to fix the complaint.
But that was later-on when I finally managed to ‘repair’ the paper transport on the back of the MX320.
So after that cleaning did do no good, because the paper still got wrinkled up inside, I tried to open the printer from the back to have a closer look on the paper rollers. I managed to remove the back black plastic cover, by removing the 2 screws, but noticed that I still couldn’t see any of the transport rollers. I just saw some flatcables and other connectors but not what I hoped to see. So I closed the back cover again and was disappointed that it would mean much more work just to be able to see or clean the transport inside.
Above a look into the vertical paper insert on the MX320 back.
As you can see there was no easy way to get closer to any of the transport parts without removing the top scanner or maybe even the bottom and side covers also!
And since I had no service manual of this All-in-one Canon printer, I thought of giving up this repair. Because it was questionable if I even would be able to assemble all parts working again afterwards.
But I had a last thought!
I found a hard paper cover/cardboard from a box of some biscuits I ate, I opened it until it was flat, and I cut it into the correct fitting shape of an A4 sheet.
You see….my friend has some hairy cats at home and these hairs could cause a paper transport jam for a single sheet of paper. But what if I use this thicker and harder A4 paper instead?
So I redid my earlier scan copier test.
The A4 cut cardboard went in on the vertical cassette insert. And after a few seconds got stuck inside. But it went in straight and without wrinkling.
It wouldn’t go in further so I then removed it manually by pulling the cardboard sheet backwards out of the back insert.
After I had extracted the A4 hardcover sheet, I did my scan copier test again with a normal sheet of paper.
Above photo: The automatic horizontal scanner paper insert feeder.
And guess what ? It worked ! The cardboard had nicely cleared the way for any A4 sheets vertical inserted on the automatic feeder on the back of this printer. No wrinkled sheets anymore! Paper jam solved. And the printer works as new again.
And this solution probably works on all kind of printers with this transport jam complaint. This same problem was mentioned by another friend of mine about three months ago. His very expensive HP all-in-one business printer had exactly the same wrinkled paper jam.
But repairing his very big desktop HP printer was almost impossible without any HP servicemanual and a lot of time you need to open it. Just as cleaning and fixing it would. Therefore he just had bought another identical second hand HP printer afterwards.
But after this repair I gave him yesterday this solution and hope he now also has his original printer working again.
Hope it helps anyone as it did help fixing my friends Canon MX320!
Greetings.
Albert van Bemmelen, Weert, The Netherlands.
Please give a support by clicking on the social buttons below. Your feedback on the post is welcome. Please leave it in the comments.
P.S- If you enjoyed reading this, click here to subscribe to my blog (free subscription). That way, you’ll never miss a post. You can also forward this website link to your friends and colleagues-thanks!
(111)Dislikes
(1)
25 Comments
Leave a Reply
Cancel reply
Robert Calk
May 26, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Excellent article, Albert! Mr. Yong and others say in their books that when we get frustrated on a tough-dog repair, to take a break for awhile and then come back to it after we are refreshed.
That also was a great example of thinking the repair through and improvising a repair strategy!
I especially appreciate these printer & copier articles because I have never worked on one yet. But after learning from articles like yours, and Beh & others, I feel confident that I will have success when I receive one that needs fixing! Outstanding - thanks!
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 3:16 am
Hi Robert !
I am sure that if you ever engage fixing your first not working printer, there will be no better person suited for the task.
You probably also have much more patience than I have.
Printers are just not my thing. (to messy and dirty most of the times).
Greetings,
Albert.
Robert Calk
May 30, 2015 at 2:43 pm
Thanks Albert for your words of confidence. Of course the repair is more difficult when you can't get any manuals.
Chris
May 26, 2015 at 11:42 pm
Nice job don. Congratulation Albert.
Andre Gopee
May 27, 2015 at 12:17 am
Thanks for the article, Keep up the good work.
Humberto
May 27, 2015 at 12:22 am
Wow! Albert, a great idea you had by using an A4 format with a cover/cardboard. Congratulations for your idea.
Yogesh Panchal
May 27, 2015 at 1:27 am
Congratulations! you have fixed the problem without much burden of opening the whole unit.
Dave T
May 27, 2015 at 6:16 am
Its probably a stuck piece of ripped paper - you would be better opening it up and giving it a proper clean-out as it will most likely re-occur.
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 2:18 am
Opening these kind of printers without any service manual is not a good idea. And if the cat hairs or whatever it was that blocked a single sheet of paper should re-occur I still would prefer my solution before opening the Printer Chassis. Chances are something breaks in the proces and if it's irreplaceable or even expensive you gain nothing with opening your printer. But you're of course free to choose opening your printer for a cleaning task. But keep in mind that such a task normally would not be approved by the manufacturer Guarantee Wise.
Albert.
Ehsan Murad
May 27, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Now I can try this technique on my printers.Thanks
Debirt Maynard
May 27, 2015 at 1:31 pm
These pesky issues can be frustrating at times. I struggled with a similar problem on a HP printer which otherwise worked perfect. I went very close to throwing the thing out. In my case I used precut heavy-weighted stock.
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 3:05 am
Hi Debirt Maynard, I am glad that you didn't throw your HP printer out!
You did manage to fix it after all !
We, my friends and I, have a saying in The Netherlands, that if we hate some not working product or device, we throw it out. And our friends mostly reply in that case, asking in what direction we are planning to throw. That way he knows how to grab it for himself (Haha).
I myself have still about three now unused HP printers at home (1x HP720C and 2x HP840C all old and the 2 840C bought cheap on a fancy fair), but all with empty cartridges. So now I use a Brother 385C without the empty cartridge problem (never empty and always working fine ! Just great !!)
Albert.
sam montero
May 28, 2015 at 7:46 am
Hi Albert,
My experience from our office was the same
with our printer copier but after a lot of jugling to open it, a piece of tape is found sticking at the roller. Maybe they could manufacture a model that the rollers could be easily accesed.
I have visited your country when I was working with Philips. It was great.
Sam
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 2:29 am
Hi Sam, the times that Philips dominated the Consumer Electronic market World Wide is long gone. Philips skipped that Consumer part a few years ago. I myself worked for over 7 years at Philips Medical on Hospital Devices for Diagnostic purposes. It was because of my very friendly colleagues the best job I ever had. But not for the work part, it had little to do with electronics and was just production.
And I agree with you that printers could be manufactured much more accessible.
Albert.
Gerald
May 28, 2015 at 8:43 am
Hi Albert,
Interesting fix, thanks for sharing.
I also have a couple of hairy cats and I fear the day when my laser printer will eventually jam... I will certainly try your fix first 🙂
Printers are not designed to be serviced, indeed they were designed to sell ink cartridges only!
Cheers,
Gerald
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 2:52 am
Hi Gerald, I can't guarantee that it will also work on a laser printer.
Because I just don't know if you are able to remove the inserted hardcover A4 sheet from your laserprinter afterwards.
On the MX320 I could easily remove the hard A4 size paper/cover from the Canon printer.
So if you try this be sure you don't risk more damage. (read your manual before trying this if it handles these kind of thickness)
A laserprinter has more delicate parts, you see. As you got Laserunit, TonerUnit and a Heater unit that heats up the paper up to about 80 degrees Celsius. And if the paper turns over internally on rollers it could be a problem.
Cheers.
Albert.
Gerald
May 30, 2015 at 11:27 am
Thanks for your reply Albert. Totally agreed with you. Actually I am printing relatively thick paper (180 gsm) when I make panel layouts for my prototypes.
Anyway, as Robert wrote, better use a plastic cover when the printer is not used.
Cheers,
GM
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 7:33 pm
Hi Gerald. Since you already use 180 gram A4 sheets, you probably won't have to worry about using thicker paper in your Laser printer. And Robert is right of course. He is never wrong by suggesting keeping out any dust by covering the top. I luckely don't have have cat hairs, because I do not have any Pets at home. But I'm even very carefull before just inserting DVD's in my pc dvd burner or dvd tv recorder, as I always inspect any new dvd on its recording layer for dust particles. And blow them carefully clean with some air without touching.
It saved me from many bad DVD recordings.
(And looking for any bad spots is always a good thing).
By-the-way Robert if you read this...You mentioned that you are glad your Digital insulation meter starts at 50 Volt Range. My ordered meter starts at 100V although I thought it was the same one as you had bought. But therefore my meter meassures higher upto 2500 Volts I guess ? (I wanted to react on your comment after that article but it somehow wasn't possible, so I reply here.)
Cheers.
Albert.
Robert Calk
May 31, 2015 at 8:14 am
Hi Albert,
Yes I noticed that. I need the 50V range more than the 2500V. But 100V will suffice for most ceramic & poly caps.
Mark
May 28, 2015 at 11:41 am
Hey Albert,
Well done!
I love thinking out of the box when testing and repairing. I use the internet a lot because someone out there has probably had the same problem at some stage. When you are able to do testing and experiments, you gain confidence not only on the principals of how something operates, but also what you can accomplish when tyring to repair an item.
Alphonsus Lim
May 29, 2015 at 7:25 am
Great article, Mr Albert, for your information most brands of printers
have a web site where you will be able to download their printers'
manual in a PDF format. But not the technical manual.
A word of caution, do not do this action to often, you may cause the
feeding to open to much and the paper loading will not be a single
sheet.
Most time is a sticky problem of rollers due to dirt.
Thanks
Alphonsus
Robert Calk
May 30, 2015 at 12:49 am
I keep a plastic bag over my printer to keep dust and stuff out when I'm not using it.
Albert
May 30, 2015 at 2:40 am
Thank you for your advice Alphonsus.
I only did this solution once up to now, and if it doesn't work a second time it must be some sticky part on the rollers as you say. And if it just are little particles like paper shreds or this case maybe cat hairs it probably still will work another time too.
Opening a printer when there even is no backdoor to remove any paper jam is a harsh job.
Greetings.
Albert.
henry`
August 15, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Hi
thanks for the hints, am just working on hp desk-jet f4283, the problem is when loading it will squiz the paper can anyone help
henry
Tpaul
February 27, 2018 at 10:39 am
Albert, thanks for the info. But, just for the ignorant, why is opening up one of these beasts a bad idea. If you strip it down and clean it and put it all back together again exactly as you found it what would be the problem??