Today I am going to show you how to reset the waste ink absorber and clear the 6C10 error message on the Canon MP550 inkjet printer.
What is this message?
Canon inkjet printers contain an internal counter that keeps note of how many pages have been printed and how many cleans etc. have been performed. These counters are used to estimate how full of waste ink a large sponge in the base of the printer is. Once your printer believes this tank/absorber is full your printer will stop printing and give an error message.
Thankfully Canon printers have a tenancy to over estimate how full the tank is, so you can usually get some more use by simply resetting the counter.
Video Guide
Step by Step Guide
To reset the ink absorber counter follow the steps below:
- Make sure the printer is off.
- Press and hold RESUME button (triangle in the circle).
- Then press and hold the POWER button. Green LED will then light.
- With the POWER button still held down, release the RESUME Button.
- Press RESUME twice and then release BOTH buttons.
- Press RESUME four times then immediately press the POWER button
- This will then reset the waste ink absorbers counter.
- Turn your printer OFF and then On again.
With this done your printer should return to the normal menu and you can continue printing.
Instructions for cleaning and replacing the waste ink absorber can be found online. If however you do not wish to through this process you could always simply protect the surface the printer sits on and and keep an eye on the quality of your print outs.
If you have any questions queries or want to share your experiences with this issue please let us know in the comments below.
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5 comments
Paul Nicholls
September 19, 2012 at 6:27 pm (UTC 0)
Hi, I tried this on a Canon MP620, got into service mode but doing the press 4 times bit didn't seem to work. I still had the error after restarting. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Paul.
Irsah Imihar
October 16, 2012 at 4:51 pm (UTC 0)
Hai.. Thanks for this useful tips. Sometimes some simple procedures on your Canon printer just does the trick. Thanks again!
ron ashton
December 1, 2012 at 2:25 pm (UTC 0)
I have a canon mp550, that I have not used for somtime, on trying print I now get an error message B200. Any idears.
Thank you Ron Ashton
ron ashton
December 1, 2012 at 2:29 pm (UTC 0)
I don't what what means but it sounds o/k
Tony
February 4, 2013 at 1:24 am (UTC 0)
Hello Matthew.
I have the Canon MP550 printer. It has not yet ceased printing but displays;
"ERROR The ink absorber is almost full. Press OK to continue printing. Contact the service center."
After step 4, clicking the resume button twice and releasing both buttons, the display says "Service Mode, idle. On clicking the resume button 4 times followed by the power button, the display clears, lights flash and the printer shuts down to off (without the final step of turning off the printer and on again).
Do I need to wait until the final error message appears, shutting down the printer, before resetting? Or is there another solution? Does it make any difference having the computer connected during the process?
Regards
Tony