canon conundrum

[ernieh]

have a PIXMA ip4200 which has served me well for years. Few days ago got error message and a flashing orange light. 5 flashes meant problems with the ink carriage. I took out the ink cartridges then removed the ink carriage, cleaned and replaced. No difference same error message.
I gave up and bought a 2nd hand ip4200 which was working fine (printed off a couple of test pages) . That is until I stupidly decided to swap the ink carriages around to confirm my original ink carriage was faulty and needed a replacement. After swapping them back I now have 2 faulty printers both with flashing orange lights - 5 times. Is it possible for the faulty ink carriage to mess up the working printer when i swapped it over? Any ideas please

 

[Fretz]

I think the printer is looking for a brand new ink cartridge to detect. Try buying a brand new ink to test this.

 

[ernieh]

I think the printer is looking for a brand new ink cartridge to detect. Try buying a brand new ink to test this.

Hi Thamks for that but sadly not that simple. Problems with ink cartridges are indicated by 4 flashes. Also tried a new ink cartridge in the printer I bought - no joy. Its something to do with the printer not detecting the print carriage I think - as soon as the carriage is inserted the 5 flashes indicating an error begin. Maybe the connectors at the rear of the cartridge ? However its a bit odd that exactly the same problem occured with 2 different printers and 2 different ink carriages.