Canon Pixma IP4200 only prints 80% of the time

Questions on certain printers and applications
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kliu888
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:00 pm

Canon Pixma IP4200 only prints 80% of the time

Post by kliu888 »

I have TurboPrint 2.26 & Canon Pixma IP4200. The printer only works about 80% of the time. When it's not working, the power LED on the printer flashes but nothing prints out. The TurboPrint Monitor would show something like "10% complete." Cancel & resend print job will not work. The printer would stuck at that state. The only way to reset the printer is to unplug the power cord.

A bit of history: My printer used to work perfectly fine until upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04. Then it would not print. The power LED would flash but nothing prints out (as described above). I've read that it was because CUPS was changed in 12.04 so IP4200 driver no longer works. This was the reason I bought TurboPrint. Unfortunately, TurboPrint works only about 80% of the time. When TurboPrint is not working, it shows the exact same sympton as the native Ubuntu Canon driver except that native Ubuntu driver works 0% of the time but TurbuPrint works about 80% of the time.

The problem appears randomly and it happens regardless what software I am printing with. If I repeatedly unplug/plug the printer, after x number of times TurboPrint will magically start working again. But then after a while it will stop working.

The printer works 100% of the time when printing from Windows so the hardware is fine.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Thank you very much.
zedonet
Site Admin
Posts: 2156
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Canon Pixma IP4200 only prints 80% of the time

Post by zedonet »

Hello,

we have not heard of such a problem before.

Can you please send the following information:

- does the printer LED start flashing when the printer is powered up / when Linux is booted / when a print job is sent to the printer?
- is the LED color green or orange and is there a flash "rhythm", e.g. 3 flashes, pause, 3 flashes...
- what is the printer "URI" as visible in TurboPrint Control's list of printers, column "URI"?
- what is the printer status in TurboPrint Monitor before / after printing (the line "Printer: ..." below the selector "Queue:")?
kliu888
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:00 pm

Re: Canon Pixma IP4200 only prints 80% of the time

Post by kliu888 »

1) When printer is powered up or Linux booted, the LED is solid green. It flashes when a print job is sent to the printer.

2) The LED is green. It's the "ON/Off" button (the top one), which I think the only color is green. It flashes about once a second (no pause).

3) URI: usb://Canon/iP4200?serial=37022A

4) Before printing status is "Idle".
During printing: "Printer not connected or switched off" - it displays this status regardless if printer works or not.
After printing: if printer works, it shows "Idle". If not working, shows "Printer not connected or switched off" and printer LED flashes. Spooler Message shows "printing page 1, 12% complete..."

Thank you.
zedonet
Site Admin
Posts: 2156
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Canon Pixma IP4200 only prints 80% of the time

Post by zedonet »

Please excuse the delay!

There are two things that you could try:

1. Change the printer USB port driver from "usb" to the TurboPrint version "tpu":
- open TurboPrint Control
- open the "Edit" dialog
- choose the port "Canon iP4200 TP-USB..." instead of "Canon iP 4200 USB..."
- the field "other port" should now show something that starts with "tpu://..."

2. use a different USB cable for a short, direct connection from the computer to the printer - no USB HUB
(if the problem is "sporadic" it could also be caused by a broken USB cable)
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