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Canon Printer Error Message-"more than one ink installed"

July 3, 2008 by debbie T | Printers

I have a Canon Pixma MP500 all-in-one printer, and I have been receiving sporadic error messages. Either an ink is missing or “Error Number : 1681 More than one ink tank of the following color is installed. Magenta [8] Use only one ink tank per color at a time.” - both errors point to the Magenta ink tank.

It is temporarily repaired by removing the magenta ink, and seating it back into place. The printer works again, and a few days later, the error appears.

Today, it was particularly stubborn. I reseated the magenta ink tank several times, and when it wouldn’t work, I turned to google. It appears that a lot of others are having the same issue with Canon printers.

I decided to call the Canon technical support. sigh. A lot of good that did. Because the printer was almost two years old (purchased in Aug 2006), they would have to charge me $10 to troubleshoot the problem. Oh but the good news is, he wouldn’t charge me if he couldn’t fix it. Well, of course it would probably be TEMPORARILY fixed, but that wouldn’t help in the long term.

I hung up with tech support and opened the ink compartment again. This time, I reseated all the ink cartridges, and that seemed to fix it for now.

After reading some of the other problems others were having, it appears a lot were using refilled or 3rd party ink. I learned my lesson with the Epson, and will only buy official Canon ink.

I think it just may be time for a new printer. Shameful really. I guess 2 years is long enough for printers to last. sigh. Oh well, those new Kodak printers with cheap ink look tempting. I will look into them!

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There are 2 comments

review for this problem: it is caused by short circuit in carriage part. visit http://www.ij-forum.blogspot.com for canon printer troubleshooting. regards,
Comment by dr.canon on July 10th, 2008
I only use Canon ink, and have the same problems. It certainly does not give me an incentive to keep using very expensive Canon ink when this happens. The ink cartridge that my Canon MP500 claims it is a problem with is full of ink. In my view this is fraud. I am never ever again to buy brand ink cartridges.
Comment by Mette on August 20th, 2008