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Printer stopped working Support code B203 says to turn off printer and contact service centre. An extended period turned off allowed it to print a few pages before error B203 again. This only worked once. Is there any at home fix.

@riddochplace, Riddoch, Info. from 1st link below, Error B200 means the print head voltage or temperature is not normal. The Printhead could be defective, but first, try these solutions at links below. If still warrantied return for repair/replacement/refund, you can contact Cannon at the last link. Good luck. I hope this helped you out, if so let me know by pressing the helpful button. http://fix-your-printer.blogspot.ca/2011… http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1… http://www.derek-taylor.com/how-to-fix-t… https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/porta…

Hey guys, So I just want to post my solution finally after a while of trying some of the solutions on the internet and none worked for me. I simply could not throw my MG 7540 Pixma just like that. So to summarize it in short follow these steps and you may be as lucky as I have. While the printer is off, open the front cover where the ink is. Now turn on the printer wait till the ink head starts moving a bit then just shut the cover back to normal. You should see canon logo now. Wait a minute or two and you should be back to normal menu. Now if you try to print anything the error might come again in which u repeat the steps above. Next go to settings/ maintenance settings / auto head allignment. And start the process let it finish and follow any instructions it may ask. Once done it will print a test page and tadaaaaa! it works. You can do a few more maintenance checks if you want to keep your printer in mint condition. Sounds simple yes but I just followed my gut feeling. And it worked. Hope it helps someone . Cheers

Hello, I have exactly the same problem. My printer is approx. 2 years old (a Canon MG6650) and it worked perfectly. Yesterday, it printed two pages and as I wanted to print another one, I received the error code B203 “unspecific problem, please turn off the printer and let it check by the service center”. There has never been a problem before, there were no strange sounds or anything extraordinary. I have a specific doubt: this is caused by a self-destroying programme which was installed by the producer in order to boost the sale because buying a new product is less expansive than repairing it… I am very upset, I don’t want to spend money again, don’t want to produce waste, and I really do think that printer isn’t broken aktually… Please share youre experiences and ideas! Thanks

I’ve had my red MG7765 printer for 3 1/2 years and it looks great. Unfortunately, it was becoming increasingly clogged, despite doing cleans and deep cleans. Eventually it stopped working completely with error code B203. Here is how I got it working again, as new (Hint: You might want to read the last two bolded paragraphs first?): Canon Support initially advised I should do this: “I am sorry to hear that your PIXMA MG7765 is having support code B203. Support Code B203 indicates that the carriage unit has encountered an internal fault and my recommendation to clear the error is to reset the printer. Please follow the steps below to try to resolve the issue with the machine:

  1. Turn the printer off.
  2. Open the printer like you will be inserting ink cartridges.
  3. Turn the printer on.
  4. Once the ink cartridge holder starts to move to the center, close the printer. The printer will do a self check for 3 to 4 minutes then it will be ready to print. " That didn’t work so Canon Support provided the following instructions: “I understand that you are having an issue with your MG7765, please follow the troubleshooting below. Reseating or Replacing the Print Head On very rare occasions, like a print head error condition or poor print quality issues, it may be necessary to reseat or remove the print head from one printer to install it into another. Removing the Print Head:
  5. Make sure that the power is turned on, then, holding sides of the paper output tray, gently open it.
  6. Lift the operation panel open until it stops. The print head holder will move to ink tank replacement position.
  7. Push the tab (A) on an ink tank and lift it out of the printer.
  8. Remove the rest of the ink tanks from the holder.
  9. After all the ink tanks have been removed from the holder, press and hold the Stop button for two seconds (or longer) until the print head carriage moves to the replacement position and then release the button. The carriage will move to the right and then return almost centered with the front opening.
  10. Open the the inner cover (B) and push it down all the way to the bottom.
  11. Pull the Head Set Lever towards the front of the machine. You may find resistance when the bottom of the Head Set Lever hits the back of the front edge. The Head Set Lever will move forward as it slides above that front edge.
  12. Use your finger tips to grab the top of the center tab and pull out the print head. You will notice the front of the print head will drop face down as you pull it out of the machine.
  13. Now go to section Installing (or Reseating) the Print Head. Installing (or Reseating) the Print Head:
  14. If you are installing a replacement print head, remove it from its packaging.
  15. Hold the center tab of the replacement print head, with the front of the print head facing down (so you can see the back of the print head (green circuit board)), and ensure the two tabs on the front, bottom corners of the print head are inserted into the rails on either side of the print head holder.
  16. Now slide the replacement print head into the machine. As the print head slides into the holder, it will start to sit in an upright position.
  17. Once the print head is seated in the print head holder, push the Head Set Lever towards the back of the machine.
  18. Reinsert the ink tanks into their proper slots. a. Insert the front end of the ink tank into the print head at a slant. Make sure that the position of the ink tank matches the label. b. Press on the top of the ink tank until the ink tank snaps firmly into place. Make sure that the ink lamp lights up red.
  19. Close the inner cover and then operation panel. If the print head carriage returns to home position before the print head is installed, close the inner cover and operation panel and follow the instructions on the display. Then repeat step 3 to get the print head holder into the replacement position.” These instructions didn’t fix the problem but then I remembered what I used to do to clean out blocked print heads; I boiled the print head. Its easy. Simply remove the print head as per step 8 above. Put it in a pot with enough water to cover the print head and boil it. Not for long. Just enough that it starts bubbling. You will notice that ink will blacken the water. Now take it out of the water taking care not to burn yourself and dab it dry with a paper towel or tissue. What you want to see is the ink of each colour is absorbed into the paper towel. Once its dry insert it back into your printer. When I did this, not only did error B203 go away, but the printer also resumed printing as though it was new again. Ie. the print head was blocked and needed unblocking.

This B203 error came up directly after I did a firmware update, which I had been ignoring for months. Now I wish I would’ve kept ignoring it because even after multiple tries of the ideas above, my printer is still not working and is less than 2 years old. I’m highly disappointed since this printer is not used that often so should not be having these kinds of issues after such a short period of time. I don’t tend to be a conspiracy theorist, but I can’t help but wonder if that firmware update was the culprit of my printer’s failure. I’m disappointed in this Canon product and will probably go back to Epson, even though the cost of ink is pricier, but the machines seem to last a lot longer.

I have a fairly new Pixma 5722 and had the same error come up - b203 . I had printed many invitations that used a lot of ink, strange thing is, it didn’t come up during or just after printing them, it was when I went to use it again much later. I read all the suggestions above but couldn’t do some as the error wouldn’t let me access the menu. A 2nd error showed up a few times, can’t remember the #, 405 maybe - said I had the wrong print head and to change it! I did try to access the menu thru the computer to realign the head, but you can’t. I then looked on Youtube and found a few videos that suggested a hard reset - that did the trick! I did an auto alignment after it came on just in case and is now working fine. Hope this helps others.

Before you do anything else - check your inks - physically. I did the open/shut thing over and over again to no avail and then found a fix on another site posted by a person calling themselves Colas (to whom I am now most grateful)! He suggested that despite the display showing his inks were full, when he checked one or two of them were empty. Presumably a problem with the chip - which I assume would be more common if you’re using compatibles rather than genuine (I use compatibles). I did the same - found this to be the case - replaced them and now my printer is working again. I am keeping my fingers cross that this isn’t a temporary fix, but so far so good. Good Luck!

Maximum time this error will activated due to miss allignes ink cartridge . Before apply any major steps for printer error B203 . You should check your ink cartridge. some time it indicates the empty ink cartridge. Maximum printer is running on two different kinds of ink cartridges. then it might possible that one of them is empty and that is causing error. Refill the cartridge to resolve the error. Try to reconnect the printer. If not then update the printer driver.

Having printed two Word documents, my printer gave a B203 error code, which asked me to turn the printer off and contact a service centre. My printer is a white two-year-old Pixma MG5650, and has printed almost 1,000 pages: I use cheap ink. I turned the printer off and looked on the internet to see if this condition was fixable by me. A number of people had experienced the same problem. In summary, they reported that this was a print-head problem and several gave suggestions to try this and try that, but thought that it would be necessary to buy a new printer, this being cheaper than having it repaired. After a couple of days thinking about what to do, I wanted to print another document. I decided to try it, turned the printer on: no message, so I printed the document. It was obvious that there was a problem with the blue, so I used the printer’s menu to carry out a print-head clean, followed by a nozzle test print: the print showed the blue to be a little streaky. I did another head clean and print: the blue was much more streaky. I then did a deep clean, followed by a test print, and the blue had completely disappeared. After 24 hours, I carried out another deep clean, followed by a test print: the blue was still missing. I removed the cyan cartridge, which still had half the ink present. I touched the ink pad, which was moist and left ink on my finger. I shone a torch into the space vacated by the cartridge and saw that the small ink receptor pad was white. Should it be white? I checked the other colours and saw that their receptor pads were their respective colours. I put in a new cyan cartridge and did a nozzle test print, and - serendipity! - the blue was back! I reprinted the document which had showed the blue to be wrong - and it was correct this time. For each of the next seven days I printed documents and photographs. The printer is now working correctly. This solution beats sending the printer to a service centre - and beats buying another printer!

Hi there. Do you use the printer often? I discovered from another forum that if you don’t use it very often the inks dry out even though your printer thinks they’re full (especially if they’re compatibles). Have a check and see if this is the case. If so change them over, switch the printer off and as soon as it comes on get it to do a print head clean. You might have to switch on and off a couple of time and do a couple of cleans. It’s a pain and requires patience but it’s worked for me a couple of times now. Good luck!

in my case, I just pulled out ink cartridges and put them back. error is gone.

By the way, folks, there’s an easy (and cheap) solution if you just can’t get your Canon Pixma to work: Walmart.com sells Canon Pixma printers really cheap. I just got a Canon Pixma MX490, printer/scanner/copier/fax, with automatic document feeder, for $35 at Walmart.com! The price on that one has gone up a little bit; but there are other Canon Pixma models, some as low as $30. An added benefit to buying a new printer: if you refill your ink cartridges, you will get a new set of cartridges with your new printer. You can refill them only so many times, so it’s good to get a new set every now and then. In fact, if you buy the super cheap printer, and you somehow mess things up by refilling the cartridges, you haven’t lost much, because you didn’t pay much for the printer.

My printer threw the same error after a year of usage, but I found it next to the dumpster with jammed paper, so no complaints. In this case I’m almost convinced what happened. It is a short circuit between several copper traces on the printer head. See the picture. And it smelled a bit too when I opened the cartridge door. The page I printed had little bit of a other colors at the bottom though it should have been in grey scale only.

I fixed this fault doing the following: Follow the steps for removing print head (good youtube video available) Wash print head under hot running water from tap to thoroughly clean. Dry with kitchen roll. Reinstall print head and ink. Go to device settings menu > reset settings > full reset.

Nov 9, 2019 by Julie Stanton, Amazing MG6850 still working :)