Canon IPF9000 full cartridge low-ink indication (need to reset it after fixing intake assembly)

I recently had a client that had a problem with his Canon IPF9000. It's a wide-format printer that is used in high-end printing. The quality of its prints is pretty outstanding.

Well, my client had bought clone cartridges from a Chinese supplier (the ones from Canon are really expensive), one of which had a misaligned interface. But instead of checking what the problem was when he could not fully slot the cartridge, he tried to force it, causing the intake needle (there are two for each cartridge, don't know what they are called, but I'm calling them intake and cartridge-fill needles) to get pushed into the the base. This meant that any cartridges that he installed now would not be dispensing ink (but would still have air pumped in).

Fortunately he called me in after only trying to "fix" it for 2 or 3 days; but only because the printer was showing that any cartridge he tried installing was low (why is it that it feels like you're confronting children when talking to some users. Me: Why's the ink low? Him: I don't know...can you fix it?).

I was able to do a physical check and found the needle and what happened to it (bragging: within a minute, and I do not do printers). I pulled apart the assembly around the needle, pulled it out and had it fixed. There didn't seem to be any spillage in the assembly but I didn't disassembly the whole thing more than what was necessary to pull the needle. Then I put the assembly back together again. Fun stuff -- next time I need to do something like that it should take me less time.

Anyway, now that it's fixed, and although the ink tanks are full (including a Canon one), they are both reporting low-ink (all other cartridges are fine). While I'll be trying a full reset of the printer on Monday, I need to know a few things to do if that doesn't work.

1) First, could there have been any damage from the needle dropping about a centimeter? If there was a hole in the line I can see air coming in. Would the printer know to detect that?

2) Is there any product that can reset the cartridges themselves? I've tried google but that's been an exercise in frustration.

Thanks to anyone that can answer either of those questions.

Solution 1:

The best bet here would be to call Canon technical support, or some shop specialized in printer repair.

I seriously doubt this is something that can be fixed in software, as the root of it all was a (user-induced) hardware problem.