How To Reset The Canon MP 190 So You Can Scan If You Have No Ink! Eliminate The Canon MP 190 Scan Blues!

I hate companies that try to force you into using their products or.....companies that force you to refill their empty ink cartridges just to use a scan feature. OK - hate is a strong word. I will say that I strongly dislike that. Anyway, I have so many printers and scanners that it should be easy for me to print and scan whenever I like. However, that is not always the case. Today I needed to scan something using my Canon MP190. The MP 190 isn't a great all in one, but it does work appropriately in most cases. The one thing that I don't like about it is that the printer will not scan if you do not have ink in there. The reason is that Canon has an initialization process for this printer that checks if there is adequate ink. If there isn't, that process fails and you can't do much else - until now. I figured out a way to bypass this "system fault" so that you can scan again. The solution and is a VERY simple one.

Ready? Hold down the Stop/Reset button for about 30 seconds! There you go! I wish I could make it more intense. There just isn't anything else to it. Holding down that button will allow you to go back and scan documents even if you are completely out of ink. (SEE BELOW)

Don't you just love it?

UPDATE 3/22/2011

I feel compelled to update this post with a few more details.

First, you must have the MP Navigator software installed to use my little trick.

Second, the printer needs to be ON. I didn't specify this when I first posted this and I see that a few people had problems.

Third, you need to hold the Stop/Reset button down UNTIL THE LIGHTS START BLINKING. So hold the button down, let the lights come on and start to blink and then after the lights stop blinking, then let go. That may be MORE than 30 seconds. That is why I said "about" 30 seconds above.

That should get you going.

If it doesn't, please don't post that it didn't work. Instead, post what you did and what happened! That is something that I can investigate. It doesn't work means nothing because it does and did work for me. So help me to help you!

Smooches,

Kila