I started getting a message every time I tried to print saying the ink tank was nearly full. I had to press the start button on the printer to get it going.
Then after a couple of weeks it said the waste tank was full and to call the canon service agent. It stopped working altogether.
Looking on the internet I found a site that said this is just a ripoff. Canon charge £80 to fix it.
The site then gives a rather involved code to reset the printer which involves pressing the power button while at the same time pressing the stop and restart buttons in a particular order.
After a bit of messing about this worked and the error messages disappeared,
but it recommends cleaning the waste tank, which is apparently a pad which soaks up waste ink after cleaning.
But I can't see anything that looks like it.
Does anyone know where this pad is, and does it matter?

It's just under the print heads where they rest when it's not in use or turned off, you will need to turn it on, and when the print head shoots to the other side, turn it off (at the wall) to freeze the head there, then CAREFULLY with lots of tissue dab the pad (with some pressure, but not too much) to remove ink, actually removing the foam pad to clean it is difficult and you risk breaking your printer, if you wish to try it feel free, but be warned :)

You may have to take you printer to bits to get at the waste in tank, Epsons it is a right faff.

If you don't empty the tank and clean or put a new soak pad in you may find ink overflows from the printer!

If it's like my Epsons i buy, i buy a few inch of fish tank hose for air pumps and make my own waste tanks.

I use an empty 100ml ink bottle, feed the fish tank tube on the waste ink hose in the printer, drill a 4mm hole in the ink bottle cap, feed air hose in.

It's as simple as that and it costs about 20p to make. You can get fancy pants systems on eBay for £5-10 but why bother :loopy:

To add, I stripped the work place Epson C60 apart as it just stopped working, The waste ink pads were about A5 paper sized and about four of them. To get to them i had to remove the upper print system and electronics from the gray plastic base.
I cleaned them with normal warm water and some fairy liquid. I also reset the ink counter using this... http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

It's been over 6 months since i did it and it works fine.

There are was to reset the canon ink system like this
Resetter Canon iP1600
Waste Ink Counter Reset.

Step 1 : Manual Temporary
1. Unplug power and USB.
2. Open door and hold power button.
3. Connect the printer cable.
4. Close door, then release power button.



But i have found the following for you

Related models:
s series: s300,520,600,820,830,6300,9000
i series: i450,455,475,560,6100,6500,850,905,9100,950,9950
iP series: ip3000,3300,4000,5000,4200,4500,5200,6600,6700,850 0,ix4000,5000,pro 9000,9500
MP/MX series: MP145,150,160,170,180,228,450,475,476,520,800,MX30 8,318,700,7600,etc

Well..well!. I am sure everybody is waiting for this hot topic. Right now, no more waiting, just read following tutorial carefully. Ok?

To reset waste ink counter perform the following steps:

For printer categorized as Group A (What this mean? Please see topic Entering Service Mode in previous post)

•Enter Service Mode
•Press Resume/Cancel (Stop/Reset in MP,MX series) button 4 times in a row
•Turn off the printer (Press Power button until the printer is completely OFF. Notice: NEVER turn off the printer by disconnecting power cord!)
In this stage your printer is already in normal condition and ready to use.