The short version
- 01Read the code as a full physical part, not a software counter that needs clearing.
- 02Contact Canon for repair, which is the action Canon's own manual gives.
- 03Check whether the printer is still within its one-year warranty before paying anything.
- 04Weigh a replacement against the repair cost on an older consumer inkjet.
- 05Print in longer sessions rather than many short ones on the replacement.
- 06Act on the 1700 warning next time, which appears before the printer stops.
Raw message
Support Code 5B00 — The ink absorber is full.
Likely causes
- The ink absorber, which captures ink used during cleaning, has filled up.
- Years of accumulated head cleaning cycles, each of which flushes ink into it.
- Frequent power cycling, since many printers clean the head on start-up.
- Related codes 5B01 and the 5B02 to 5B15 range, which Canon documents alongside it.
- An earlier 1700 warning that was dismissed rather than acted on.
What the ink absorber is
Canon's manual states the cause precisely: the ink absorber is full, and ink used during cleaning and other processes is captured in the ink absorber. The action is equally short — the ink absorber should be replaced, and you should contact Canon for repair as soon as possible.
The absorber is a pad inside the printer that catches waste ink. Every head cleaning cycle flushes ink through the nozzles and into it, and it fills gradually over the printer's life whether or not you ever have a problem. It is a consumable that was never designed to be user-replaceable.
That is why the printer stops rather than warns. Once the pad is saturated there is nowhere for further waste ink to go, and continuing to print risks ink escaping inside the machine.
About the reset tools
There is a great deal of advice online about resetting the waste ink counter with a service tool, and it is worth being clear about what that does. The counter is the printer's estimate of how full the pad is. Resetting it sets the estimate back to zero. It does not empty the pad.
So a reset makes the message go away and lets the printer run again, with the absorber exactly as full as it was. That is a genuine option some people take knowingly on an old printer, and it is also how printers end up leaking waste ink onto the surface they stand on. Canon's own documentation offers no reset — its action is replacement and repair.
This is our assessment rather than Canon's wording, and we would rather say it plainly than leave the impression that a reset is a fix. If you use one, put something under the printer and expect the machine to be near the end of its life.
Repair or replace
Check the warranty first. Within Canon's one-year manufacturer's warranty, with proof of purchase, this is Canon's problem rather than yours, and the same service route applies as for any other hardware fault.
Outside it, get the repair quoted before assuming anything. Replacing the absorber means opening the printer and resetting the counter, and on an inexpensive consumer inkjet the labour alone can approach the price of a new machine. On a larger or professional model the arithmetic goes the other way.
One habit genuinely extends the next printer's life: print in fewer, longer sessions. Many printers run a cleaning cycle when they are powered on or after long idle periods, so a printer switched on for one page a day fills its absorber faster than one used in weekly batches.
Sources and review notes
Checked on . Canon's cause and action come from its online manual error code page for 5B00, taken from the TS3700 series manual. Everything in sections 2 and 3 — the explanation of what a counter reset does and does not do, and the repair-versus-replace reasoning — is editorial and clearly marked as such, because Canon publishes no guidance on reset tools. Codes are published per model; check the manual for your own printer. Glitchary is independent of Canon.