Canon Pixma MX328 Printer Error 5100

Canon Pixma MX328

What is Error 5100 in Canon Pixma MX328?

5100 is a carriage home position error most commonly experience when using Canon Printer most especially model of Canon Pixma. This error occurs when the carriage, or the ink cartridge carrier, can not move freely and suddenly stops while printing. As soon as the printer is turn on, and something prevented the cartridge carrier from completing its initialization process then the error 5100 also appears in the LCD control panel.

How to Fix Error 5100 in Canon Pixma MX328?

Canon MX328 with cartridge carrier exposed

By careful inspection on the sliding mechanism of the carriage you can pinpoint if there is an obstruction on the print path.

But first of all, while the printer is on, you need to lift up the top lip cover together with the scanning unit cover to expose the cartridge carrier. See the figure: 

What you need to do next is to unplug the power cord at the back of the printer leaving the cartridge carrier at the center position of the printer.

Then, you can follow the following steps to figure and fix the obstruction that cause carrier not to park properly in the home positon:
1. Use your hand to move the carriage sideways and look for paper or small objects that obstruct the movement of the carriage. Look on the farther right cause often crumpled paper, tapes and dried ink in the absorber pads are the culprit.
2.  Feel the movement, if the carriage seems to stuck, you may need to lubricate the sliding mechanism.
3. If you are using a CIS or Contineous Ink System, check to see if the ink tube is properly fix inside.If the tube is loosen up at the ink cartridge carrier, this is primarily the cause of the problem.

After you figure out what cause the obstruction, plug the power cord at the back of the printer and see how the error code disappear.