Canon Printers Power Cycling when attempting to connect to WiFi - New Bug

[Husbeard]

I was about to buy a new printer because my Canon MX492 was possessed and continually power cycling on boot up since 5/29/22.

 

Issue: It started when I went to print something, and it said the printer was not responding. I went over to it, and found that it wasn't connected to the WiFi anymore. I tried connecting to my network, but it asked for the WPS button of course (who even uses that?), then had to go through the back menu to get advanced settings so I could put in a passcode.. When I was clicking through the menu, I clicked on WiFi, then the printer locked up, and power cycled.. After it went through the initial printer calibration, seeming like it would start, it made a "beep", and started over at initial power on. It only says "Canon" on the screen. No buttons are responsive.

So, over to the Canon forums I go to find a plethora of other users having the same problem with my printer, but also many other models..

 

Solution to stop Boot Loop:
Turn off WiFi...  So far the only thing that's stopped it from booting besides unplugging it, is to turn off the Wireless Networks it is familiar with. In my UniFi controller, I disabled my Wireless Network while it was in a boot cycle, and it stopped doing it, and is now booted up... but the only option I now have is USB. - There are no firmware updates to fix this.

 

No Solution:
This seems pretty news worthy as a royal eff up on Canon's part.. Not sure if it was a bad firmware push, but these printers are basically bricked without them somehow getting a firmware pushed to them to fix the issue.

Work Around:

The issue is related to DNS. This can be solved by turning off your WiFi Access Point temporarily (or unplugging the Ethernet from the WAN port of your Router) so that the router/ap has no internet.

The printer will turn on as it normally should.
Go to Setup menu > Web Services > DNS Server Setup > Manual Setup
Configure an IP Address from your internal network that isn't in use by any other device or specifically, not your DNS server. This makes it so the printer cannot make queries. After that's configured, press OK, and select the "NO" or "Off" option and press OK.

Once that's completed, you can wait a few minutes and turn your WiFi back on. This should be a viable work around for most users. (Menu settings may vary)

List of Printers affected so far:
MX490x series
MG7520
MG5020
MG6620
IP110 - Possibly same issue

Community Articles from Canon:

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Desktop-Inkjet-Printers/bd-p/desktopinkjetprinters?sort=recent

No drivers newer than 10/04/21, but nothing about "firmware" either:
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/inkjet-multifunction/mx-series-inkjet/mx492?tab=drivers_downloads

[Husbeard]

2 hours ago, Caroline said:

Wired is better.

Wired Ethernet would be a lot better... But most of these printers now-a-days don't have Ethernet and are WiFi or USB only.

[wanderingfool2]

4 hours ago, Caroline said:

Wired is better.

It's more than a wifi bug.  It's happening on a wired connection as well.  Unfortunate enough that it was power cycling on the wired connection then figured maybe it was something weird with the cable so quickly unplugged and switched no wifi (big mistake).  It now tries reaching out to wifi networks and proceeding to crash.

 

Sounds like only USB works, or at least disabling the DNS server location (so I assume it can't try calling out).

[Workshop8191]

I've had the exact same issue with my Canon Maxify MB5350.

Started yesterday(31/5/22) while printer was connected to wired Ethernet. I disconnected the network cable and it powered up successfully. I thought there might be some issue with the onboard NIC so I attempted to have it connect via WIFI. Same issue occurred, only this time I couldn't physically disconnect it from the network.

Canon technical support proved useless, and just suggested I'd take my printer to an authorized service center.

Solution: I powered down the modem, thus disabling internet access. The printer once again booted up successfully. At this point I changed the printer's DNS server IP addresses to invalid ones. I then proceeded with reconnecting it to the network and powering up the modem. It is now working properly, with all network functionalities, including network printing and scanning to SMB network drive.

Bottom line, to get printer to function again, disable its access to internet.

[wanderingfool2]

9 hours ago, Workshop8191 said:

Bottom line, to get printer to function again, disable its access to internet.

If you happen to get unlucky like me (it tries to auto-connect to someone elses open router first) and can't get it done here is a solution.

 

Factory reset:

Hold the stop button for 2 second (since it's not light up, it's about 1 inch from the right...imagine where the power button would be if it were on the right side)

After 2 seconds, press and hold the power button as well for 2 seconds

The stop button will light up (if all correct)

Now while still holding the power button, press the stop button 5 times (there is a little light below the stop button that should change each press)

Let go of the power button, wait a few minutes then click the power button (it will turn off after a while)

 

Now here is the part that you need to do quickly (if you have an ethernet cord plug it in...I find it gives you a bit more time)

Click the power button, it will boot up to the regular menu after a bit.

As soon as the menu appears, swipe left to right

Click settings

Go to the network page (should be the second option)

Click change LAN

Click disable LAN (or no LAN)...should be bottom option.

Fingers crossed that it applies the setting before freezing.  If it freezes you might get a second attempt at it...if not (like it goes into boot loop again) then go back to step one.  It took me about 5 attempts before I could disable LAN.

 

From there, you can either enable LAN (being careful not to hit wlan setup) or just use USB

[Husbeard]

I found that solution as well.. Manually going into DNS settings on the printer and assigning the IP to some random IP within your local network stops it from the boot loop. First, you'll have to disable WiFi on your network that it has memorized, then you can get into the menu and do that.. It's insane..

I can't believe they haven't publicly said anything about this.