I am a PC technician at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. We have no authorized Canon service facilities on this continent, nor do we have a relationship with an authorized dealer, so I am throwing myself upon the mercy of the experts in this forum to guide me through repairing this machine.
History and symptom
From my predecessor, who responded to a complaint about white streaks on the output: "Opened up left side of printer and removed and cleaned laser glass. Issue was partially resolved but still had white streaks near the bottom from toner falling onto the glass. Removed laser glass and cleaned a second time. On powering on printer, it now errors out with e000733-0005 and will not boot." What I see now is e000733-0000.
Research
I understand from the service manual and other postings that these errors both indicate Printer communication error: A communication error between the DC Controller PCB and the Main Controller PCB2 is detected at startup. Suggested remedies:

  1. Turn OFF and then ON the main power -- Done, of course.
  2. Check the connection of the Flexible Cable between the DC Controller PCB (UN9) and the Main Controller PCB2. -- removed and re-connected ribbon cable, looks fine.
  3. Replace the Flexible Cable. -- see questions below.
  4. Check the power of the DC Controller PCB (UN9). (Check if the initialization operation is executed at startup.) -- see questions below.
  5. Replace the DC Controller PCB (UN9). -- see questions below.
  6. Replace the main Controller PCB2 . -- see questions below.

What I have observed and tried

  • Checked the flexible cable between boards, it looks fine. Unplugged at both ends and re-inserted.
  • Checked the utility power after reading this post and this one. It's 118 VAC from hot to neutral and hot to ground, 0.2 VAC from neutral to ground. I understand there were some power problems in this building in the past, and we do generate our own power for the station, but it seems pretty steady and we aren't having problems with other copiers.

What to try next?

  • Replace controller boards and cable. This involves some cost and considerable delay in getting materials to Antarctica, so I am seeking confirmation that this really is the next step. We do have one other C2230 on station, but I am very hesitant to take it out of service to swap parts and risk damaging it (so many connectors on that DC controller board!). Is there anything else I should try first?
  • I don’t know how to “check the power of the DC Controller PCB” or “check if the initialization operation is executed at startup,” as I don’t see that addressed in the manual. Can anyone point me to the documentation or describe how to do that?
  • This post suggests “Start removing loads from the DC-Controller by disconnecting 1 connector at a time and powering on the machine to see if the symptom changes. Try to isolate the path toward error on connector popping error.” Any opinions on that?
  • This post says upgrading the software solved the problem. I’d be glad to try that but I don’t have the SST and don’t know how to obtain the software to put on a flash drive; any suggestions there?
  • Anything else I should try?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!