Canon CLI-581XL Yellow

First, check that the cartridge you have is compatible with your printer by making sure it is one of the printers listed in the ‘Compatible With’ section.

If you have a Canon photo printer, check that you are installing the black cartridges in the correct positions. The thinner photo black has a different slot to the fatter regular black cartridge.

Make sure that you have FIRST removed the yellow tape and SECOND the large orange clip from the cartridge prior to attempting to install.

If you have a Canon photo printer, check that the thinner photo black cartridge is installed in its correct position- it has a different slot to the fatter regular black cartridge.

If your issue is still not resolved, remove the cartridge from the printer and while the printer is still on, remove the power by switching off the printer at the socket. Leave the printer for 10 minutes to allow all power to drain and the error to clear.

In the meantime, find the chip on your cartridge and give it a wipe with some tissue to make sure there is no ink or dust interfering in the communication between the cartridge and the printer.

After 10 minutes, switch your printer back on and re-install the cartridge.

If this did not resolve your problem then unfortunately the cartridge is faulty and should be returned to your store.

If the steps in the answer to the previous question did not solve your problem, re-install all your old, working cartridges. Then replace them with your new cartridges one by one to identify which colour cartridge is causing the error.

These Canon cartridges are just a tank with ink inside, all the technology for transferring the ink from the cartridge to your paper is held within the print heads inside your printer. So long as there are no error messages displayed, the issue is with the printer itself.

Try doing a couple of head or nozzle cleans on your printer through the status monitor on your computer or the display screen on your printer. This will help clear any air bubbles that may be trapped and blocking your normal print.

Your remanufactured Canon cartridge will display a red LED light when installed in the printer in exactly the same way as the original Canon cartridge does. It shines bright when everything is working correctly and flashes when the cartridge is empty and needs replacing.

Printer manufacturers often use the roll out of their printer firmware updates to prevent you from choosing the origin and type of supplies you use in your printer. This has been done is ways such as blocking the use of remanufactured/recycled cartridges entirely, applying a 'cartridge lock' system that locks a cartridge's usage to a printer and introducing a new 'generation' of the same cartridge model to stop older, remanufactured cartridges being re-used.

Most printer manufacturers will prefer you to set your printer to automatically download and install their updates for this very reason. We suggest that you disable the automatic update option to allow you to continue to use remanufactured cartridges and also to recycle your cartridge after it has been used. By allowing your printer to update the firmware automatically you are risking being locked into only using the more expensive and less environmentally friendly original branded cartridges.

This is true for both original and remanufactured Canon cartridges. The page yield displayed by Canon is based on a 5% page coverage life test. That is, if you only fill 5% of your page, your cartridge will print for the given number of pages. If you print photos, graphics or even a full page of text, you will be using more than a 5% page coverage. So with normal everyday printing, the page yield listed by Canon is unlikely to be the same page yield that you will get out of your cartridge.