My i550 printer light comes green then flashes yellow 7 times and repeats this. Why? I receive an operator error message.

try this. It is the reset for the waste ink error (8 flashes)

1) With the printer power OFF, while pressing the Resume button, press the Power button. (Do not release the
power button.)
2) While pressing the Power button, release the Resume button, press the Resume button again twice, and then
release the Resume button and Power button.
3) The green indicator flashes during initialization.
When the indicator stops flashing and remains on, press the Resume button 4 times to clear waste ink message.
(The indicator toggles between orange and green each time the Resume button is pressed.)
4) Next, press the Power button, and the green indicator will light, and the function will be executed.
5) Turn off the printer then back on and error should clear.

8 times says the ink absorber is almost full and should print if you press the resume button. If it's too full it won't print until the absorber is changed and the counter reset thru the service mode.

Hello you can try
Problem for Canon BubbleJet i560 InkJet
The waste ink is in the inside of your printer you need to get at it to clean out,
It may be all screwed down so you need to open all up or get a shop to do it for you.
It not an easy job but maybe you are handy with a screwdriver, it can be messy job.
But after this, you will have to reset the waist ink counter or it will still not work,

But but but but you can always try this to reset it first and clean it out again some time.

Canon Reset waste ink counter
1. Turn off printer
2. Hold down Resume button and press Power button.
3. Keep holding down Power button and let Resume button go.
4. Press Resume button 2 times then let BOTH buttons go.
5. Green lights will flash and then stop blinking.
6. When green lights are solid, press the Resume button 4 times.
7. Press the Power button and the printer should turn off, if not, press the Power button once more.
8. Your printer should respond as normal.


Please come back and just gave a vote, it will gave me some satisfaction to know am helping some one so I will keep on helping.
All The Best: Pineworks

According to Canon 7 orange flashes indicates a print head fault. Solution they recommend is to take it to one of their service agents. Problem is that replacement print heads are not cheap and it is usually more economical to replace the printer. You could try taking the print head to a cartridge refiller and have it professionally cleaned (cost you nothing or next to nothing) and see if that solves the problem.

Jennifer, According to an answer by kev1952 on 19 Sept, to my similar error condition ( "repeating sequence of 7 orange and 1 longer green flash of power LED" ) in a Canon i550 printer, and assuming that what you called yellow I called orange, then you too may have a printhead fault. kev1952 recommended to try to get it cleaned and checked at an ink refilling specialist service.
gp26, on 21 Sept 2009

7 times means your waste ink absorber is full, time to let a shop replace the absorbers and reset the counter to clear the error.

My cannon printer no longer responds to any commands. I get 4 yellow blinking lights and then 1 green blinker.

Installed a new black cartrage. Will not print black. All other colors are printing.

The yellow blinking light is not reported in the code errors, take a look to service manual http://rapidshare.com/files/91114670/Canon_i550_i850_i950_Service_Manual.pdf.html
(hard to find but I did it ! )

I had the same problem and I solve it sending the clean head command from the settings of the printer driver (win XP)
I also reset the printer as it is explained in the service manual.

driver