Hi All...

Am trying to sort a problem with a friends Canon S400 - I've never used it before and he's away, so not sure how long it's been like this for!

Basically the print quality is randomly horrendous! - What I mean is printing the Test Page usually gives the 1st 2 or 3 lines reasonably OK, but the rest is either very faint or non-existent.

A pdf doc' with a couple of tables in comes out very "blotchy" - some lines etc printed ok, but then with missing parts or "over inked" & smudged lines.

I did manage to print a few basic documents - from Word etc yesterday, but today they are coming out either very faint or smudged in places - or missing text completely.

Logically it looks like a blocked or dodgy cartridge, but all seem to be OK - I've checked there's ink in all the cartridges, run the Canon software to clean the printheads, check the nozzle head and alignment - which appear OK.

Anyone got any inside info on these Canon's? - the website doesn't really help much, and M/S KB doesn't have any particular prob's listed with these - Am using Win 2000 & the latest drivers direct from the Canon site. Have reinstalled printer etc & no joy.

Any suggestions (reasonably polite !) welcome........

Thanks

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How heavily used has the printer been?


Does the problem only occur with black or do the colour cartridges exhibit the same problems?

Do you know if the cartrides have been refilled in the past or have you tried a new cartridge?

Hi Zoomclub,
I had a Canon C755 all in one that I had to go into the printer properties and change the spooling on. Start>Settings>Printers>Highlight your printer and right click and go to Properties. On mine the tab is Advanced and you will see I hope a place that says Spool Print Documents or Print directly to the printer. I had to click Print directly to the printer for my printer to work correctly. Ok your way out and try printing something again. Hope this helps. LG;)

Thanks for both replies on this one -

The printer hasn't really been that heavily used as far as I'm aware - & far as I can tell, the problem is only with the Black Ink Tank - Thanks for that one Pave.

The cartridges haven't been refilled, aren't actually Canon originals, but good quality compatibles that it's run on fine for sometime apparently.

Have had a look in the ink tank / cartridge holder etc - no real obvious crud etc - looks like there's a foam/sponge type pad in the bottom of the ink tank that lets ink into the cartridge through another pad in the bottom of the cartridge holder

Was wondering if Pave - or anyone else might know if these are prone to blockages & can they be cleaned at all??

Don't really wanna burn $$ for a new ink tank - skint student at the moment!

Thanks to to Lady Grey - followed your advice, but no joy am afraid....

Had the same problem with a canon BJC 3000. The colours printed fine but black was just mesed up. I tried cleaning everything possible and replacing the cartridge with a genuine canon and nothing helped. Short of taking it to get 'repaired' I cant really help. The only workaround I can suggest is change the font colour to a dark blue that looks black when printed (this does work).

Mine got replaced with a HP multi-function deal.