Hello to all.

Would appreciate your help with the following:

For about 3 years I have been getting good service from my Canon BJC 2100 Printer, but for the last couple of weeks it has stopped responding.

I run WindowsXP Home, service Pack 2.

What seemed to cause this problem was when I disconnect the power cord, because I read that doing so could reduce the heat in the printer and thereby prolong cartridge life. (printer does not have on-off switch). But now I am convinced that this printer "hates" being turned off!

A number of times I got it to work well by unplugging and re-plugging power cord, and sometimes deleting the printer and letting Windows re-install it. But these tricks don't seem to work anymore. Tried the Troubleshooter a few times to no avail.

Your help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Uninstall and reinstall the printer's drivers.

If no luck and it's connected to a USB port, then check the status of the USB controller in Device Manager when the printer does not respond.
If things are ok in Dev. Mgr., then try a different USB port.

If still no luck, then connect it to the parallel port.
If it still does not work, then go here to make a Win 98 boot floppy:
http://www.bootdisk.com/
Next, go into BIOS, and make sure the floppy drive is listed as a boot device ahead of the boot HD. If it's not, then reconfigure it, and save the change on the main BIOS menu.
Insert the boot floppy, restart the system, select 'Start without CD-ROM support' using the arrow keys, press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type "dir c:\windows>lpt1" (without the "), and press Enter. If it does not respond, then it's probably bad.
If it prints out the contents of the Windows directory, then the cause of the problem is in Windows. Update your AV program, and check for viruses. Also, run Ad-aware and Spybot to remove any malware.
If no good, then check the Canon site for updated drivers.
If that does not help, then do a clean boot to troubleshoot it.

Uninstall and reinstall the printer's drivers.

If no luck and it's connected to a USB port, then check the status of the USB controller in Device Manager when the printer does not respond.
If things are ok in Dev. Mgr., then try a different USB port.

If still no luck, then connect it to the parallel port.
If it still does not work, then go here to make a Win 98 boot floppy:
http://www.bootdisk.com/
Next, go into BIOS, and make sure the floppy drive is listed as a boot device ahead of the boot HD. If it's not, then reconfigure it, and save the change on the main BIOS menu.
Insert the boot floppy, restart the system, select 'Start without CD-ROM support' using the arrow keys, press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type "dir c:\windows>lpt1" (without the "), and press Enter. If it does not respond, then it's probably bad.
If it prints out the contents of the Windows directory, then the cause of the problem is in Windows. Update your AV program, and check for viruses. Also, run Ad-aware and Spybot to remove any malware.
If no good, then check the Canon site for updated drivers.
If that does not help, then do a clean boot to troubleshoot it.

Thanks Ski for your prompt reply. Will try these steps and advise. My printer is connected to a parallel port now and has always been.

Ski, thanks for your help. I finally got my printer to work by replacing the print head cartridge.

I tried some of your suggestions, but most of them I could not follow because of my lack of PC skills.

After outlining the situation to the Canon company, they suggested that according to the symptoms the print head cartridge could be the problem. So I replaced it a while ago, and voila! My printer is working!

You're welcome.
Good to hear that you got it fixed, and thanks for posting the solution.

You're welcome.
Good to hear that you got it fixed, and thanks for posting the solution.
No problem. You guys have been of so much help to me over the years, I think its only fair to let the forum know how a problem was solved as it could help someone else with the same or similar problem.