[MacAn McVan]

Hi

Now that I've got the kids up and running on my old computer - they're in there now playing NFS - I doubt I'll see them for days - I'm back to tweeking my new box.

My printer will not respond. It was working just fine on the old box.

It has power, the little green ready light is flashing (should be solid)

When I try to print something it just says not ready, try again.

Hmmmm, I wonder if it's a driver issue I mused so I went off to Canon.com and found a driver for BJC-4300 and WinXP. I believe I've installed it, but still no go.

The LPT1 port is showing as working properly. The printer is plugged into the LPT1 - only connection that would fit, and the new box has a cute little pic of a printer beside it. So I'm sure I'm in the right place.

If I've done everything right, then my next step will be to hike this printer down the hall and confirm that is is working. If not then I guess it's time.... I do not want to buy a new printer, I understand that the cartridges are vacuum sealed and cannot be refilled. That just plain bugs me.

TIA

Annette

[Brooks]

Try removing the cartridges and reseating them, Canon indicates that that a blinking green light with no other colors is usually a cartridge problem.

http://www.expressresponse.com/cgi-b...uct=BJC%2d4300

[Dr Dave]

I use a BJC 4400 and have had it for several years, your 4300 is basically the same printer, to fix your refill problems would suggest using the BC 20 cartridge, you can drill a small hole in the top and refill many times until the print head wears out. I get the refills at Walmarts.

[MacAn McVan]

Hi Brooks. Thanks for the light tip. On further investigation it seems that that is the direction of my woes. When I open the front of my printer, there is a green tab that is used to bring the print head/cartiridge to the centre for easy changing. This is no longer functioning. I guess it's toast eh? Anyone fix these?

Dr. Dave

I'm with you on the refilling. do it all the time. I was speaking of the newer printers available now. When I checked them out a short year ago, I was informed that the cartidges for the new printers were not refillable as they were vacuum sealed. And that once the vacuum was breached for the purpose of refilling, the cartridges would no longer work.

I think the whole cheap printer/expensive cartridges thing is a scam. (and unenvironmental). I would much rather pay a realistic price for a printer and be able to refill the cartridges, than be worried dailly about my ink use, cause I have to fork over another $30 when I run out of ink. Ticks me off.

Annette

[Brooks]

Some of the newer kits come with little stoppers to reseal them with. I have a one here at the house. Instead of looking at the printer first, look at the refill kits available, then look at the printers

As far as the cartridge not coming to the front, it might have just given up the ghost. This might be as simple as motor gone out, or it could be a sensor that has went out. About the only thing you could do would be to take it to an Epson Service Center. They would probably charge more than the printer is worth to look at it though.

[MacAn McVan]

Thanks Brooks

Guess it's time to retire it. It will have one last job to do before it hits the landfill. My kids will dismantle it piece by piece.

Good tip about researching the refill options first.

Thanks

Annette

[brushmaster1]

If your cartidge carrier won't come to the center, there are a couple of things you can try:

First, power cycle your printer. Turn it off, disconnect the parallel cable from <I>both</I> ends, and unplug the <I>power</I> to the printer. Wait 5 minutes, then reconnect the data cable (with the PC <I>off</I>), then reconnect the power and boot the PC.

If this doesn't work, you can grasp the cartridge carrier and very <I><B>gently</I></B> pull it over to the center. This is <I>not</I> recommended by Canon, but you can usually get away with it, and if you are going to junk your printer anyway, you have nothing to lose.

[MacAn McVan]

Thanks Brushmaster1

I just tried this, and while it didn't seem to do what we wanted it to do, I did notice something interesting.

The cartridge assembly does move back and forth when the printer is turned off and again when it is turned on. But rather than do it's little dance back and forth winding up on the far right ready for printing. It is doing it's little back and forth dance then coming to rest in the middle. With the green light flashing and a window on the terminal telling me that the cartridge type cannot be detected.

I have taken out and replaced the cartridge several times, nothing seems off about the way it is sitting in there. Looks and feels normal. As stated before the green tab will not return the cartridge assembly to the ready position.

Annette
Mystified in Lodi.CA

[brushmaster1]

Have you tried replacing the cartridge with a new one? Usually, when the printer won't return the carrier to home position, it's because it can't recognize the cartridge... usually a sign of a bad cartridge.

[MacAn McVan]

Why thank you! And I always thought computers et el were complicated! Here I am thinking it's driver issues ..... too funny. Thanks for the heads up on this one.

Being a refiller, I've been working on the cartridge for many years, guess they really don't last forever. The cartridge in question is the one that holds a removeable black and a removeable colour resevour - a BC-21e.

So as per your suggestion I popped it out and put in an old black only BC-20 - long dried up, but still kicking around in the bottom of my drawer.

Bingo! It likes this one. I doubt it would print, so I'm not even going to try, but the cartridge assembly happily retruns to the ready position and my light stops flashing.

I popped it back out and took a close look at the two cartiridges to see if there was any noticeable wear/deterioration.

The contacts on the side of the BC-21e have little shiny spots in the middle of each one where the little contact bumps in the assembly meet with them. The BC-20 does not show these wear marks.

I suspect these little shiny spots are ever so slightly dimpled, thus impairing the integrity of the connection.

So, off to the store today. I think my printer problems have been solved.

Thank you so much.

Annette