Canon Pixma ip4300 has NEVER worked

[fourlegsgood]

Has anyone ever run into this crazy problem? I have a Canon Pixma 4300 that I got bundled with my MacBook pro. It's been sitting on my desk inert ever since. I cannot get it to print anything, anytime. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers at least twice, reset the printer... I don't think it's a communication error because my laptop sees the printer, can check the ink, etc. Once I reinstall the drivers I can always print a test page exactly once, then never again. I get no error messages. Nothing.

Opening the print queue box it shows what ever job I'm attempting to print as "printing" but the printer never actually prints anything. If I pull the plug on the printer with a job in the queue I get a "can't communicate with printer" message, which tells me communication isn't the issue.

I'm running OS 10.6.8 on a 2007 MacBook pro. I know it's not my laptop since I've never had any problem with any other printer, including a PIXMA Pro 9000.

I'm thinking there's something either super easy to fix or that this printer is just a lemon that needs to go in the trash. Canon has been very unhelpful. Every once in a while I'll dust this thing off and try to make it work. Is it time to give up?

 

[SUEOHIO]

This might be a really stupid question but on the driver for it does it say it will work with the Mac operating system? Most printers at least all the ones ive ever had only work with windows such as 2000, xp, vista, and windows 7.The only other thing is that maybe the printer itself is defective in some way and wont ever work right no matter what is tried.

 

[SUEOHIO]

I went to the canon website and indeed there is a driver available for the Mac system version you have. Its very possible on the disk that came with the printer it has gotten corrupted somehow. Maybe try downloading the driver from the canon site for your model of printer and see if that helps.I know when i have been to lazy to find my printer drivers i have gone to the site and downloaded and installed the correct ones that ive needed with no problems.

 

[fourlegsgood]

Thanks SueOhio - I did indeed download new drivers. Twice!! I've also tried about every fix suggestion I've seen on Canon's forums as well as any tech forums I could find. Honestly I think the printer is just defective. It's probably my fault for not dealing with the issue right away. At this point fixing it would probably be more expensive than getting a new printer. It's too bad because I'm certain it makes beautiful prints. I had trashing it - the ink wells are all still full!

 

[SUEOHIO]

You might just be better off getting another one. Sometimes they just dont want to work right no matter what and yes it could cost more to fix than replace.