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Printing Problem with Canon Portable Printer

Hi,

A close friend owns a Canon portable printer that she bought a couple of years ago to go along with her Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop. I'm afraid I don't have the model number right now. It's one of those small printers...with dimensions perhaps 2" x 1" x 12".

She had not used the printer since she purchased it. We installed her printer driver. The printer "prints", meaning the paper gets fed into it and you can hear it "printing", but nothing shows on the paper. I thought it might be that the cartridge and tanks (1 color, 1 black) had dried out, but we replaced them and the the printing still doesn't show up on the paper. Again, all indications are that the driver is working fine and is allowing communication between the laptop and the printer.

Any suggestions as to how we might get this going?

Thank you :))

Marylyn

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

slink9

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marylyn27

ASKER

thank you for getting back to me. i'm going to try your suggestion. just so it's clear what i've already done: i've purchased both a new cartridge (that holds the ink "tanks") and new ink tanks. I inserted the new ink tanks in the new cartridge, then inserted the cartridge into the printer...but no luck. i guess you're saying the problem might now be where the cartridge connects to the printer?

i'll check to be sure that she did have it working at one point. i believe so, but you have a good question.

slink9

It is the cartridge and the holder for it that you would need to clean the contacts on. If the contacts on both are dirty it is sort of like using two tin cans and a string versus a telephone. The message may get there, but it will be so garbled it is basically useless.

marylyn27

ASKER

hmm..i see...so you say that i should be able to clean the holder contacts with an eraser? obviously the cartridge and tanks are not the problem (they're brand new)...so it must be the holder...

marylyn

slink9

Maybe it will be that easy. You also need to verify that they are installed properly, not leaking, etc. It is possible that one or the other, although new, is defective. You also need to verify that the printer cable is connected snugly. Just to rule out the printer cable as the problem, try another one of those.

rid

I recently had a case of the protective adhesive, that sits on the nozzle of most ink cartridges, not coming off, all of it. The tape tore, and left a piece. Could be worth checking. Also, if the documentation for the printer is still available, check for some cleaning procedure. Often these can be carried out without the use of a computer, thus ruling out that end of the problem...

Regards
/RID

marylyn27

ASKER

Very good suggestions, thank you all. I deeply appreciate everyone's kind and generous support.

Marylyn

slink9

What's the status on it? Is it fixed yet? Any more information you can give us?

marylyn27

ASKER

slink9, i haven't had the chance to help her with it. possibly this weekend, i'm not sure. i'm printing all the responses to have them with me when i visit. i'll keep the question open for a while, if that's ok...

thanks to all...

marylyn :))

slink9

Not a problem.

marylyn27

ASKER

thanks :))

Asta Cu

What is your plan with this very old question?
Thanks,
Asta

marylyn27

ASKER

I'm sorry to have left this open. I had forgotten about it. Too bad there's not an automatic reminder of an open question.

Thank you for all your help!!!

Asta Cu

Good news, thanks. Reminders may come when the rewrite is completed; but the Email notif that is generated when Experts add information for you is the first acknowledgement to you that help has been given.

Asta