printer wont print

[BigPaul]

I have a canon S300 printer that I use for mainly printing off journal articles, so nothing too tasking, and all of a sudden it has stoped printing. It makes all the right noises, paper goes through, it's got ink and i've re-installed the drivers, but the paper comes out blank. I've had it about 3 years, is it knackered ??... Has anyone any ideas........Thanks

P.S. i've done all the usual cleaning bits under maintainance and still no joy

[wideboy]

How long is it since you used those cartridges - they can dry out completely. The Canon, like Epson, have a separate print head to the cartridges. This means that it is cheaper than HP and Lexmark when it comes to buying cartridges (they replace the head each time, hence the expense). Trouble is that the head can get damaged and is probably not worth replacing. Could be time for one of the new Pixma range (good reviews) or an Epson R200 (excellent). One last trick is to try sitting the cartridges in a saucer of water or spirit to draw the ink out. Maybe you can find a supplier that does a cleaning cartridge (try Touchstone Resources at http://www.printcartridge.net/).

[newcliofan]

You might have an option to clean the head, worth a look.