A while back I had to do a bunch of printing [on my Canon BJC-5100] so I purchased a new ink cartridge just in case my old one ran out of ink. Yesterday my old cart ran out, so I swapped it out for the new one. Tried printing some stuff and not a drop of ink graced my lily-white sheets. [Mmmm, that sounded weird.] Anyway, after screwing around with the drivers, furrowing my brow and eyeing the damn thing disapprovingly, I decided that I must have been stuck with a dud cartridge. Dug up the receipt and went off to Staples to get it replaced.

Got home from work with the replacement cartridge, popped it in the machine and got down to some heavy printing. Nothing. The goddamn thing prints absolutely nothing on the pages. And now the driver keeps informing me that the cartridge is empty. Thinking it might just be because the cart is new, I told it to print about twenty pages. Absolutely nothing was printed. It sure irritated me with that awful noise it makes though. I thought it might be my printer, but it does seem to communicate with my PC no probs; my PC recognizes when there is a cart in there, which slot it's in, etc. Plus the printer is dragging the print head across the paper back and forth like it's supposed to, everything seems fine.

I examined the cart, but it's hard to determine whether or not there is any ink in it. One thing I did was take a piece of wet tissue and hold it against the print head. I know your not supposed to do that, but usually a bunch of ink will gush out into the tissue if you do. Capillary action I think. Anyway, no ink at all came out, so I'm pretty sure the damn thing is, in fact, empty.

I need to print out a bunch-a-shit this weekend for work, so it looks like I'll be making a return trip to Staples tomorrow. Going to try a test print with the cartridge, if I can, before I leave the store. I will not likely be able to as it's an old BJC-5100 and I don't think any newer printers use the carts mine does→BC-23. Think I will try to get a BC-20 this time instead. I know this model works with my printer as well, and if they did get a bad batch of BC-23 cartridges, maybe the BC-20's will be from a completely different batch.

Update: went to Staples, forgot my receipt [!] but they replaced my cart anyways. Not only that, but they gave me back $4 in change because the BC-20 is cheaper! WTG Staples, you guys rock!

Came home, popped it in the printer, tried printing, bzzzzt! Still doesn't fucking print! Followed directions from Microsoft to manually remove and reinstall printer drivers. Didn't work. Googled till my eyes bled, found this, nice to know I'm not alone though it didn't help solve my problem. I cleaned the print head contacts, soaked the cart in hot water+Windex, nothing has worked. I sent an e-mail to Canon Canada, I now breathlessly await their response. I've spent about five hours on this thing today. It's starting to look like I might have to buy a new printer. :(

Update: solution!