MG5350 "prints" blank sheets

[johninbideford]

Printer was printing a 3 page document.  Page 1 came out normally, but pages 2 and 3 came out blank.  Now all documents come out blank.  All cartidges are full.  Have attempted a nozzle check, but the paper comes out blank.  Have switched off the printer and switched on again. No joy.  Have attempted to print from another computer with the same results.  The printer goes through the motions - "pretends" to be printing, but no ink goes on to the paper.  Same result if I try the copy function.  Have tried in colour and greyscale, with exactly the same results.  This cannot be blocked nozzles as all colours have suddenly stopped at the same time.

[blackdogsdad]

Same problem: I'm printing my annual mailshot of approx. 2500 letters. 

The first 297 printed perfectly, but suddenly the printer began printing totally blank pages. 

There was no gradual loss of quality, it just suddenly changed from perfect printing to printing blanks.

No inks have run out and the heads are clean and aligned correctly.

I've deleted the printer and re-installed it using the most up-to-date driver.

I've done something called a "Hard Reset"

Nothing has changed: it just won't actually put any ink on paper any more. 

It makes all the right noises, the heads move around normally, the paper feeds through normally and the 

printer genuinely seems to believe it's printing but it's not. 

I see that this is a common CANON printer problem, not specific to certain models (mine's also a Pixma MG5350)

Nobody seems to have a solution other than throw the printer away and buy from a different manufacturer

which I don't want to do, having just purchased all the ink for this model that I need for my annual mailshot.

I've had this precise problem twice before and on both occasions, having torn my hair out for 48-hours and

tried everything to no avail, the thing inexplicably began working again the next time it was switched on.

I've posted a plea for help to Canon Support and they're supposed to get back to me within 48-hours, but

from the comments I've seen online I'm not holding out much hope for a solution.

[Danny]

Hi, johninbideford and blackdogsdad!

Welcome to The Canon Forums, and thanks for posting!

We appreciate your participation, though we need to let you know that your products appear to be models that are not supported by our team here at Canon USA.  The Canon Community Forum is hosted and moderated within the United States by Canon USA. We are only able to provide support for Canon products manufactured for and used within the US market.

If you live outside the United States, please click HERE and select your country to find support in your part of the world.

Feel free to discuss Canon products sold outside of the United States, but please be aware that you will not receive support directly from Canon USA.

Thanks for choosing Canon!

[blackdogsdad]

Hello and firstly sorry for posting to the USA Forum.

However, you will see from many other threads on this forum that the problem of Canon printers suddenly deciding to 

print blank pages is NOT limited to any specific model: it's a very common experience and it would help not only

Canon customers but the Canon company itself if an explanation - preferably a solution - could be provided.

I've just received a laughable reply from Canon Support: I explained everything as per my posting here but they

appear to have not read a word of it.

They suggested I check there's ink in the cartridges and that I check I've removed the tape on the cartridges and that I carry out a nozzle-check and clean the heads and print a test-pattern: all of those things and various others (including switching off and on again) were done to no avail a couple of weeks ago when the problem first occurred

 - on that occasion the printer mysteriously cured itself when switched on 48-hours later.

To reiterate, I've just printed 297 perfect letters with absolutely no loss of quality, after which NOTHING prints.

THIS APPEARS TO BE A COMMON CANON PRINTER PROBLEM.

I'm now on the brink of buying a new printer from a different manufacturer: if I have to do that I'll clearly never buy from Canon again.