Pixma MX330 Printer Ultra light print - unreadable

[mmustoe]

Hi all, hope someone smarter than me has an easy answer.  Been away awhile, printer working fine before.  Set it up again today, I had to DL drivers from Canon.. they don't officially support Windows 10, but I selected Win 8 x64, installed fine (same as before).  SW setup appeared to have worked fine, OS recognizes correct printer model.  Used the 'Print Test Sheet' function and a ghost page printed... so light I could barely see it, but knew what I was looking for, so I know it 'tried'.  I used 'View Printer Status' - say all Ok, I checked 'Ink Details' and it too says "Ink levels adequate".   

I also tried the 'cleaning' an 'deep cleaning' options on the Canon Printer Properties app, neither produced paper output, though I'm not sure if they are supposed to.  Both appeared to complete successfully.

Hate to order new ink cartridges if that's not the problem...  Any Ideas or suggestions?  

Please & Thanks!

[jrhoffman75]

Nozzle check should produce a printed paper that shows the nozzle check results. If you ran cleanings you should print a new nozzle check to see if the cleaning worked. 

[mmustoe]

Thanks... tried the Nozzle Check procedure, and it too, printed the 'almost invisible' printout... it did however push a pc of paper thru - lol... Guess next step is replacing the cartridges.  I will however, be real upset if throwing $$$ & time at it still doesnt work ... such is technology. 

[jrhoffman75]

Before you replace cartridges you should run some deep cleanings to be sure nozzles on head are clear.

[CJC444]

I have the same issue...print out is not easily even readable.  I have:  run ALL the maintenance tasks X 2...there was no problem there to be fixed.  All the cartridges are full.............I had this issue about a year ago and my grandson fixed it....even though Canon cannot !!    There was an option on one of the 'print' settings pages where the wrong option was checked.  I did NOT do that because I had never been to that page before.  Problem today is that I cannot find that page....so I can correct the problem just by changing an option.     This has nothing to do with: Cartridges, dirty print heads, paper, dirty anything...or the Driver !  ....fIt was a page where you had the option to print an image:   like the example shown or NOT like the example shown....which is the correct option.    This should not be rocket science, folks.

[CJC444]

You may see my post on this.  Do NOT purchase new cartridges.  The  problem is a 'setting' somewhere that has the wrong option checked.   Bring in some neighborhood kids and they will find the page you need.

[CJC444]

You got it !

[CJC444]

Grandson found it.   Some setting in 'images' that I did NOT click on but somebody did...gone now.  thanks

[mmustoe · Accepted solution]

Thanks all for the ideas.. I did the cleanings and other maint tasks, but in every case, a sheet would roll thru with a REAL ghost image... if I didnt know what I was looking for, I might have thought it a blank page.  Anyhow, the ink cartridges showed full (and felt so when removed), but the printer had been in storage for a while (climate controlled), but, found a vendor on Amazon, said "If our cartridges don't fix the problem, send em back:.  I ordered them, 2 fays later, installed, and the printer is now working fine.  This company 'ejet'  also includes a postage paid return envelope to send back the old ones for proper recycle.  Case closed, needed new ink. 

[EngR]

This may help others (not mmustoe) with light printing woes.  Among its suggestions, Canon Support recommends trying to print from another application.  This really saved me, and I recommend trying this before cleaning print heads, checking drivers, replacing cartridges, etc.  My .pdfs were printing very lightly, but a screen capture printed fine.  The Acrobat Reader team recommends selecting "Print As Image" in the Advanced tab for printing.  It worked like a charm.  I run Windows 10 on my Dell laptop.