Printer not printing

It's probably not dead. Are you using compatible cartridges? If so have you removed any tape that covers the vent hole if required. Many compatibles need to have a piece of tape removed. If you forget the ink cant get out as the air can't get in. If it not a piece of tape and there are no flashing lights it could be that the nozzles are blocked or the wick has dried out. You can do a manual cleaning using some kitchen paper and a little solvent and a small plastic bag. The first thing we need to do is get the head away from its parking position. Switch on the machine and when the head has moved away from its park position, remove the power lead. With the top of the machine open, you should be able to move the print head carriage by hand. Look to the right where the head carriage is normally parked and you should see the pump cap area. It will be a black looking spongy pad covered in ink. Now take a piece of kitchen paper and fold it over a couple times to make a pad approx 3"x1". Now lay this pad over the top of the pump cap and fold the left edge down toward the base of the machine as in image one (the tissue is the yellow bit in the image) Now take a syringe or similar and put some solvent into it. The solvent I use is JR Ink Jet Cartridge flush as seen on ebay and the like. If you have any ammoniated window cleaner like Windex you can use this. Put the solvent onto the tissue making it quite damp, but not totally soaked. Manually move the print head GENTLY back to its park position. The pump cap will try to raise up to meet the bottom of the print head as you move it back. Be careful no to force it or you may break something. What we are trying to do is bring the solvent dampened pad into contact with the print head. Once located, leave the pad for 5 or 10 minutes whilst the solvent does its trick. Now move the head away from park - again being gentle. You should now see the pad is a horrible black lump of mush. Pick it out and put it in the plastic bag ? where a glove or use tweezers or pliers. Repeat the process again but this time let it to soak for just about 1 minute. You should now see the individual ink colours soaking into the pad. If the pad is still black, repeat the process a couple more times. Once you have some evidence of the individual colours you can run a head clean via the driver or printer control panel. Then print a nozzle check sheet and if all has gone according to plan you should have a full complement of lines. This method is applicable ONLY for loss of a few lines on the nozzle check sheet. If you have loss of all the lines in a single or multiple colours, you need to investigate further. It is possible that the pump has failed, the pipes are clogged or something else is causing the problem. If that does not sort it out, tru using a syringe to put a couple of drops of solvent onto the wick. Its the black plastic spike that stick up and goes into the bottom of the ink cart when it is installed. Put a cupole of drops in, put the cart back in and leave it fpr about 10 minutes. The re-try a head clean using the driver/status monitor. There is another possibilty after thsi which relates to a hardware problem but this generaly causes a loss of all ink. Let me know how you get on

Hello Inky;

I'm having the same problem with my C88 printer. But it used to print and suddenly, it started printing blank pages but it's going through the motions like it's printing, but it's just a blank page. I've tried taking the printer apart, looking at the waste pad (but figuring it couldnt be this because it didnt give the blinking lights) and figured it must be something under the print head where the cartridges are put in like you said. But i was wanting to know is there a diagram or a drawing that shows where that pump is located at. I know when you turn the printer on, it moves back and forth and then goes back toward the right-like it's resting place or parked. Do i need to turn the printer on and have it move toward the left and stop it and then put the paper and go through the process you mentioned to see if that helps.

thanks and would appreciate your help very much.

PC detail!

Take out the nozzles and take out blockage and take it back..