Ok, this one's got me stumped. Never seen anything like it before.

I have some very important documents I need to print out.

I have three printers (A Canon i70, a Canon Pixma IP2000, and a Photosmart Express). They are all installed on my PC running Vista with all of the latest drivers for them (including drivers making them compatible with Vista). As far as the computer is concerned, they all print perfectly normally. My printers go through all the motions they normally do (the whirring noises, the paper is fed through, and the ink cartridges move around like they're supposed to).


There's just one problem:


No ink ever gets on the paper. For any of the printers.



"Ok," I think, "It must be a problem with the computer itself, as all my printers have the same problem."


So I install them on my laptop, thinking I'd be able to print the files from there, but I get the EXACT SAME PROBLEM.


I have replaced the ink cartridges, checked that nothing is clogging up any of the cradles, and tried to no avail to find people who've had similar issues online. I don't even know whether to label it a computer problem or a printer problem, as none of the printers work on either of my computers.


Can anyone offer any suggestions? I really need these documents printed within the next couple of days. If I have to, I can find somewhere else to print them, but it would be a big inconvenience and any help would really be appreciated.




Thanks!

Sorry for the paragraph spacing issues, but for some reason even though I put line breaks when I typed it and when I edited it, they aren't being recognized for some reason.

Have you recently replaced ink cartridges in any of the printers? Some ink cartridges come with tape over the nozzle that can cause the symptom you've described.

Have you printed from any of the printers before?

I did replace the ink cartridges to see if that was the problem, but there's no tape over the nozzle, and the problem was around before that.

Perhaps the paragraph spacing and the lack of inking are related??!?!? I kid, I kid...

Are you using the same cable for all 3 printers? Or separate individual cables.  The only time I've seen something like this is when we were using a slightly different cable than the proper one.  It was bizarre and took a while to figure out, but the model number of the cable was actually off by a digit, lol.

i found the problem!.
Vista.

looks like a driver problem.. i have canon pixma 160.
cheap mfp. but drivers are always giving me problems of vista.

solution: i installed linux.

though trying on another PC with XP may work, the test may worth it, it will tell you if the problem is vista.

Some printers allow you to print a test page using a button on the printer itself. If any of your printers do, printing a test page like that could help you conclusively determine whether it's your printers or your PCs.

It's not a problem with Vista, since the other computer I've been trying them on uses XP.

It could be the model number thing. In fact, that would make sense. It's too late and there are too many light sleepers in the house for me to be shuffling things around and checking serial numbers, so I'll check it out in the morning.

Thanks, Epoch (and everyone else!)

did you make sure you weren't printing white text

ok, seriously I'd love to know the answer cause my printer is doing the same exact thing (HP something or other with Vista) However, I really think my printer is broken, as it looks like it sprayed ink all over the place inside the case. I replaced the ink cartridge and it still doesn't print.

When did ioi get so snarky?

Um... you have three printers that are all unable to print properly and the problem has been around "before?"  At what point do you say "Maybe I should see what's going on here?"

Anyway, print a test page and see what you get.