I'm hoping somebody can help me. My BJC 3000 printer smears black ink to the point where documents look terrible! All the words have smears through them. I tried all the different resolutions, paper SETTINGS etc. I deep cleaned more than once. I even spent $50.00 for a new print head. The new print head worked for about 1 day and then back to smears. It's gotten to the point where I have to print in another color in order to avoid smearing. I'm just about to trash the stupid thing with a sledgehammer! Appreciate any input that would be helpful.
John Bowen


John......How old is the printer and did this just suddenly start or has it been ongoing for a long time ?
By any chance have you updated or rolled back the drivers.

dl65  Hi dI.  Thank you for responding so quickly!

The printer is about 3 1/2 years old.  I started taking NOTICE to this about 6 months ago.  The smearing seemed to gradually get worse.  I don't  know if you know this but the BJC 3000 is the type of printer that has 4 separate tanks for each color.  That's why I bought it, and for most of it's LIFE, it performed excellent.  What really makes me very angry is that I was weighing whether to just buy a new printer (which would've been cheaper) or replace just the head, cause, as I said, I really like this printer and felt that keeping it running would save me money on the long run with the only having to replace individual colors as they run out.  Those triple color cartridges are wasteful. so as I said, I'm hoping I can find an  answer for this printer.
   As far as the drivers, The new head greatly IMPROVED the smearing problem at first but I was having an alignment problem with my CD label making software and I tried to reinstall the drivers for the printer hoping that would help.  That's when I saw the smearing come back.  I haven't yet checked Canon site for driver updates, because I thought the problem was hardware related because only the black ink smears.  If I print a text file in dark blue or red it looks fine.  I'm hoping to hear from you again soon.  Thanks again.
                           John BowenJohn.....HUMMMMMMMMMM .....
Im inclined to think if you check cannons site for a updated driver that may be the problem....I would also be inclined to uninstall the cd label program and then do a printer realignment to see if that helps as well

dl65   
Thanks.  I'll try that and let you know how I make out.
                                 JBare you using geniune cannon ink....Yep.  A Whole new set came with the new print head.
Just downloaded and installed new drivers. Slight improvement but nothing to celebrate about...ie still smears a bit.
                         JB
PS: Love the emodiconsthe problem is when a printer begins to age, ink will gum up in a few different places inside the printer. different printers will gum up in different spots. basically your printer just needs a good internal cleaning. you might want to try using the "clean cartrige nozzles" option in the program for the printer, this might help.Tried this more than once, even though it's a new head. Didn' do much.  Although it does seem that something is dirty.  Thanks for responding.
                         JB You might want to buy a new printer before you spend too much money on making attempts to repair the BJC 3000 PrinterHi John,
Same problem with my HP Officejet Pro 1150C.  Not a driver problem.  I've had mine repaired twice now and the tech told me it will need to be serviced about once a year ( $75.00 a pop)!  The problem is caused by a "capping station" inside the printer.  The ink cartridges are "parked" in these capping stations between print jobs.  In time they fill up with old ink which attaches to the new cartridge tip.  This usually occurs on the black ink cartridge (it's used the most) while the colors print fine.  HP makes it very DIFFICULT to clean the capping station so hopefully Canon will be easier.  Hope this helps.    GBenway;
Thanks so much.  At least now I have an explanation of why this is happening!  It seems totally ludicrous to pay $150.00 per year to service a printer worth less than $100.00!  What are these people thinking?!  By any chance, I wonder if you've aquired info on how to clean these capping station by onesself.  At any rate, thanks again for the enlightining info!
                                     John Bowen                                          Sorry for my "fuzzy math"above.  I thought you said twice a year for servicing.  Looking again at your response, I saw that you said once a year.  $75.00 per year in maintainence is still too much for a printer of this price range as I'm sure you agree.
                                 JBAbsolutely agreed.  They are trying to rip you off - no doubt about it.  I understand you like your printer and are kind of attached to it - but anything but higher mid end inkjets and upwards are 'throw away' printers.  They are designed to be cheap, to work for a year or two and after that - it's all luck.  They are not worth servicing - simply buy a new printer.  Given that the new printer will come with new ink cartridges and more capable drivers (with newer better functions) its more than worth the expense.  I personally don't go for the bottom of the range printers (they really do tend to be cheap and nasty) but a few models up - only slightly more expensive and of better quality.