We have a "Low Mileage" Canon i550 printer that appears to the lay observer to be in perfect health. The mechanical parts seem to be fine: the ink cartridges respond to the buttons, sliding on their rails to and fro, etc. However, when a print request is sent from the computer, all that occurs is the blinking of one of the green lights on top. Diagnostics end up leading you in circles. I unplugged both ends of the parallel cable, cleaned the contacts, and replaced it.

The fact that the i550 is a number of years old and out of warranty suggests it might be a good candidate for a Goodwill Donation. But since the print quality was so good right up until the day it just decided to sit there and blink, I thought I'd see if anyone here had the same experience, and could point me to some known simple fix that a non-electrical engineer could perform!

Thanks in advance,
--Guineu

It sounds to me like u just need to replace the cable if everything is working ok. my other suggestion would be to read up in its manual if u still have it (will be online somewhere if not) and find out what the blinking means. you may also like to try replacing the cartrige just because the head might have dried up. with the older printers the heads would usually sit in the middle when your not printing unless you turn it off this often resulted in the inks drying up. if this solves your problem simplyu turn your printer off when your not using it