It's been a while but hello again. I'm moaning today, about Canon printers in general and mine in particular, an inkjet i550.

My printer head is blocked, so print quality is crap. Talk to Canon and they tell you to use the 'maintenance' tag in the driver to 'clean' 3 times then 'deep clean' once. They assure me this should do the trick. Wrong! I've cleaned and cleaned again, deep cleaned, cleaned again and again and again, then deep cleaned and deep cleaned again and again. No amount of cleaning does it. Canon said if this didn't work my printer head was *%^!ed. So I looked to purchase a new one, printer head that is, not a printer. Bloody hell, the cheapest one I could find was around £65, one was over £90. There is no way I'm paying that for a printer head that may well go the same way as the original.

At this point I should perhaps advise you that I don't use original Canon cartridges. I use compatibles bought from inkcycle which I've used for some time now. My daughter uses the same cartridges in her Canon S750 and has not had a problem to date. Perhaps it's because she uses her printer more often than me and my ink dried in the printer head causing the problem. Whatever, it seems from the 'forum circuit' that this is not such can unusual problem with Canon printers.

Why then, do Canon persist in making printers with a separate printer head, when many other manufacturers incorporate the printer head in the cartridge. That way you get a new printer head every time you change the cartridge so much less chance of them becoming blocked, and if they do you just change the cartridge if you can't unblock it.

I'm currently waiting delivery of some 'cleaning cartridges' to see if they will solve my problem. Just over £13 for four (including VAT and delivery) from e-inkjet. They are just bog standard cartridges with cleaning fluid in them instead of ink, so should give the printer head a really good clean. Let's hope so, otherwise it will be a new printer for me (not a Canon).

It's been almost a year since I last posted anything here and unfortunately it's not been a very happy time. My mum died last October and my wife's granny died in November. I loved my mum dearly and she's a great loss to me. It may have been as a result of this that I've had to revisit my psychiatrist regarding my depression and he has added to my list of prescription drugs and referred me to a therapy group which I started attending a few weeks ago. I hope I'll see something positive coming out of it.

There are times when life is a real bastard. Ah well, bye for now.

Dave.