i had a canon s300 printer for 5 yrs. liked it because its simple and ink is cheap. started printing with lines in the background , faded color, sketchy print, the whole mess. went through everything, change cartridges, all the maintenance cleaning, tried to clean printer head with online remedies when i really got desperate. nothing worked. figured the printer head was shot and it cost more than the no longer produced printer. bought the same printer refurbished on ebay and low and behold it does the same thing. got fed up and got rid of both of them. bought a refurbished Canon PIXMA iP1500 InkJet Photo Printer and its doing the same thing if not worse. i know its not the ink cartridges because i have been through plent of them with all the printers. i have 2 computers and all the printers do the same thing on both pcs. the computers are linked together through a linksys wireless system. i am at my wits end. can it be the computer? what about the usb cord, its the only common bond with all the printers. it wouldn't affect print quality would it. please any help.