Printer Problems - How To Troubleshoot

Printer problems can be diverse. Finding the problem with a printer is the toughest part of the troubleshooting process because printers will not often give you a good explanation, despite having installed software on your machine and often having fancy LED screens on them.

Printers normally indicate if they are running low on ink or toner by a blinking or non green lit indicator lamp. You can always check this manually by opening up your printer and taking out the cartridge color that you have problems with. Printers are one of those devices we use everyday and never think about until there is a problem with it.

Troubleshooting Printer Problems
In this section, you'll find some of the more common problems that cause 45 percent of the help center phone calls. If nothing has occurred since the last time you used your printer, chances are the problem is quite straightforward. As obvious as it sounds, check to ensure that the printer is turned on. It is quite possible that somebody might have turned it off while you were away from your desk or computer. Make sure the printed is connected properly and there is power to the printer. All printers have some kind of LED that lets you know if it is powered up.

If the printer is turned on but has some flashing lights, then check with your owner's manual to see what the lights mean. Most of these indicators will be related either to paper, ink, or toner.

Make sure there is enough paper in the printer. Refill the paper tray if it's empty. Make sure you ‘fan' the paper stack before putting it in the printer. When the paper stack is cut and packed at the factory, it sometimes causes the pages to stick together. Fanning the paper simply involves flipping through the paper stack with your thumb. This ruffling separates the paper, thereby reducing paper jams.

If the paper is stacked well, then check for a mis-feed or paper jam. Remove the paper stack and check the feed area for jammed paper. You may have to open several panels to make a thorough examination. Even a small piece of paper stuck inside the printer can cause problems. You might have to use tweezers to remove small pieces. Be careful of any contact of the tweezers with printer parts to avoid any damage.

If everything listed above is in place, then check the wire that connects the printer to the computer. You may be using a parallel or a USB connection. Make sure the cable is connected properly. Turn the equipment off and remove and re-insert the connection on both the printer and the computer to ensure a solid connection. If you are at work and your printer is connected to what appears to be a telephone wire, then you should call your resident network expert.

If the printer is functioning but only seems to print illegible garbage, then that is a good indication of a printer driver problem. Try re-booting the computer and turning the printer off and on before making any changes to the driver. If after re-booting you still have the problem, it's probably time to replace the printer driver. You can download the driver from the website URLs listed earlier in this articles. Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer to install your driver.
Scanner can also sometimes interfere with printers. Try re-installing the software for both but install the printer driver first, and the scanner driver afterwards.

If nothing listed above results in a solution, then perhaps it might be time to call the printer manufacturer. Make sure that you are near the printer when you call and have all your warranty information available at hand.

Printers are usually connected by either USB cable or a specially designed printer cable that is color-coded. If your printer is connected to a network in your office or home, make sure that the LAN cable (the one that looks like a telephone wire) is properly connected.

Printers jam for any number of reasons, including dirt in the paper path, the wrong type of paper being used, or worn printer rollers. Keeping printer components clean can prevent paper jam problems, but roller replacement may also be necessary, and this can be a difficult job depending on the model of HP printer.

Printers with embedded web servers and hard disks can provide access to the printer driver installer through the printer's embedded web server. However, when the installer program is run from the printer, the installer program still searches for all printers of the selected type, since it does not know which printer it was run from. Print a file to make certain that everything works. If you encounter any problems, use this site's advice on troubleshooting printing under Windows . Printer drivers are easy to find and install and are your secret weapon against diminishing print quality over the life of your printer.