Printer Troubleshooting Basics

Posted on: September 8th, 2010

With the advent of cheap inkjet printers almost every computer today has one or more printers connected to it. And just as with any device there could be problems with them. I’ll try to write down the most basic things one can do to make the printer work when it stops.

In order to troubleshoot something it’s worthwhile to know how the system works. It’s no different in case of printers. The systems of printing developed very early on and has not changed much, fortunately.

When you print something out a piece of software translates the graphics and text into the language of the printer. This translation doesn’t usually go directly to the printer but gets saved in a temporary file, from where it’s fed to the printer at a rate that it can handle. This process is called “spooling”. It was developed in order to prevent the printing process from hanging up the computer. With spooling you can print your document, picture, etc and the code for the printer is generated and saved in a relatively short period of time (usually a few seconds) – then you can go on with your business, the document is getting printed out in the background.

You can also send a number of print jobs in a quick succession to the printer. These will line up in a “queue” meaning that once the currently printing one will finish then the next in line will start printing. “Queue” is a term that you should know when troubleshooting printing problems.

Now, that you have an idea of how the process goes, let me give you some tips for different situations:

- Most common that you send something to the printer and then seemingly nothing happens. Here’s what you can do then:

Check if a little printer icon pops up in the bottom right corner. That indicates that the computer could not send one or more jobs to the printer and they are waiting in the queue. By clicking (or double-clicking) on that icon you’ll get the list of jobs waiting to be printed. If you can’t find that icon then you can go through a different route: Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes -> double click on the printer. I usually, at this point, just clean the whole thing out. That you can do by selecting “Cancel All documents” from the printer menu.
While you have the Queue open then check to make sure that there are no check marks next to “Pause Printing” or “Use Printer Offline”. Both these could stop the print jobs to be sent to the printer. The paused, or offline status is also visible in the print queue window’s header (see picture).
Check the printer connections. If you are using a USB cable then make sure that it’s firmly plugged in to both the computer and the printer, the same applies to the wired network printers. In case of wireless connections there’s usually an indicator light showing whether the wireless connection is working well, or not.
Look at the status lights and/or display of the printer. Make sure it’s not indicating an error, such as stuck paper, out of ink, etc.
If you verified the above then try printing again. Chances are it will work now. If not then it’s a more complicated case that requires a professional.

- You print something out and the printer goes through the motions but all you get is blank pages. Or you get only color, or only black printing.

This is an indication of dried in ink. If you haven’t used your printer for an extended period of time, or the print head protection mechanism is not working well then the tiny holes where usually the ink comes out can get clogged up by the dried up ink. The only thing that can be done in this case is to get new cartridges, or if your printer has a separate printing head where the ink-tanks fit in then you’d need to replace the printing head.
Note: I’ve tried several time, without any success, cleaning out the clogged holes using various solvents.
Sometimes this happens with refilled cartridges. The cartridge can be full to the brim but if the holes are clogged nothing will come out. If you just put in a refilled cartridge and get no printing then bring it back, they obviously didn’t test the cartridge after refilling it.

- You get faded or missing lines in the printout.

This is a very similar issue to the above. In this case only some of the holes are clogged which creates repeating faded, or missing lines in the printout. The fix is the same as above.

- You have an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax. You can print but can’t scan.

This problem is almost always a software problem. It’s possible that not all the necessary software is installed, or some settings got messed up. By far the worst software comes with newer HP printers. With them this issue is quite a commonplace and fixing it is many times next to impossible, unless you are willing to reinstall every piece of software on your computer. For that reason I recommend people to stay away from HP all-in-ones. I have not experienced such difficulties with Canon, Epson or even the cheaper Brother brand.

- The printer makes strange noises during start-up, or displays an error message and does not work.

That is basically the “swan song” of the printer. You can check that maybe a paper clip or other foreign particle stuck somewhere but usually it’s just a mechanical and electronic failure in the printer. Because they are hardly ever repairable (or worth repairing) you’d need to invest in a new printer.

Printer Repairs, Recycling

I get questions about this from time to time. The sad fact is that the printer manufacturing industry uses a business model where they sell the printers cheaper than the the cost of manufacturing and then make the profit on the cartridges and other consumable items (photopaper for example). This makes repairing printers outside of warranty period a non-profitable proposition: who would pay $150 for a repair when he can get a new one for $75. Therefore if the printer breaks down and it’s no longer covered by warranty then you’d just need to look for a new printer.

The old printer should preferably be recycled and not mixed with other household waste. We have been looking for a recycle place to refer people to, recently we contacted DAO Recycling which seems to be a good choice and can handle electronic waste free of charge. Their website is: www.applianceremovers.com Please give us feedback on this as we would like to make sure that we refer people to companies who give good service.

Summary

Printers have become a usual accessory to computers and they also have become cheap enough that all computer users can afford it.

Most printer issues can be more or less easily resolved and the tips above can give you guidelines to that. Unfortunately, there are cases when you’d need to say goodbye to your printer and invest in a new one.

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