Troubleshoot The Most Common Printer Issues With This Guide

It can be really frustrating if your printer gets in the way of your work. Printers are an essential part of any corporate office. A printer that glitches frequently and sends error messages like ‘paper jam,’ ‘driver malfunctioning’ or prints really dull and discolored images of your documents can be a real hassle. Sometimes, the printer just goes silent and refuses to work. In such scenarios, being familiar with the basic printer troubleshooting stuff can help you resolve issues easily and get back to work in no time.

Printer troubleshooting methods may be slightly different for different brands and models but the general process and settings remain the same and knowing them can easily help you recover from any unforeseen problems. Usually you can access troubleshooting guides online and solve most of the issues, but you might need expert technical support and assistance in some cases. Let’s look at some common printer issues and ways of solving them.

• Paper jams and poor printing: This is one of the most common issues encountered while using any industry standard printer. When there is a paper jam, the printer sends a paper jam notification. Sometimes, the printer could send this message even if there is no actual paper jammed in the machine. This is called a ‘ghost jam’ and is usually caused due to mechanical glitches in the printer. Paper may have gotten stuck in the rollers or there might be bits of papers in the machine that may be causing the printer to flag these messages. Make sure to clean out your printer thoroughly and remove any bits of paper stuck in the printer. This way you will be able to fix the ‘ghost jam’ issue. You can also try flushing the printer with a clean paper to remove this error if you can find nothing stuck in the mechanical parts.

Your printer can also begin to print out unclear documents or extremely dark or light ink on paper. This may be due to malfunction in the ink/cartridge compartment or settings of your printer. Reset your printer settings to default or standard and also try replacing the ink cartridges.

• Outdated/corrupted printer drivers: Manufacturers release driver updates to remove any bugs or fix performance issues with devices. Outdated drivers can be a real issue and may stop your printer from functioning normally. To fix this, go to the website of your printer’s manufacturing company, search your model number and download the latest and updated drivers onto your PC. After you have installed them, give your printer a reboot and it will start working just fine.
• Printing queue error: In any corporate office, a single printer is connected over LAN (Local Area Network) to several computers. Multiple users can print on the same printer and several times this can lead to a long printing queue. The printer might start glitching at this point and may not clear the queue, print slowly or print the same document over and over again. In this scenario, you can simply open the printing queue and clear the items manually by canceling the print job or marking it done. You can also pause a time taking print of a large number of pages and resume it later after the queue is cleared.

Besides these common issues, your printer might show as ‘not connected,, may keep rebooting itself or simply refuse to print. All of these problems can be mostly sorted with a simple shutdown and reboot. You can also try checking if all the wires are intact and properly fitted with their sockets. Check the paper and cartridges in your printer everyday.

We hope this solves your critical issues related to printers and printing. For any other assistance you can call up a technical assistance for printer support. They will guide you through the required steps and put you back on your feet again in no time.