You must have good technical knowledge to troubleshoot printer problems. Printer problems occur for many reasons. Some common printer problems include printer driver failure, poor printer quality, paper feed and output errors, fuzzy printing, paper jams, and missing or partial print jobs.
Printer Driver Problem
A printer driver is a program that acts as a mediator between the computer or its applications and the print device. A printer driver accepts instructions from the computer application and passes it to the printer. If there is a problem with the printer driver, the printer can stop printing or can print incorrectly.
Reasons for printer driver problems include:
A newly installed software package or program overwrites the printer driver files with incorrect driver files.
An update of the operating system corrupts the printer driver.
An incompatible version of the printer driver is installed in the operating system.
Note: If you connect a new printer to Windows XP Home via USB cable and Windows XP Home detects the device but still the printer is not working, the problem is probably due to the printer's driver not being installed.
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Note: If a printing problem occurs, always troubleshoot the most obvious issues first. Ensure that there is paper in the printer and that the printer is connected as a local printer or to a network. If a printing
problem persists, you should troubleshoot the print spooler and driver.
Paper Quality Problem
Print quality on paper largely depends on the toner or the cartridge. For example, if a laser print drum is scratched, your print job will have vertical lines. If this occurs, you should replace the toner cartridge. A new toner cartridge will produce acceptable print quality.
A laser printer that has the toner cartridge replaced may print documents that are smudged and smeared.
The smudged and smeared printing usually appears when a toner cartridge has been cleaned. To avoid this problem, after cleaning the toner cartridge, you should print a few test sheets to ensure that there is no excess toner.
Paper Feed and Output Problems
Paper feed and output problems normally occur with tractors and friction feed. The tractors, found on dot-matrix printers, adjust the paper on the printer. The tractors hold paper that has holes on both sides. If the paper is not adjusted properly, the tractor cannot push the paper through the printer properly. Uneven adjustment of the paper causes paper jam problems.
Dot-matrix printers use a platen, a rubberized roller to hold the paper in place and to help advance the continuous paper. A dot-matrix printer may print dark and clear on the left side of the paper, but print lighter colors on the right side of the paper. If the platen does not hold the paper evenly, the print will appear lighter as you move across the page. Adjusting the platen usually solves the problem.
Friction feeds are prone to humidity problems. Humidity can cause the paper to absorb moisture. When papers have moisture, they stick together resulting in more than one sheet being pushed into the assembly for printing. If the friction feeders are not clean, they can also force the rollers to pick up multiple sheets of paper, causing a paper jam.
Note: When a printer is not feeding paper properly due to excessive wear on the printer, you should first inspect the pickup roller of the printer.
Fuzzy Printing
Laser and inkjet printers can produce fuzzy printing. A laser printer produces fuzzy printing when the printer paper is damp. When the paper is damp, the toner is not able to fuse ink permanently onto the paper and the printed content will appear fuzzy.
When the toner is running low on ink, it tends to produce light-colored or fuzzy printing. This is also a symptom of damp paper. When a printer produces fuzzy printing, you should first try replacing the paper.
If that fails to correct the problem, then replace the toner.
The corona wire also needs to be cleaned occasionally. During a printing process, the corona wire collects toner. If the corona wire is not cleaned periodically, the printed content will appear faded.
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If a laser printer produces accurate images that smear easily, you should replace the fuser assembly. A laser printer's fuser contains two rollers, which use heat and pressure to fuse an image onto the paper.
You may need to replace a blown fuser assembly to resolve the problem.
Paper Jam Problem
Laser printers are more prone to paper jams. Paper jams commonly occur in the following places:
At the feeder. This indicates that the feeder wheel is worn out or needs immediate replacement.
This can also indicate that improper paper is being used, such as paper that is too thick or too thin.
You should ensure that the paper meets the recommendations of the printer manufacturer.
At the corona assembly. This usually occurs when the static eliminator strip or the transfer corona wire is damaged.
At the feed rollers. This usually occurs when one of the rollers is damaged. Defective feed rollers pick up multiple papers at once.
When a paper jam occurs in a laser printer, the display panel flashes a paper jam message. After fixing the component that caused the paper jam, you should open the printer cover and then close it. Opening and closing the printer cover removes the paper jam message from the display panel.
Missing or Partial Characters Printing
Problems related to missing or partial character printing typically occur in dot-matrix printers. A defective print head can cause a dot-matrix printer to print only partial characters. Dot-matrix printers use an array of pins to strike an inked printer ribbon that prints characters or generates images on the paper. The individual pins in the print head are controlled by electromagnets, which move the pins to form specific characters. The failure of some or all of the pins in the print head to move in response to the
electromagnetic force will have an obvious and immediate effect on the printer's ability to print specific characters.
A print head could also be misaligned in such a way that only the bottom half of its pins strike the printer ribbon. In such cases, the printer would render only partial characters, even if all components in the print head were functioning correctly. If possible, you should align the print head to the correct position or replace the print head with a new one.
Note: If an inkjet printer is printing documents that have a horizontal line missing, then you should first troubleshoot the print head to resolve the problem.
Common Scanner Problems
Scanner problems occur for many reasons, such as incorrect driver, power cable unplugged, and faulty scanner components.
To resolve scanner problems, you should adhere to the following guidelines:
Check that the cables are connected properly.
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Verify that scanner driver is properly installed in the computer.
Check the scanner components to ensure they are working properly. If a component is faulty, you must replace the component.
Recap
Most printers have the self-test capability, which allows them to test the printer functionality when a printer starts.
Before troubleshooting a printer problem, you should gather information about printer or scanner problems. This information helps to diagnose problems and troubleshoot efficiently.
You should use vendor-specific diagnostic utilities. Some vendors provide diagnostic tools or Web-based utilities to identify the cause of the problem.
You should define and isolate problems, whether it is a hardware problem or software problem.
If the printer is not printing color correctly or printing blurred documents, you should calibrate the printer.
Spooling is the process of loading files into a buffer until the printer is ready to print the files.
Some common printer problems include failed printer driver, poor print quality, paper feed and output errors, fuzzy printing, paper jam, and missing or partial printing.
A printer driver is a program that acts as a mediator between the computer application that creates the document and the print device.
Print quality on paper largely depends on the toner or the cartridge. A laser printer that has the toner cartridge replaced may print documents that are smudged and smeared.
Paper feed and output problems normally occur with the tractors and the friction feed. The tractors, found on dot-matrix printers, adjust the paper on the printer.
Friction feeds are prone to humidity problems. Humidity can cause the paper to absorb moisture.
Laser and inkjet printers can produce fuzzy printing. A laser printer causes fuzzy printing when the printer paper is damp.
If a laser printer produces accurate images that tend to smear easily, then you should replace the fuser assembly.
Missing or partial characters printing errors generally occur in dot-matrix printers. A defective print head can cause a dot-matrix printer to print only partial characters.
Scanner problems occur for many reasons such as incorrect driver, power cable unplugged, and faulty scanner components.
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