Imagine you are about to complete your work after working for the whole day, you just need to get some documents printed then you can go home. You reach the printer and suddenly it stops working. Isn’t it frustrating? Streaky lines across the images, faded texts or unresponsive printer are just enough for you to make you surrender but now you don’t have to, at least not always. There are a wide range of printers problems and some of them can be easily solved by anyone.
To make your printer cooperate with your work and save your time, here are a list of common printer problems and how to solve them easily.
1. Printer won’t print
Facing this problem, first if there are any error messages, if there aren’t, you must check that your printer is totally connected via USB or Ethernet cable and if it is a wireless model then check I the WiFi is enabled and it’s connected with the right network. There is a need of printer driver and software installed on the computer you are trying printing from. There could also be chances that the driver is corrupted, in that case you must reinstall the latest version from the manufacturer’s download page.
2. Bad quality print
If you are getting really bad printing quality or the texts are being lousy, then first you should ensure your print settings are correct. If you’re in draft mode, switch to higher quality mode (though it will slow down your printing). The paper you are using plays an important role in the quality of the print. The printing on photo paper faces more problems than normal paper. But to resolve such issues you must make sure that the paper type listed on screen matches what you’re printing on as it also means to choose the appropriate printing for your paper.
3. Printer won’t print from Mobile.
There are different features in different computers, so to handle the situation you must know about your printer as the new WiFi printers supports AirPrint which is mainly for iOS users. Almost all printer manufacturers have released apps for Apple, Andriod or sometimes Windows phone and Blackberry users can print from their mobiles and along with this, there are some third party apps which also provide advanced features to print from your phone.
For a non-WiFi printer your network needs a wireless access point which you can make by one of the programs where you install a utility on the networked computer. Cloud computing services like Cortado ThinPrint cloud Printer and Google Cloud Printer works with various platforms and with non-WiFi printers also.
Some new wireless printers also support printing via WiFi Direct which let’s two compatible devices make a direct wireless connection.
4. Wi-Fi printing takes too long.
Placing your printer very close to your router should increase throughput and reduce printing time, but there are other ways to improve Wi-Fi performance while retaining the flexibility of printer placement that wireless printing promises. Be sure your router is adequate—it should support 802.11n and offer the 5GHz band as well as 2.4 GHz—and that its firmware is up to date. You could add a wireless extender or a repeater to increase performance if need be.
5. Very slow Printing speed
The inkjet printers take long time in ink drying and laser printers also have issues but there are things you can do to increase the printing speed.
If you are using the draft quality for detailed photos, it will result in delay and quality issues if you do hurry. The lesser the standard of print quality that faster the print. Moreover you are printing on both sides of the paper, then the printer also needs time to flip over the paper. So I’d you want faster printing, keep the printing setting simple.
6. Printing is too expensive
With the growth of technology, cost per print has declined significantly but its still high for those who use printers daily. There are some ways you can cut your printing costs.
Ask yourself before printing, do you need the full document or just some pages? Only print pages you need. Moreover printing in draft mode if you don’t need very high quality presentation as it uses less ink. Using duplex printing will also cut costs by saving paper.
When you buy a printer, first check its running costs. Mostly the more you pay front for a printer, the less it’s running costs will be so invest in a higher-end printer.
One more way to cut costs would be to use third-party inks as they are cheaper than manufacturer’s branded ink but they may also cause degraded print quality.
7. Too many paper jams
Papers jams have reduced with years passing but they still occur a lot. The main culprit for it is paper misalignment, so you must square off the stack of paper before inserting it in the tray. There could be other issues like overfilled paper tray or loose foreign objects in printer. So just try fanning the stack of paper to remove dust and re-insert while making sure that the guides flush with the paper and in case of thicker paper, you must feed each sheet into the printer.
8. Slow WiFi Printing
If your printer works well and speed is also great when connected via USB but when it comes to wireless printing it upset you with its tortoise speed, then maybe your printer is not the culprit. Try moving your printer and router as your printer will fasten if placed close to the router. Along with this there are other ways to improve Wi-Fi printing speed if moving the router does not work. Make sure that the router is well-equipped and supports 802.11n and offer the 5GHz band as well as 2.4 GHz and it has an up-to-date firmware in order to enhance speed. And a simple technique of switching to a wired connection and then back to wireless may also work sometimes.
9. Printer claims it’s out of ink but still printing well
Nowadays, printers provide the feature of low-ink warning as they have some kind of ink tank level indicator but their accuracy varies with models and manufacturers of printers. But still, there are chances that you get low ink warning but printer is still printing. The most simple way to it is to continue printing beyond the warning and check how long it takes for the output quality to degrade because of low link. Then you will realize whether the warning are legit or premature and will also get an idea for how long to wait beyond the warning to change the ink.
10. Multi-function Printer stops scanning
If you multi-function printer with the convenient feature of scanning stops providing the feature then maybe the scanner software is corrupted. In that case, the first thing you should do is to reinstall the printing software package and check if it started working. It that fails, go through the user manual’s troubleshooting section and also look at the specific model at the manufacturer website online. There could also be a hardware issue that may cause it which needs to be taken care of.
Every printer faces flaws and there are a lot of times when the users can just resolve it without external assistance. But if any of the techniques mentioned above do not work for your printer, then maybe there is some serious issue which needs to be taken care of or the printer is overused and much beyond its lifespan. In that case, you need to get it replaced with a new printer.
