Printers are essential, especially for businesses and institutions. The technology of printers has long replaced typewriters and now serves as a necessity for institutions for all their printed documents.
Printer problems can be much of a hassle especially when a deadline is approaching. But first of all, you have to familiarize yourself with a few jargons and parts of the printer to be able to troubleshoot it perfectly. A brief background will help.
Printers can make use either a parallel port or a USB port. It needs a driver installed on the operating system so that the OS could manipulate and execute printing tasks. When you give the command to your word processor to print the document, the printer acquires the data of the file, caches it, and tries to read it before putting the ink on the paper. When the printer has acquired the data, even if you disconnect it from the computer, it will continue to print the last job – that is if you have not deleted or cancelled the task.
After learning some background, you can try to troubleshoot it. Here’s how:
• Diagnose the problem. Some printers come with diagnostic software to check for errors. If the printer is not accompanied by such software, its manual may help. If you find the manual’s instruction for the problem, follow it.
• Check all your cables. See to it that it is connected to the proper port and it receives the proper amount of voltage it requires.
• Inspect if your driver is working properly. Go to your manufacturer’s website and check if there are updates in your driver. Get the latest one. If you already have it, uninstall the current driver and install the newer one. If the driver you have is up-to-date, try reinstalling it.
If these steps do not work, contact your manufacturer (especially if you still have your printer under warranty) and have it repaired. Otherwise, replace it.
