Diagnose and solve printer problems

Inkjet printers produce superb results and are very reliable, but like every other product of human ingenuity they can go wrong. Sometimes the problems are electrical or mechanical, but more often they’re attributable to a dodgy host computer or problems with Windows and its installed software.

In this article we show you how to fix many common printing problems including scrambled text, poor picture quality and the inability to print anything at all. Many of the techniques can also be applied to laser and dye sublimation printers.

You don’t need any special tools or previous experience to follow our advice: it’s a simple matter of conducting checks in a logical sequence, as described below.

Your printer won't print
Before looking at what causes unsatisfactory printouts, there is a host of problems that can stop a printer working at all, so let’s examine why a printer might fail to respond to print commands issued from within Windows programs.

The obvious one is that the printer is not switched on or not properly connected to the computer. If it is, there will be at least one light illuminated on its control panel; sometimes more.

If any of the indicator lights are flashing, this usually indicates an error, and here is where you will need the printer’s manual to work out what the problem is.

If you have lost the printed version of the manual, visit the manufacturer’s website and follow the links to the printer’s support pages where there is sure to be a PDF version you can download.

The two most likely error conditions are that the printer is out of paper or that one of its ink cartridges (or toner units in the case of a laser printer) is empty.

Before stocking up on paper, ensure that the problem isn’t a paper jam inside the printer because this often leads to the same error message as having no paper at all. To remove jammed paper, open the printer and ease out the offending paper in the direction of its travel.

Never force jammed paper by pulling it out because you run the risk of damaging the feed mechanism or tearing the paper, leaving hard-to-reach paper fragments inside.

If the ink or toner cartridges are empty, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for replacing them, or in the case of laser toner cartridges try shaking them gently from side to side because sometimes the toner clumps at the ends of the cartridges and can be loosened by shaking.

When you are sure that both paper and ink or toner are correctly installed, switch off the printer and wait for a few seconds to flush the printer’s memory, and then switch on again and try printing from Windows.

If there is still no response, it’s time to dig deeper and find out whether the problem is with the printer, the computer or the cable connecting the two.