Common Printer Problems And How You Can Fix Them With Basic Troubleshooting!

 Printer Problems

You come into work from the long weekend, prepared and ready to present. The only thing left to do is print your documents. You pull up the presentation, press Ctrl+P, and nothing happens…your printer has stopped working. Now what?

When your office printer won’t print, there are numerous possibilities as to why it has stopped working. As simple as this sounds, let’s start with the basics, like:

• Ensure there is paper loaded in the tray
• Ensure the ink cartridges aren’t empty
• Ensure the USB cable is properly plugged in
• Ensure that the printer is connected to the Wi-Fi

Pile of Failed Print Jobs

You have probably tried printing the same document multiple times, which have all failed. We are all guilty of this–keep pressing “print” hoping that the next job will go through. In reality, if you keep attempting to print a failed print job, your computer will pile up on failed print jobs causing both your computer and printer to malfunction. Before you can try troubleshooting, you will need to clean out all of the failed jobs.

• Windows Vista

1. Open the Printers Menu: Start Button > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Printers
2. Right- Click on your default printer
3. Click Cancel All Documents, which will cancel all print jobs

• Windows XP

1. Open the Start Menu > Printers and Faxes
2. Right- Click on your default printer
3. Click Cancel All Documents, which will cancel all print jobs

• Windows 8

1. Open the Start Menu > Devices and Printers
2. Right- Click on your default printer
3. Click See What’s Printing
4. In here, you can manage your individual jobs

• Apple’s Safari

1. Click on the printer icon located near the trash can
2. Once the printer dialogue box opens, click on each of the print jobs and click “Cancel” at the top of the dialogue box

Driver Software

If you are not a technical person (like me), you will have no clue why your printer stopped working. Have you ever heard of a driver? Well, actually many complicated printer issues (i.e., Java has been updated or the wrong driver was installed, or the driver was improperly installed) can be resolved by simply re-installing your printer’s driver.

1. Delete all pending print jobs from your computer
2. Delete the first Star TSP driver that was installed:
   • For PCs using Windows
     1. Follow this menu path: Start menu > Control Panel > Printers.
     2. Right-click on the ‘Star TSP’ icon and delete it.
   • For The Apple Users
     1. Open Print Center (/Applications/Utilities/).
     2. The Printer List window will appear.
     3. Select the Star TSP printer.
     4. Click Delete.
3. To re-install your Star TSP printer:
   • Under the Hardware category, click on the section Printers (PC) or Printers (Apple) to select the type of operating system your printer is connected to.
   • Select the printer installation instructions that you need.
   • Under the installation “how-to”, follow the instructions under the “Installing Printer Drivers section.”

Here are some basic (and I mean basic!) troubleshooting steps:

Make sure that the printer is plugged into the computer/network: If this printer is plugged in, turn the printer off and then on–sometimes the printer may just need to be restarted

Check/reinstall your firewall: Sometimes when you install a new firewall, the printer won’t work. If this is the case, shut down your firewall and try to print the document. If the document prints, you will need to reinstall your firewall.

Reinstall the printer: If the firewall is not the problem, you will have to reinstall the printer:

1. Remove all of the printers, completely. Do this by going into the control panel, going to the printers section, and delete all of the printers.
2. After you have deleted all of the printers, you can easily reinstall the printer by using the CD that came with the printer.
3. If you do not have a CD, you will have to go find the model name and printer number on the manufacture’s website to look up the drivers. (These websites typically have owner’s manuals for a specific printer in case you need to reference those). You will need to download and install these drivers to each computer that you are using, whether the printer is directly connected to it or to the router.

When printers stop working, it can be frustrating. Especially when you have to stop what you’re working on to put on your printer troubleshooting hat. Unless you have a dedicated IT team member or staff, you should not have to worry about fixing your printer; that is what Teltek is for! Let Teltek manage your printers and copiers through our Managed Print Solution. Call us at 1.866.9.TELTEK to learn more, or visit our website! We look forward to hearing from you!

Teltek is a Certified Avaya Business Partner, NEC Dealer, Zultys, and Microsoft Partner with two locations in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. We specialize in providing one call technology support for small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Pennsylvania.