How to fix printer common problems

Printer problems consistently cover the worst period. Below are several methods to restore and start the printer when printing from a PC, tablet or phone.
Printers are great if they work, but if they don’t, it can be extremely frustrating. Here’s how to fix some of the most common problems, such as blocked nozzles not printing and other problems.

Printers can run reliably for long periods and thousands of prints, but they can also malfunction or stop working altogether.

Sometimes a theme is as simple as over or under use. Many people do not use their inkjet printers often enough, which can cause ink drying problems to clog the nozzles. Abuse is less common than abuse: newspaper clips, hair bands, and food can collapse into printers and lead to paper jams (and worse).

If your printer cannot be repaired following these suggestions, see our list of the best printers to buy as well as the best printer deals right now.

My printer does not print

There are many reasons why your printer won’t print, so start with the basics like checking to see if your printer has an error message or a warning light. Make sure there is paper in the trays, check that the toner or ink cartridges are not empty, the USB cable is connected, or the printer is directly connected to Wi-Fi.

Also Read:- my epson printer won’t print

And if it’s a wireless or network printer, consider using a USB cable. In our experience, some Wi-Fi printers are somewhat unreliable in terms of their connection. So it’s a good idea to unplug the printer along with a few other Powerline network adapters it is connected to, and then turn it over.

Choose the perfect printer!
Sometimes the reason a printer won’t print is because you have installed software that has a “virtual” printer and it sets itself as the default option. When you click Publish, the document will be saved to that digital printer, and no record will be sent to the physical printer.

To check this, run the Control Panel from the Start menu. Then go to Devices and Printers, right-click on the appropriate printer you want to use and set it as the default option. (It can also be guaranteed on site that the printer item is set to Ready. Otherwise, it may cause the problem).

Next, make sure the correct printer is selected in the program you are printing from — you need to see the selection option from the list in the image below.

Microsoft has a printing troubleshooter that can help you identify problems. Just click the Repair button and run the application, then follow the wizard.

You can even launch Control Panel, Devices and Printers, right-click the printer icon, and then select Troubleshooting. It doesn’t always help, but it’s worth a try.

HP has a Scan and Print Doctor to spot problems and Canon has many videos on their site — click on your printer version and click the Fix Videos Problems link.

Why can’t I post from my phone or tablet?

To publish from an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, the printer should have Wi-Fi and support AirPrint. The list of AirPrint printers is growing, however, there are still many printers, especially older models that don’t support it.

If you have a Mac with a connected printer, you can turn it into an AirPrint printer using HandyPrint. Printer Guru is a program for iOS devices that allows them to publish to multiple wireless printers or a wired mouse connected to a PC or Mac.

Some Samsung mobile phones, printers, and tablets are designed to work together, and printing is simple. Samsung also provides its own program for printing to its printers, for example from iPhones.

To publish from any Android cell phone or tablet to a printer connected to your computer, you can use Google Cloud Print.

Install Cloud Print on your mobile device from the Google Play Store. Then, in Google Chrome on your computer, go to the menu, click Settings, click Advanced Settings and click Manage. Then you can add a printer connected to your computer. Provided your computer and printer have been swapped, you can print your Android device.

Do I want to replace the capsules?

Printers warn that ink is running out until it really happens. If you only publish occasionally, the ink or tonight will be weeks or even months.

Order new cartridges every time the material comes out, but don’t install them because the printing stops or the colors fade. A suggestion for laser printers would be to remove the working cartridge and gently shake it from side to side. Sometimes this allows the rest of the toner to be used up. In other cases, a counter is used and the capsule is considered empty when the specified number of pages is published.

HP has an intriguing flow chart with multiple proprietary printers where you pay monthly and capsules automatically arrive at the perfect time.

If the color ink has run out but you need to continue printing, you may be able to position your printer to print only in white and black. This could be a setting you’ll discover in the printer properties in Control Panel — or click the option when you start publishing through the app you want to publish from.

Why are webpages, excel files, and photos not printing correctly?

websites
Web pages can be almost any size and are not limited by the height or width of the paper in the printer. They are usually not intended for publication, which explains why you might have problems.

Always choose Print Preview to see what you get. For example, you may not need all the pages if there are a lot of comments or ads, so when printing, use the selection to select pages to publish, for example 2–4 to publish pages 2 to 4. Choose the horizontal style if the web page is quite extensive.

It’s not uncommon to find a reduce to fit option found in printer setups, which helps if your document or photo is a little too big to fit on a page. Some sites, such as those with printable coupons, have a publish button inside the page. Use this instead of your browser’s print menu.

Office files
If you are trying to publish an Excel worksheet, select only the cells you want to publish before clicking Publish. You can then choose “Print Selection” and change other options to make sure it fits well on an A4 sheet. You can do everything else, such as reducing the size of these margins and changing the orientation from landscape to portrait.

Likewise, when printing a Word or other file, you can normally specify which pages to publish so that you don’t have to publish them all.

Pictures and pictures
For photos or graphics you want to publish, it’s usually better to right-click them in Windows Explorer and click Publish. This way you can choose how big each photo should be printed.

If you select several photos in a folder and then click and select Print, you’ll be able to publish them all at once, on one sheet of newspaper (you’ll also be able to select a paper size too). This is comparable to the ‘n-up’ alternative you’ll see in Printing Properties, which allows you to print multiple pages of a file on a single A4 sheet.

Why is my printer showing an ‘Error’ message?

There are several possible reasons, but the most common is the newspaper. The first thing to investigate is if the input is empty, but it’s also worth checking the account for pieces of paper. If you do find one, try to figure out why this is happening, instead of just taking a crumpled piece of paper out of the menu and supposing you fixed it.

Take the paper from the menu, activate each flap and look inside. You may need a flashlight to find a newspaper and extended tweezers to accomplish this, especially if it’s just a very modest piece that has been broken and abandoned in the room.

Look under the printer as there may be an input panel that you can eliminate to analyze and clean the paper feed mechanism.

Old paper can absorb moisture, causing it to stick together and be pulled over two or more sheets at a time. Keep it in your bag until necessary. Watch Canon’s tracking videos to learn how to get rid of scraps of paper that are stuck in your legumes.

Also consider using thinner paper: many home printers can handle up to picture paper. They usually cannot print cards because it is too stiff to feed at corners.

What is bad print quality?

The nozzles on the inkjet printheads can become clogged, causing flat stripes in printouts and poorer or incorrect colors. Repairing the printheads may fix the problem. The process varies by printer, and there may be an option in the printer’s control panel or in printer applications on your computer.

You may have to check it in the guide. You can find the maintenance section in the printer properties (in the program or in the Windows Control Panel).

Click on it and you can clean the printheads or align. Head cleaning kits are readily available for around £ 10 from Amazon, although you should compare them to the price of a brand new cartridge — there’s no guarantee a cleaning kit will solve the problem.

The type of newspaper affects the print quality and the copier paper can fail you.

It may be excessively absorbent and the inkjet ink is absorbed into it, for example with tissue paper. Buy some decent, excellent paper to get the best prints, and it’s usually from your printer manufacturer, especially for photo printing.

Laser printers are slightly less dependent on newspapers, and smudges or smudges in the exact same area on each page usually suggest that there is dirt somewhere in the printer, usually around the “drum”.