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5 Steps to Troubleshooting Printer Troubles

July 30, 2013 by The T By D Team Leave a Comment

Dear Geek,

My printer suddenly stopped working.  I’m not sure if my printer’s calved, or if it’s a problem with my computer.  How can I tell?

Signed,

Calving

Dear Calving,

When you need a printer and it calves on you, it can put you into panic mode.  Especially since most people do all their editing on-screen, and wait to print until the last minute!

1.  The first step to solving this riddle, is to print a test page directly on the printer.  You can print an internal test page on most newer printers, by navigating through the menu system on the digital display (usually found under “Utilities”).

If your printer has this option, and you are unable to print the test page, the printer may be broken.  Then it’s either time to contact the manufacturer (if it’s under warrantee), or buy a new one.

2.  If you are able to print a test page, open up Windows’ “Printer dialog box” and print a test page from there.  This will tell you if there is a problem with communication between the computer and printer.  In Windows 7:  Click “Start”, select “Control Panel”, choose “Hardware And Sound”, and click “Printer”.  Right-click the specific printer that’s giving you problems, and click “Properties”.  Choose the “General” tab, and select “Print Test Page”.  In Windows 8:  Move the cursor to “Charms” bar, select “Search”, and click “Control Panel”.  Navigate the drop-down menu and select “View Device and Printers”.  Right-click the specific printer, and select “Printer Properties”, and click “Print Test Page”.

If the printer prints a test page, it indicates that the application (program) that you initially tried to print from, may be configured to use a different printer than you set up in Windows.

3.  If you change the printer in the specific program, and the printer still doesn’t respond, open up the “print queue dialog box”  that appears in the “Windows System Tray (located in the bottom right), to see if Windows can provide some reason for the problem.  It may tell you that a previous print job may paused, and preventing your job from printing.  Right-click the print job, select “Cancel Print Job” until your test print is at the top of the queue.  If the document fails to print, Windows should generate an error message (eg. “Windows Cannot Connect To The Printer”), which may help you determine the the cause of the problem.

4.  If the test page won’t print, it’s likely that, for some reason, you computer and printer are both working, but aren’t communicating with each other.  Check your cables or wireless connection.

5.  Last ditch effort:  Uninstall, then re-install, the printer in order to fix the problem.  Hopefully you still have the printer installation disks.  If not, you can usually go online to the manufacturer’s website and find the install software there.

Happy Printing!

If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to:  geek@tbyd.ca.  We’ll translate it from Geek-lish to English, so it actually helps!

Filed Under: FAQ, Featured

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