You must have experienced some problem or the other with your printer, especially if you have been using it for a long time. When you are using a printer to print something, sometimes the page comes out blank and sometimes it is totally black. Some other common problems with printers are paper jams, fading prints, printer not accepting the paper, etc. It is critical to diagnose and fix the printer problems and sometimes these problems can be fixed within few minutes. Learning few skills on how to fix a printer can help you fix the printer yourself.
Fixing a paper jam
- Paper jams occur in printers mainly because of dirt and the wrong paper type.
- In order to prevent these paper jams use a suitable quality of paper and clean the printer frequently.
- If you face the problem of paper jam with your printer then you need to remove the cartridge from the case such that you can remove the paper completely that got jammed.
- When you are done with removing the paper you can place the cartridge in place and use a suitable paper so that you don’t face this problem in future.
If the printer is developing blank papers
- Blank papers are obtained from the printer mainly due to the blocking of the holes or when there is no ink in the cartridge.
- To fix this problem check whether there is a sufficient amount of ink in the cartridge and the cartridge is clean enough.
- If there is no or less ink add ink to the cartridge, cleaning it previously with a dry lint free cloth.
- Sometimes the printer may print letters in fading ink. This happens because the printer is getting low toner or the print density is set too low. Examine these problems and fix them.
If printer is not accepting the paper
- This happens because of the improper paper sizes or dirt.
- If this problem occurs, go to the control panel in your PC and check in the printer properties to see whether the size of the paper matches the size of the paper in the paper try. If not replace the paper.
- If it matches, clean the cartridge and check whether the problem is fixed.
Fix ghosting
- Ghosting is a condition where the image is printed properly, but a lighter copy of the image is also printed somewhere else on the same paper.
- This occurs because of problem in power outlet that is supplying power to the printer. In this case check the connection of the printer. You can also check by plugging the power supply in another printer if possible and check if the same results are obtained.
- Change the power outlet to fix this problem.
- This problem may also occur because of the ending life of printer drum or imaging kit. Change these parts in this case.
If the printer is printing old print command
- This happens if you have selected some pages to print and before printing these pages you have shut down your PC or the printer.
- In this case the pages which were commanded to print previously get stored in the print spooler or printer buffer and get printed when you switch on your printer.
- To fix this problem go to your print spooler by clicking on the printer icon on your task bar and empty the spooler.
Unable to find a driver for an operating system
- This problem mainly occurs because all the printers do not come with inbuilt drivers for all operating systems.
- In this case select a proper driver and install it in your system. You can take help of a professional in this case.
Tips and warnings
- Before handling any major fixing tasks check whether the printer is plugged in properly.
- Go to the control panel, properties and check whether the printer is added and a correct printer is selected from the list.
- Check all the connections of your PC, CPU and printer.
- Check whether the printer is compatible with the version of operating system and other hardware devices.
- Turn off the computer and restart it once again to see whether the printer works properly now.
- Any other major problems which you are unable to fix should be handled by professionals.
- When you take your printer to the hardware stores for repairing, make sure that you give it to an authorized service center, otherwise there may be risk of replacing the original parts of the printer with the duplicate ones.
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