5 Most Common Printer Problems

As we have constantly been mentioning in our blogs, the printer has become a part of most people's daily routine. Try to conduct a survey among friends and relatives and ask them how often do they use the printer. You'd probably be surprised that they use their printers everyday. This is how indispensable a printer has become. Because of the important role that printers play in our lives, it is inevitable for some people to get really annoyed when their printers start “acting up”. Color Toner Expert gathers five of the most common “printer glitches” and the possible solutions on how to deal with them.

1. Slow printing

Imagine your printer printing so slow just when you’re in a hurry. How annoying it can get! before you bang your printer on the wall, take a deep breath and see what you can do to help your printer perform its job faster. There are several ways to improve the performance of your printer. The most common and easiest thing to do is to change the print mode. You can switch the print mode from Normal (which is the default print mode) to Fast Draft. In this way, you do not only quicken the printing process but you also save up on your ink or toner. Changing the print mode from Normal to Fast Draft, however, reduces the print quality.

The second suggestion is to print texts only or print only those that you really need. If there is no need to print in full color, do your prints in black. Printing images and graphics may take time (and ink or toner) so it is best to select the print area or to edit what you are going to print. Remove all graphics and texts that you do not need to make printing faster.

There is also the option to add a RAM to your printer. Technically, printing slows down when the memory is low or almost full since the transfer of command is slowed down by the processing of other information. Adding RAM adds up to the memory capacity so the printer can do “multi-tasking” and perform its printing job more efficiently and more quickly.

2. Ink or toner costs a lot.

A lot has already been written, discussed and posted about the costs and prices of inks and toners. The most common suggestion for this problem is to consider using compatible or remanufactured inks and toners. These can help you save as much as 50%.

However, some companies or businesses would not want to take the risk of sacrificing print quality by using compatible or remanufactured inks and toners. So they will still go for OEM inks and toners. If this is the case then it is recommended that they either go for premium compatible inks and toners or consider buying printer cartridges that have higher capacity or yield. For example, in most printing businesses, they make use of ink cartridges that have at least 250-page yield or toner cartridges that have about 2,000-page yield.

3. Print jobs are sent to the wrong printer.

This frequently happens when there are more than one printer installed in your computer. It may also happen when an update or upgrade of the operating system (e.g. upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7) causes some changes in the default settings of your existing system so that another printer is set as default.

The solution to this is quite easy. If you have installed more than one printer in your computer, choose the printer that you use most often as your default printer. In this way, you do not have to switch printers in the Print menu if you have to print something. You can set a particular printer as default by clicking on Start, then going to Devices and Printers. Under the Printers and Faxes, right click on the printer that you want to set as default and select Default.

You may also select the printer you want to use for printing in the print option or menu of the application that you are using. For example, if you want to print a document through MS Word, click on File then Print. Click the drop-down menu beside the Name slot and select the printer you want to use.

4. Printouts are too light, have blots or spots or have horizontal lines.

If you have problems on print quality, it is very likely that the print head of your printer is clogged and needs some cleaning. This problem occurs more frequently in inkjet printers because the residue from the liquid ink tends to accumulate and dry up in the print head. Most of the printer drivers and utility software today have options for cleaning and maintenance. Running Clean or Deep Clean in the Maintenance menu of your printer utility software will clean out the dried ink on the print head.

If this problem persists, try replacing your ink or toner cartridge. The cartridge that you are using right now may have some leaks or spills or may not be properly sealed so that it results to blots and spots on your printouts. Also, the ink in the cartridge may have dried up already or the consistency of the ink may not be very good, thus, resulting to the horizontal blank lines or too light prints on your printouts.

5. Printer (or computer) flashes ink cartridge empty notice.

This notice may be accurate or not. It can be accurate because the notice flashes once the system detects that the ink or toner in the cartridge has fallen below a certain level. Since it is not advisable to completely use up all the ink or toner in the cartridge, the notice may flash even if ink or toner cartridge is not yet empty.

The flashing of this notice may also be inaccurate because the out-of-ink messages from printers can be unreliable at times. If an out-of-ink message appears often and you know that it is not reliable, you may tinker with the ink cartridge controls to reset the ink cartridges.