Troubleshooting Common Printer Problems

Two Kinds of Printers: Networked and Attached Printers

There are two kinds of printers on campus. Attached printers are those that are directly connected to a single computer. Networked printers are available for use by many users working from many different computers on the network. Print job requests for a particular networked printer are sent to a print queue on the printers.kenyon.edu server.


If an attached printer won't print, here are some preliminary things to check:

• Check to see that the printer is powered on.
  
  
• Make sure that the printer cable between printer and computer isn't loose.
  
  
• If both computer and printer are on but computer can't find the printer: Turn both devices off and wait 20 seconds. Power printer back on first and then power on the computer.
  
  
• If, after all of the above, the computer still can't find the printer, the drivers may have become corrupted and need to be re-installed. Call the dept. liaison for this.
  
  
• If the computer can find the printer but it still won't print, check the local print queue screen in the software(Word or WP, for example). A print job may be stuck in the local print queue and deleting it from the queue may help.

If a networked printer won't print: here are some preliminary things to check:

• Check to see that the printer is powered on and the network cable is properly connected to both the printer and the wall jack.
  
  
• Check the network print queue to see if any jobs have become stuck. Clear them if necessary (instructions for doing this are given in the next section).
  
  
• Try sending a test print job to see if the printer is working.
  
  
• If you get a "printer unavailable" error message when trying to view a print queue, the printer server may be down.
  
  
• If the print queue appears to be available and a test job causes a "printer busy or error" message, try to ping the printer's IP address to see if it is still communicating with the network. The printer may need to be recycled to reestablish its connection.

Solving common printer problems

There are a few common problems that account for the vast majority of printer problems, and can be solved without expensive trips to your local PC store offering support. Whilst the problems appear simple, they are so often overlooked.


Printer Cables

One of the most common problems people have with printers is simply that the printer is not connected properly to the PC. With older style parallel cables they could be screwed and clipped in at both ends, but modern printers are now usually connected with a USB cable.
Unfortunately one downside to USB cables is that they can become unplugged very easily. Catching the cable with your foot, or moving the pc, or even tugging on a different cable, such as the mouse, can cause the USB cable to become unplugged.
Check that both ends of the cable are firmly in place, and also make sure you are checking the correct cable. If the cable is not plugged in correctly you may get printer offline error messages whenever you try to print.


Power Lead

Just like USB cables, the power lead can become easily dislodged. Especially those that use an external power brick, and just plug in with a small connector. Make sure it is plugged in correctly, and power is getting through.
Usually whenever you connect the power to a printer, it should after a few seconds start making a noise and it performs a quick self test. If if doesn't make a noise, make sure the power lead in plugged in at both ends correctly and turned on. Check if there is a separate power switch on the socket or printer.


Blank Pages

If your printer is turning out blank pages whenever you print, then if you are using an inkjet printer, the print head could be dried up, or you may be out of ink.
Once the ink cartridge is opened and installed, the ink can start drying out. If you only print infrequently, every few weeks, then it is easy for the print head to become dried out, stopping any ink from getting onto your paper. Try installing a fresh ink cartridge, and see if that solves the problem. If your ink cartridge regularly dries out, then try to print a page off more often, at least every few days, as this should stop the print head becoming dried out, as fresh ink is run through.

Out of Paper or Paper Jams

When a printer has been out of paper, or had a paper jam, or some other condition that keeps it from giving output for several minutes, the lpq command ceases to indicate the particular condition, and simply shows it as "stalled(n sec)", with n>>1000. So if you see this message, you need to go to the printer itself and find out what is wrong.

On the other hand, when a condition has been corrected, the lpq command may continue to report the condition for about a minute more; so a warning like "No paper tray" when the paper has just been reloaded can usually be ignored. You can likewise ignore the warning "No daemon present" when a job has just been submitted after the queue was empty.


Unrecognizable File Types

If you submit a job which is a binary file our printing software cannot identify (e.g. a compiled program), you will get no output, and lpq will report this error.


Reporting Problems

If a printer is malfunctioning, e.g., if the output is marred by light or dark streaks, or if it jams repeatedly, send electronic mail to the address trouble from any of the Mathematics Department machines, stating the problem. Be sure to specify the name of the printer in your e-mail!

On the other hand, for problems involving misbehavior of text formatting programs (TeX, troff, etc.) seek information by the usual modes: the man command, departmental computing web pages, knowledgeable friends, or mail to consult. Mail sent to trouble should only concern misbehavior of output devices (printers, computers, etc.), not software.

Mail to either consult or trouble should be as precise and informative as possible, since a lot of time gets wasted if the recipient has to write back asking for more details.