Printing Problems can Cause Many Headaches
By: Conchita Reid

Murphy's Law dictates that when you need your printer the most it will seem to have a mind of its own. You hit several buttons on your printer with no response. The printer has gone haywire and you are wits end. Before you throw the printer out the window to its death, take a look at the following printing problems that could be at the root of this situation.

All computer hardware needs software to tell it how to operate and what to do. This software is called a driver. If your system has crashed or has suffered from a power surge, it is possible that your driver is no longer installed. If you have recently installed a new printer, you will have to install a driver in order for it to work as well.

Sometimes, the printer just plain runs out of ink. You can generally find this out by clicking on the properties icon of your printer. If the printer is out of ink, you will need to replace it with the same ink cartridge as is in the printer. It is a good idea to take the old cartridge with you to the store when buying the ink because there are a lot to choose from and it is easy to pick up the wrong one.

Sometimes you will find that paper gets jammed up inside of the printer and this will cause it not to work. You must carefully remove the paper and then hit the paper feed button to get it going again.

Let's say you hit "print" and then realized that you don't have any paper in the printer. You may be tempted to stick more paper in the printer while the print job is initiating. However, this doesn't always work. The safest bet is to hit the reset button or paper feed after you put in the paper. You can also cancel the print job and start over.

A more obvious cause of your printer not be able to print stems from the computer to printer connection. It is vital that these to items are connected or you are sending your print job to thin air. Check the physical connection between your computer and printer.

It is probably safest to first shut down your entire computer before reattaching the connection. On some systems you can get away without taking this extra step.

However, it may confuse your computer and send it into a tizzy if you just plug the cord back in so it is best to play it safe and turn the computer off first. Then, just reattach it and restart your computer.

Printing malfunctions can be the cause of migraine headaches because you can bet that they will occur when you can least afford them. By just remaining calm and going through the techniques listed above, you can isolate the problem and fix it in no time unless the darn thing has simply had it!

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Conchita Reid is the chief writer for, and editor of Reid Printing, there's a wealth of knowledge on the website, plus while you're there sign up for the free newsletter. Want to read more Printing articles?, just go to: www.reidprinting.com/articles
This and other unique content printing articles are available with free reprint rights.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated