5 Tips for Troubleshooting Your Printer

Printers are only machines, making them subject to malfunctions. It could simply be a paper jam, trouble on the ink cartridge, or a smudgy printout. Whatever kind of troubles are encountered by the printer, it won’t be that big on the part of the user if he knows the basics in troubleshooting common printer problems.

1. One of the usual hindrances that occur while printing is the paper jam, the paper being eaten by the printer, leading to the cancellation of all your printing jobs. The tip is that you don’t have to be hard on the printer. Simply turn it off and gently pull the crinkled paper out. Remember to pull it in the paper path’s direction, not the other way around, or else, you might be adding damages to your printer.
2. Another common problem is when the quality of your printouts diminish. Check the ink level of your printer. Check if an ink like Canon ink cartridges was installed. It might be that one of its inks has already run dry and that you need to refill it.
3. The third printer trouble that normally happens is the smudgy printout. This usually occurs when printing photos and images. It must be that the setting in your printer was not set into “photo”; rather it was set to its default setting either as draft or text. If this is the case, the quality of the printed output will surely be poor. Clicking on the right printer settings will make the printout better.
4. The fourth common printer trouble is when all the papers in the printer feed tray are being eaten by the printer. This happens when the entire paper stack is not that dry making the paper’s edges stick together. The solution is to make sure that the paper edges are well separated from each other. Also, store you printing papers in a cool, dry place.
5. The fifth printer trouble involves the printer itself, not being able to “follow your instructions” or not printing at all. It happens when the printer is not installed on your computer unit. Or if its wireless printing, it must be that you are not connected to the internet. Check your printer. It can’t talk back. Just make sure to be a printer-friendly user.