Troubleshooting Your Non-Printing Printer - Five Things to Check

Has your printer stopped printing? This always seems to happen as you try to print the boarding pass

for your Caribbean cruise. Please try these five checks first before you kill your printer.

Several things can fix printing. Some are easy simple checks and others are more complicated. This

article presents the five things you can do to repair printing. After that, you are free to get a

hammer, take out your frustration on your device, and buy a new cheaper one. We begin here with

a simple easy checks and then progress to the more complex issues to resolve.

Check 1: Printing devices must be powered-on to print. Please make sure that the power is turned

on and that the power-on light is lighted. At this time it is best to make sure that all cables are

plugged into the device and that there are no error indicators lighted. A quick check of the paper

tray and paper hopper is in order as well. These should have a sufficient supply of fresh paper in

them.

Check 2: Please make sure that you are using the printer you are expecting. To verify this when using

Microsoft® Word, please click on the upper left menu item "File" and then "Print" from the drop

down menu. This reveals the printing panel to the right of the drop-down menu. In the printing

panel on the upper left is the print button. Immediately below that the printer is identified. If the

name of this device is not the printer you are expecting to use, there is a triangle pointing down on

the right-hand side. Clicking on this triangle reveals a drop-down list of printers to which your

computer can send the document for printing. Please make sure you have selected the printer that

you expect. There are similar selections another computer programs that permit you to verify and to

select the printer you wish to use.

You can print on a different printer as a test. When the document prints on the other printer, your

printer has the problem. This helps you identify precisely the problem hardware and software

components.

Check 3: Please verify that the documents waiting to print are not stopped. When a printer

encounters any problem printing a document, it just stops printing. Any document that is

subsequently sent to the printer cannot be printed until the previous document is completely

printed.

Printers print one document at a time. This is similar to cows crossing a stream. If the first cow

comes the stream and does not cross, all remaining cows wait in line to cross the stream behind the

first cow. If the first cow does cross the stream, the other cows follow. When one of the other cows

refuses across the stream, the cows following it stop and do not cross the stream.

Similarly, printers print all documents in the order that they are sent to the printer. If the ink runs

out, if there is a paper the error, or if there is some other malfunction that stops a document from

printing, that document and all remaining documents stop printing. After the error is corrected, the

document may or may not automatically start printing. Sometimes you must restart the document

printing for that document and subsequent documents to print.

The printer document waiting line on Windows 7® is found by clicking on the "Start" button and

opening "Devices and Printers". In the "Devices and Printers" window you select the printer you are

using. Clicking the right mouse button opens a pop-up menu from which you select "See what's

printing". This opens the printer queue. If there are no documents listed, then Windows® believes

that all documents have been sent to the printer and printed.

Sometimes a printer is set to work offline. In this event nothing can print because the device is

offline. When a printer icon is colored light grey, the printer is likely set offline. In the "See what's

printing" window, clicking on the "Printer" menu item produces a drop down menu. The "Use Printer

Offline" selection appears about three lines from the bottom of this menu. Since Windows 7® is

context sensitive and displays only the possible menu selections appropriate, the "Use Printer

Offline" menu selection is often not visible. To place the device online, please un-check the "Use

Printer Offline" menu item.

Check 4: Many printing problems are caused by the loss of connection between the computer and

the printer. To check the printer connection on Windows 7® you again click on the "Start" button

and open "Devices and Printers". In the devices and printers window you select the printer you are

using, click the right mouse button to open a pop-up menu, and you select "Printer properties". The

printer properties window should open on the "General" tab. In the lower right should be the "Print

Test Page" button. Clicking on this button is a quick way to test whether the computer is connected

to the printer. It should immediately print a test page on the printer. If it does not print a test page,

then the link to the printer may not be functioning properly.

To verify the computer's connection to the printer you select the "Ports" tab. The "Ports" tab

identifies the port that connects the computer to the printer. When the printer is connected by a

USB cable to the computer, the port label identifies a USB port. Sometimes unplugging a USB cable

and plugging it into a different USB port re-establishes the connection between the computer and

the printer.

Driver programs connecting Windows to the printer port may not be functioning properly with

Windows. In this case reinstalling the latest printer driver programs can resolve this issue. The driver

programs must typically match exactly the version of Windows on the computer. Often separate

driver programs are used for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows®. The latest driver programs

are found at the printer manufacturer's website.

If the printer is a network printer, a standard TCP/IP port is checked. A TCP/IP port connection can

be broken when the incorrect printer IP address is used. To reconnect the printer to the computer,

make sure that the IP address on the computer is the same as the IP address assigned to the printer.

When the printer is a wireless printer, verifying the connection becomes more difficult. Similar to

any other network connected printer, a wireless printer must have the IP address match the address

used by the TCP/IP port on the computer.

Sometimes the printer may be identified by name and not by IP address. If the name is correct, a

test page should print on the printer. When a test page does not print, the most direct resolution of

the problem may be re-installation of the printer. This would require the original printer installation

CDs or a download of the installation software from the printer manufacturer's website.

Check 5: Wireless printers often lose their connections to the network. This can be verified by going

to the printer and selecting from the printer menus a print out of the network configuration. An

alternate test is to use a different computer to print a test page to the wireless printer.

When a wireless printer has lost its connection to the network, the simplest and most direct solution

may be to reinstall the wireless printer on the network. This again would require an installation CD

or a download of the installation software from the manufacturer's website. Wireless printer

installation differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some printers require an active USB

connection into the printer to complete wireless network installation. Other printers can be installed

without such a USB connection. Wireless installation requires knowing the network key or password.

Sometimes the latest Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security must be used for the printer to connect

into the wireless network. The older Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) does not permit some printers

to connect to the network properly.

Performing these five checks should at the very least identify where the problem lies. You should be

able to then zero-in on the root of the problem.

If a printing problem is caused by physical damage, it is not cost-effective to repair the printer. In this

case it is best to get out a big hammer and take out all your pent-up frustration on the device. Next

go to the store and buy a newer, faster, and better one.

Pete the Nerd

"Your Friend on a Technically Challenged Planet©"

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