How To Solve Printer Problems

This page covers the most common printing problems and how to solve them:

• Printer Not Responding
• How to Uninstall Your Printer
• White Stripes Across the Page
• Faded Text
• Horizontal Bands
• Web Page Printing
• Images Not Printing
• Incomplete Printing
• Network Printing Problems
• Using Original Cartridges But Still Getting "Unsupported Cartridge" Errors

Problem - Printer Not Responding

If your printer does nothing when you tell it to print then follow these steps until it is fixed:

1. Check that the printer is switched on (there should be at least one light on). If not then check the power cable and the power socket.
2. If you have a flashing light or a red light then check the manual to see what this means.
3. Check that there is paper available and that paper isn't trapped inside the printer.
4. Check that the ink cartridges are full and that they are fitted correctly.
5. Switch the printer off and wait a few seconds (30 should do it) to clear the printer's memory.Initiate a test print directly from the printer. You may have to check the manual to see how this is done. If this is successful then move on to the next part. If it is not successful then it indicates a mechanical problem with the printer. Depending on the printer's model and age it will probably be cheaper to replace than to repair the printer.
6. Check that the cable (probably a USB cable) is connected correctly.
7. Check the port (socket) that the cable is connected to by connecting another device (mouse, camera etc) to it and check.
8. If the USB port is working then check the cable. If possible, swap the cable for one that you know works. The type of cable used by printers is also used for scanners, USB hubs and other devices.
9. At this point we know that the printer is OK, the cable and ports are ok so it must be a software issue.
10. Clear the print queue. To do this open the Windows Control Panel (click start then control panel) and double click "printers and faxes". Double click the troublesome printer to open the printer queue. Click on the printer menu item and choose "Cancel all documents".
11. To test the printer use Notepad (a basic text editor) to create a simple document. This eliminates problems with particular programs. The quickest way to open Notepad is to Click Start then choose run. Type "notepad" in the dialogue box that appears and then press OK.
12. The next thing to check is the printer driver. This is the software that was loaded when the printer was first installed. Disconnect the USB cable and reinstall from the original disk that came with the printer. Connect the cable when told to. If you don't have the original disk then you can download the latest driver (which is always a good idea anyway) from the manufacturer's web site. Microsoft has a page explaining this further: downloading drivers.
13. If reinstalling the drivers doesn't work then uninstall the printer, restart your computer and install the drivers from scratch. To uninstall your printer open up "printers and faxes" from Control Panel. Right click your printer and choose "delete".
14. If you still can't print then I suggest connecting your printer to another computer or laptop and installing the drivers. You will then know whether the problem is with your computer or the printer.

How to Uninstall Your Printer

1. Disconnect the usb cable
2. Go to Printers in the control panel
3. Right-click the printer and 'delete'
4. Uninstall any printer software
5. Reboot
6. Install the CD that came with the printer
7. Connect the printer when asked
8. If this doesn't fix it then there is a problem with Windows itself.

Problem - The Printed Page is Wrong

If the print responds to your 'print' command but what appears on the page is wrong then find your problem in the following section and follow the instructions.

White Stripes Across the Page

The white stripes are areas where no ink has been put on the paper. This is caused by the nozzles of the ink cartridge being blocked. Most inkjet printers have a head cleaning utility in their printer control program. Open up "printers and faxes" and right click your printer and choose properties. Where you go from here varies from printer to printer but you should be looking for a Maintenance tab or button (possibly under "printer preferences"). Run the cleaning utility and then print a check page (should be in the same section).

Faded Text or 'Rough' At The Edges

This could be due to your ink or toner being low. If you don't have replacements handy then removing them and gently shaking them from side to side might help.It could also be that you have set your printer to economy mode (aka draft mode). Check this in the printer control program.

Light and Dark Horizontal Bands when Printing Images

These are caused by the print heads being out of alignment. Another symptom of this are crooked vertical lines and jagged sloping lines. Once again, go to the printer control program. and use the head alignment utility and follow your printer's instructions.

Web Pages not Printing Correctly

This isn't really a printer fault but it can be infuriating when you hit the print button and you get a lot of pages none of which is what you wanted. In the first instance look for a 'printable version of this page' type link and this will allow you to print what you want.

If you want to print just what you can see on the screen then you can use the Print Screen Key on your keyboard.HP provides a free utility (Smart Web Printing) that gives you much better control over printing from web pages. As of April 2009 this only works in Internet Explorer and FireFox but not in the latest versions of these (8 and 3 respectively)!

Strange Symbols / Unintelligible Text

The printer buffer may need to be cleared. Switch it off for a few seconds (30 should do it) and try again.This could be a problem with the particular document you are printing. First clear the print queue. Now try a new document in the same program. If this prints OK then copy and paste from the original document into this one.
If you are still having problems then it is likely to be a driver problem. See reinstalling drivers above.

Images Not Printed

Most of the time this is because the program has been told not to print them! It may seem strange but is a very useful feature when printing documents before they are finished. You may want to check the words only and don't want to waste paper and ink.In Word open the Tools menu and click Options. Select the Print tab and look in the 'Include with document' section and ensure that Drawing Objects is selected. Other programs will have a similar option. In Excel, for example, you can set any cells to be 'hidden' and then choose whether to print hidden cells.

Incomplete Printing

If you have blank areas at the bottom or to the side of each page then you may have your layout set to portrait instead of landscape (or vice versa). Also, see it there is a scale to fit option.Low memory can also cause this problem particularly for large files. Try closing down some programs and/or splitting the document into smaller parts.

A full hard disk can also cause this problem because the document is first 'printed' to a temp file on the disk. Try clearing some space. My general recommendation is that your disk should never be more than 75% full.

Network Printing Problems

This is a complex issue but there are some basic checks that can help. If the printer is attached to another computer then that computer needs to be switched on.You then need to find it: click Start and then Search. Choose 'Printers, Computers or People' and then 'A Printer on the Network'. When you have found your printer open the File menu and click Connect.

If you don't see 'Printers' in the above list then your printer is not correctly configured but that is a topic for another day!

Unsupported Cartridge Errors

If you get this error message and you are using a 'compatible' cartridge then perhaps it is not truly compatible: buy a manufacturer's cartridge.

You can also get this message when your cartridge is original! This could be a software/driver issue; a cleaning/alignment issue or poor manufacturer. The first thing to do is go to the printer's maintenance options and clean and then align the heads. Go to their site for updated drivers; uninstall and reinstall the printer and its software.

The printer identifies the cartridge from the 'chip'. This could be damaged or dirty. Inspect it and if necessary dip a cotton swab in hot water or isopropyl alcohol and rub it against the print head.

If this fails, then go to the manufacturer's site and submit a 'support ticket' or consult the forums for guidance. Some manufacturer's supports is quite woeful but others surprisingly helpful.

Final Word

As always, I encourage anyone with a comment, suggestion, question, idea, criticism or inspiration to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please also see The Inland Magazine Computer Problems Forum if you have a specific IT problem.

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