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Troubleshooting printer issues can be
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challenging. You never know if the issue
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is related to an application, a printer
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driver, the operating system, or the
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printer itself. One of the ways that you
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can narrow down this problem is by
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printing a test page from your operating
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system. In Windows, there's a built-in
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function to create a test page. This
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means that you aren't using an
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application. You're simply using the
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operating system and the device driver
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as it's currently configured. You might
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also have a way to perform a test print
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from the printer itself. That will test
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from the hardware of the printer and the
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operating system and device driver have
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no impact on the printer level test.
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Here's an example of a Windows printer
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test page. This was created by pressing
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that print test page button from the
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device driver itself. We're not only
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interested in the quality of the output,
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but we're also interested in the
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information that is contained on the
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page. We have information about the
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printer properties and how they're
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configured. We also know the print
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driver properties and we know exactly
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what printer driver files are associated
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with this
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printer. You may find that your printer
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test page does not have the quality you
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were expecting. For example, you might
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have a single line that goes all the way
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down the page. If this is an inkjet
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printer, then you probably have dirty
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print heads. So, simply cleaning those
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print heads can probably remove that
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line. If this is a laser printer, it's
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probably a scratch that is on the
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photosensitive drum that's used inside
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of that printer. And as the drum is
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rotating around, that scratch is simply
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leaving a black mark all the way down
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the page. If the output is faded or it's
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difficult to read what's on the page,
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then you're probably running out of
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toner or you're very low on ink. And if
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you're seeing double images on the page
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or there's speckling on the page, then
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the laser printer optical drum is
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probably not cleaning properly and
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you're seeing a ghost or shadow from the
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previous rotation of that drum. Here's
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what a scratch on that photosensitive
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drum would look like. It's just a single
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black line that goes all the way down
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the page. And if the cleaning process is
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not working properly, then you're
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probably seeing a normal part of the
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page and then a copy of that that's a
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little bit lighter later on down the
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page. This ghosting will continue until
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you're able to correct the cleaning
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problem inside of your laser printer.
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Here's a page of output you definitely
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don't want to see coming out of your
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printer. This garbled print might be
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caused by a number of different issues.
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One of them might be a bad printer
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driver or you've specified the wrong
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model of printer in your Windows
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configuration. In those cases, you might
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be sending the wrong page description
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language to the printer. The printer
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might be expecting PCL and you might be
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sending Postcript or vice versa. Of
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course, we don't know if this is related
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to the print driver or the operating
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system or if we have a physical problem
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with the printer. So, if you have a way
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to print a test print on the printer,
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you'll be able to see if you're able to
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get good output or if the printer also
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provides this garbled output. If your
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printer test works properly and your
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Windows driver test works properly, then
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it could be that the application is
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sending bad information to the printer.
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You may want to try a different
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application or try upgrading the
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application you currently have to see if
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you can improve the output.
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Occasionally, you'll find that the paper
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will jam inside the printer. What you
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don't want to do is pull that paper so
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that you're ripping it and leaving part
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of that paper inside the printer
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mechanism. Some printers will release
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their printer mechanisms when you open
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the top of the printer, and that might
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make it a lot easier to be able to
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remove that paper. If no paper is being
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pulled from your printer tray or you're
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getting multiple pages pulled at the
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same time to go through the printer,
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then you might have a problem with
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either the paper tray or with the pickup
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rollers. These pickup rollers need to be
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clean and they do wear over time. If
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you're performing a printer maintenance
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using an official maintenance kit from
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the printer manufacturer, they very
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often will include additional pickup
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rollers to avoid this kind of problem.
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And sometimes you'll notice that the
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output from your printer, especially
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with a laser printer, will have creases
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in the paper itself. That may be because
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of a problem in the paper path as it's
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moving through the printer, or it may be
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that you're using a paper that is a
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different weight than what is
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recommended by the printer manufacturer.
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Make sure you check your printer
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documentation so you know exactly what
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the recommended weight of paper would be
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for that specific printer. Here's a
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closer view of these pickup rollers and
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the rollers inside of your printer. You
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can see that these are relatively new.
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They don't seem to have any creases on
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them. And you can see there's not much
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wear on the rollers that are currently
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installed. If your printer is not
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printing, but you look at the printer
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queue and there's a lot of jobs that are
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queued up waiting to be printed, then
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your problem might be with the printer
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spooler itself. The printer spooler is a
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middle point between the application and
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the printer. The application sends a
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print job to the spooler and the spooler
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is responsible for then sending that
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print job to the printer. If one of
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those print jobs is corrupted, it may
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cause this spooler to either crash or
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freeze. Some print spoolers will restart
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automatically. For example, this one in
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Windows on the first failure will
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restart this service. The second failure
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will restart again, but if there is a
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subsequent failure, it will completely
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stop and require your intervention. You
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may be able to go to your Windows event
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viewer, specifically the Windows print
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service as part of that event viewer,
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and see if any of these corruptions or
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any other problems with the print
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spooler are occurring. It may just be
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that one print job is causing the issue
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for everyone else. But once that print
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spooler fails, nothing else in the queue
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is going to be printed. you as the
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administrator are able to delete that
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print job or move it to the bottom of
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the list, let everything else print, and
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then you can troubleshoot that specific
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print
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job. Our printers commonly make noises,
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but they're not usually a grinding
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noise. We don't really have to grind
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anything up inside the printer to get it
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to print properly. Instead, this may
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indicate that some other type of problem
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is occurring. Maybe it's a paper jam
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inside the printer, or maybe an ink
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cartridge has come loose or needs to be
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seated down so that it doesn't rub
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against any other parts of the printer.
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Each printer operates in a different way
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and has a different number of steps for
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troubleshooting. So, make sure you check
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the manual for your printer to see what
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you should do if you happen to hear any
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grinding noises. Or it may be a bad part
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that requires a specialist to be able to
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take the printer to their office or to
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visit on site, take the printer
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completely apart, find that bad part,
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replace it, and then put everything back
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together. This could certainly cause
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some noise inside the printer. If you
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don't properly seat those ink
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cartridges, it will certainly cause some
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noise when you finally send a print job
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and that carriage tries to go back and
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forth inside of the printer. Our
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printers do more than simply print
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information on a page. Very often they
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are also providing finishing services.
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That finishing would be collating,
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binding, stapling, and performing an
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additional task once the output has been
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created. Some larger printers will
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collate multiple copies together and
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then staple each copy as it's created.
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Occasionally, you'll have a staple jam
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and you'll need to remove that staple to
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continue the process. Every printer is a
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little bit differently on how you remove
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those staple jams. So, make sure you
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check with your printer documentation.
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And some printers can perform hole
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punches. That hole punch is determined
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by the application and the driver that
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you're using. So, if the holes are not
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lining up exactly where you would
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expect, make sure you check with the
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application that you're using and make
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sure you're using the latest print
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driver. On most printers, we can choose
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to print a portrait mode or a landscape
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mode. If you're printing a page in
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portrait and you get the output in
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landscape, then there has definitely
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been a mismatch somewhere along the
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line. Normally, this setting is handled
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in the print driver of your operating
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system. So, make sure you check the
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defaults for the print driver and then
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also check the settings that you're
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sending out when you choose to print
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from your application. You may find that
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this is a problem with the print driver
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and simply upgrading the print driver
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will solve the problem. If the print
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driver is not telling the printer the
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proper orientation, you may be able to
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control this at the printer itself.
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Printers usually have a default setting
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on whether they will print in a portrait
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mode or landscape mode, and adjusting
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that at the printer may affect all of
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the subsequent output from that
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device. The printers that we use in our
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offices tend to have multiple paper
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trays. You can see that on the printer
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that we have here that on the bottom is
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one, two, three, four different paper
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trays that you could select paper from.
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When you perform that output from your
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application, you would normally tell the
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printer when you're sending the print
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job that you would like all of the
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output to come from the paper that is in
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paper tray number one. One of the things
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you have to make sure is that the paper
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tray that you're choosing matches the
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size of the paper associated with the
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output. For example, you don't want to
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send output that was designed for a
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14-in legal size page to a paper tray
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that only has 11in letter size paper.
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You'll normally see the list of paper
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trays in the print driver when you're
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ready to print. So, you'll be able to
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choose the proper tray from that list.
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It might be a good idea as the network
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administrator to confirm that the list
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of trays that you see in the print
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driver matches the trays that are
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physically installed on the printer. If
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there is a mismatch between the size of
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the paper that you wanted to print and
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the size of the paper that's in that
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print tray, you may see messages on the
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screen of your printer that tell you
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that this paper is mismatched and you'll
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need to load the appropriate page for
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this particular
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output. Here's a view from the output
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where I'm choosing to print to my laser
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printer. This says that the paper source
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is the main tray and the media is
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automatically selected. But you might
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want to configure your printer driver
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with the specifics of what type of paper
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are contained within that main tray. So
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here are the properties for this printer
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driver. And you can see that I have the
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option to decide what a manual feed size
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paper would be. In this case on my
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printer, it's a letter size paper. And
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then you can specify what size of paper
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is contained within the main tray. And
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you can see there are a number of
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options. available that you can
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configure for that main tray of the
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printer. When you're troubleshooting
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these corporate printers, you also have
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to be very good at troubleshooting
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networks. That's because these printers
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tend to be connected to our wired and
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our wireless networks. We would want to
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perform the same type of network
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troubleshooting as we do for any other
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device on the network. You would first
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need to confirm whether this is a
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printer that's connected to the wired
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network or the wireless network. That
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way, you'll know whether you're
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troubleshooting a problem with the cable
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or whether you're troubleshooting a
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problem with interference on the
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wireless network. You would then want to
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confirm that the IP address settings of
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the printer are configured properly for
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that device. So, you want to check the
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IP address, the subnet mask, the default
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gateway, any DNS settings, and any other
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important network configuration
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settings. And you may want to check to
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see if the print server inside of this
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printer is working properly. Most
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printers have their own print server and
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there's usually a management front end
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where you can look at the print server,
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stop it, restart it, and perform any
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management of the pending print jobs.
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And because this is a network device,
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you can also look for link lights. For
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example, on this printer, it has a
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connection on the back of the printer,
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and you can see if it's connected to the
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network, if it has an active link, and
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if it is sending and receiving data.