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Troubleshooting Printers - CompTIA A+ 220-1201 - 5.6

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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.
Title:
Troubleshooting Printers - CompTIA A+ 220-1201 - 5.6
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
11:54

English subtitles

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