Windows 7 Printing Troubleshooting

No Output from Printer
If your print jobs never make it out the other end of the printer, open the Devices and Printers window and work through this checklist:

• First, ask yourself whether you printed to the correct printer. Check to see whether your default printer is the one from which you are expecting output. If you’re on a LAN, you can easily switch default printers and then forget that you made the switch.

• Right-click the printer icon and see whether the option Use Printer Online appears. If it does, select this item.

• Check to see whether the printer you’ve chosen is actually powered up, online, and ready to roll.

• If you’re using a network printer, check whether the station serving the printer is powered up and ready to serve print jobs.

• Then check the cabling. Is it tight?

• Does the printer need ink, toner, or paper? Are any error lights or other indicators on the printer itself flashing or otherwise indicating an error, such as a paper jam?

• Are you printing from an MS-DOS application? You may need to use the net use command to redirect an LPT port to your Windows printer. See “Printing from DOS Applications” earlier in this chapter for more information.


• If all else fails, restart Windows. It’s sad that we have to suggest this, but it sometimes does bring a zombie printer back to life.



Printer Produces Garbled Text
If your printed pages contain a lot of garbled text or weird symbols, check the following:

• You might have the wrong driver installed. Run the print test page and see whether it works. Open the Devices and Printers window (by choosing Start, Devices and Printers), open the printer’s Properties dialog box, and print a test page. If that works, you’re halfway home. If it doesn’t, try removing the printer and reinstalling it. Right-click the printer icon in the Devices and Printers window and choose Delete. Then add the printer again, and try printing.

• If the printer uses plug-in font cartridges, you also might have the wrong font cartridge installed in the printer, or your text might be formatted with the wrong font.

• Some printers have emulation modes that might conflict with one another. Check the manual. You may think you’re printing to a PostScript printer, but the printer could be in an HP emulation mode; in this case, your driver is sending PostScript, and the printer is expecting PCL.


Source of Information : QUE Microsoft Windows in Depth