If you currently have a printer or are willing to buy a new printer that this article on common problems of printers is for you. There are some common problems that are very easy to troubleshoot at the beginning but, those problems may become tougher in the future.
So, it is always better to have the right knowledge and fix the common printing issues at the very initial stage.
PVC ID card printers may have different technical issues which affect the printing process differently.
Paper Jamming
Paper jams are the most commonly faced trouble by any printer. There are a few reasons why paper jamming happens!
- Any outside objects got inside the printer
- The Paper tray is overfilled
- The feeding roller has dust on it
- Incorrect types of paper placed on the tray
Whatever the reason is, there is always a solution for that.
When papers are jammed inside the printer, you should handle this with maximum patience. Follow these steps:
- Open the printer and remove if there are any foreign objects.
- Re-arrange the paper tray, and reduce the number of papers in case it is overfilled.
- Re-shuffle the papers and remove them if there is any paper that got humidified.
- Clean the feeding roller dust, if there’s any.
- Do not force the jammed paper instead you can slowly remove it to avoid any other errors.
Print Quality is not up to the mark
Another common problem with a printer is that the print quality may not reach its mark. This problem happens due to the following reasons:
- Ink cartridges are low
- Papers are with inappropriate GSM
- The print head is jammed
- Printed with inappropriate settings
Follow these steps in case of your printer is not printing at good quality
- Check if the prints are done in an eco / grayscale mood. Usually, these moods are designed to reduce ink costs which makes the quality poorer. Change the DPI and observe the quality improvements.
- If you notice color droplets are visible from the other side of the paper, try printing with a higher GSM paper. Sometimes, thicker papers create amazing prints.
- In case of your print head is jammed, make sure that you clean the printer immediately and continue the practice each month. Follow our maintenance guide for more.
If there’s no print
Often we experience that there is no print after executing the print command. This problem happens for the following reason:
- Maybe the printer is not connected to the network
- Maybe the print command went to other connected printers
- Or, maybe the printer is not working due to a driver error
- There might be no paper in the tray
These are the best practices when you see no prints coming out of the printer.
- Check if you have selected the right printer, there might be some other previously connected printers within the same network
- Ensure the wifi router is well functioning. If the wireless network doesn’t work, try the ethernet cable instead
- Try restarting the printer and check if it works
- In case of a driver error, update the printer driver and check if it works
The printer is not scanning
Some of the good printers come with scan options. Watching that the printer cannot scan can be a typical error in our daily life. These are the reason why a printer cannot scan a document
- The driver may be outdated
- The scanning camera is not working
For the first one, you need to update the driver or re-install the printer. If not solved, then reaching out the customer care is the best option. Because there are no quick hacks that cannot save you from the second issue.
Printer prints slowly
We often encounter that the printer is slow and the speed per minute is not even as per the benchmark. Due to the following reasons, a printer may print slowly
- Print ink may be dried up
- The print head may be jammed or clogged
- Print quality is set to be higher
- The print job may be set to be duplex
- Maybe the printer’s memory / RAM is outdated
This is so normal for a printer to take higher time if the print settings are set as premium. For the higher quality, it will need more color and more time since the machine needs to draw a higher number of dots per square inch.
Similarly, the duplex printing command may need a higher amount of time since it needs to print 2 pages in one sheet. However, if the print head is clogged or not working, then a replacement or a quality service done by a professional would do the job.
Normally, modern print inks do not dry up. However, in case it dried up, then the ink replacement would be the ultimate solution. If your printer is an inkjet type with both ink cartridges and fillable ink tanks, we suggest printing a paper with liquid ink.
If the print gets done within a shorter time, then the problem is identified, and replace the ink cartridges.
If you find the memory / RAM of your printer is outdated, call the service representatives and replace that as soon as possible.
Print Costs become too expensive
This is certainly true that we buy a printer after considering so many factors and one of them is the print yield which measures the cost of printing one page. This is also normal if you see the print yield or the cost per print is not as expected and the ultimate expenses become too high.
These are the following conditions when a print becomes too expensive to afford.
- Ink dries up before utilizing at full
- The printer consumes a lot of ink
- You are buying inks at an expensive price
These are the best practices by which you can lower the print cost per page:
- Buy genuine inks
- Buy in bulk with a discounted price
- Remove bold letters
- Print draft copies in grayscale mode
- Avoid unnecessary colors
- Do regular maintenance
- Replace the printer and buy a new one.
The printer is not accessible from mobile
This is also a common problem in that the printer is not working from the smartphone. Nowadays, almost every modern printer is coming up with a mobile app connection that helps the user to print from mobile. If that fails, follow these best practices:
- Check the network connection and ensure both the smartphone and printer are connected within the same network.
- Make sure the printer is compatible with that smartphone. There are a few printers that struggle while connecting with apple.
- You can also run a printer troubleshooting option which generates an automatic diagnosis report and helps further.
- Rebooting your mobile can also be a good decision and it works many times.
- Try re-connecting to the wifi network and execute the print command.
Wifi takes too long to print
Printing on wifi is taking routers help to pass the command from the digital device to the printer. In case of your wifi router is too old, the print may take a little bit of extra time.
In such a situation, we recommend trying these things:
- Check your wifi connection & bandwidth. If needed, increase.
- If the printer is connected to the local network, check the firewall status and ensure that any of the commands is blocking communication with the printer’s IP address.
- Update the printer driver if it may become outdated.
- Replace the wifi router if it is too old.
The printer is out of power
Check the power cord of your printer. Sometimes the power cord may stop working and you need to replace them. You should match the voltage requirement while replacing a power cord of a printer.
Except for these, there could be other problems depending on the device and different situations. If your printer is in trouble, always call customer service even if the warranty is expired.
For a better experience, always try to avoid third-party inks and avoid these common problems of printers.
