Last Updated on May 14, 2022 by Carlo Dach
Printers are one of the boons we have received from technology. These things can print anything from your e-tickets to multiple-page project reports. When a printer works, it is great; but sometimes, problems can come up in the way it operates. Following are some tips on how to fix a printer that won’t print the way it’s supposed to.
Sometimes, the problem boils down to overuse or underuse. If you don’t use your printer frequently enough, there can be the issue of dried-up ink blocking the nozzles. Overuse, on the other hand, can lead to small things like paper clips falling in and causing paper jams.
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Choosing the Right Printer
It may sometimes happen that your printer is not printing because you have software that has a ‘virtual printer’ set as default. Therefore, when you hit Print, the thing you wish to appear on paper gets saved as a file instead.
To see if this is the case, go to the Start menu and choose Control Panel. From there, go to Devices and Printers, and find and right-click on the right printer to set it as default. Furthermore, check if the status of the printer is set to Ready, because if not, then that could be a problem as well.
After this, make sure that the right printer is chosen inside the program that you are printing from. This option will be available after you give the print command.
To troubleshoot, you can use the printing troubleshooter provided by Microsoft. There, hit the Fix It button, then download and run the program. After that, follow the steps outlined in the wizard. To troubleshoot from the Control Panel, go to Devices and Printers, then right click on the printer, and hit Troubleshoot.
Printing From your Phone or Tablet
Common Printer Issues
If you are printing from your iOS device, the printer should have Wi-Fi and AirPrint support. Note that there are still many printers in the market, which don’t have the latter option.
If you are printing from your Mac, HandyPrint is a great option to turn the printer into an AirPrint printer. Another app for printing out of wireless printers directly is Printer Pro.
For printing from an Android phone or tablet to a printer connected to a PC, install Cloud Print on the device from the Google Play Store. Open Chrome on the PC, go to Advanced Settings, and choose Manage. After this, add the printer attached to the PC. Keep the PC and the printer on, and you will be able to print from the Android device.
