Resolving Print Issues

     

Print issues can be tricky to troubleshoot. You must determine whether hardware, connectivity, or software is causing the print job to fail.

Make sure you are familiar with installing and troubleshooting printers .

Installing Local and Network Printers

To install a printer driver locally on a Windows XP computer, follow these steps:

1. Point to Start, select Control Panel, and then click Printers and Other Faxes.
   
   
2. Click the Add Printer link to open the Add Printer Wizard. Click Next to start the wizard.
   
   
3. Select Local Printer, click to clear the Automatically Detect and Install check box, and then click Next.
   
   
4. Select the port the printer is attached to from the Use the Following Port drop-down list, as shown in Figure 6.12. Click Next.
   
   

   Figure 6.12. The Select a Printer Port dialog box.

   

   
   
5. Select the manufacturer and your printer model. If you have the device driver disk, select Have Disk. If you want Windows to locate the driver, click Next.
   
   
6. In the Name Your Printer dialog box, shown in Figure 6.13, type the name of the printer in the Printer Name text box. Select Yes if you want the new printer to be the default printer. Then click Next.
   
   

   Figure 6.13. The Name Your Printer dialog box.

   

   
   
7. In the Printer Sharing dialog box, shown in Figure 6.14, select the Share Name option to share the printer and enter the name of the printer in the Share Name text box. Click Next.
   
   

   Figure 6.14. The Printer Sharing dialog box.

   

   
   
8. Enter the location and comment information to assist users in finding the exact printer location. Click Next.
   
   
9. Select Yes to print a test page. Then click Next.
   
   
10. Click Finish to complete the wizard. The device drivers are installed, and the test page is printed.
    
    

If you need to install a network printer, follow the preceding steps with some revisions. Instead of choosing Local Printer, choose the Network Printer option in the Local or Network Printer dialog box. To locate the network printer, select the Browse for a Printer option and click Next to view the available printers on your network. After locating the correct printer, you can complete the wizard steps as indicated here.

You also can connect to a corporate printer using the company's intranet. You can type a URL in the Web browser to navigate to the printer; this step makes the Add a Printer Wizard unnecessary. After you have connected to the printer, the correct printer drivers are automatically copied to the client computer.

Troubleshooting Printer Drivers

When you remove a printer from the Printers folder or Print Manager, the printer driver file is not removed from the hard drive. Follow these steps to remove and re-create a printer so that the driver file is reinstalled:

1. Point to Start and then click Printers and Faxes.
   
   
2. On the File menu, click Server Properties. The Print Server Properties dialog box opens.
   
   
3. On the Drivers tab, shown in Figure 6.15, click the printer driver that you want to delete and then click Remove.
   
   

   Figure 6.15. The Drivers tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box.

   

   
   

Ensure that you can troubleshoot problems with printer drivers for local and network printers.

Troubleshooting Printers and Print Jobs

Some general troubleshooting steps are applicable to most but not all printers. The simple set of procedures and a logical approach included in the following section guide you through your printer problems. Table 6.3 summarizes the general problem areas when troubleshooting printer problems.

Table 6.3. Troubleshooting Questions

Things to Check	Explanation
Power	Verify that the printer is turned on and has power. Check the power bar and the outlet the printer is plugged into.
Connectivity	Check the cable connections to both the printer and computer. Verify that the printer is not working offline, it is not paused , and the print queue isn't causing a problem.
Hardware	Verify that the printer does not have any flashing lights indicating error messages.
Paper	Verify that you don't have a paper jam and paper is available in the paper tray.
Device Drivers	Verify that the printer has a digitally signed device driver. Check to see whether the correct device driver is installed.
Test Page	Try printing a test page to rule out hardware failure.
Test Print	Try printing from a different application to verify that the printing error is local to a single application.

Be sure you can identify issues with printers and problematic print jobs.

Troubleshoot Printing Problems at the Application Level

Users may identify several common printing problems from their Office applications. Some of these problems are as follows :

• When a user prints a document or envelope, nothing happens.

• When a user prints a document, a blank page is printed at the end of the document.

• When a user prints multiple documents, he cannot print property information.

• Word stops responding when printing.

Each problem has its own solution ”for example, when a user tries to print and nothing happens. Because printing is primarily controlled by Microsoft Windows, you can run through the print troubleshooter. If the print settings appear to be in order, verify the Word print settings to make sure that the printer listed in the program matches your default printer. To view the Print Settings dialog box, select Print from the File menu. You should also verify that the page range specified matches the pages you want to print.

When troubleshooting why a blank page is printed at the end of a printed document, you should verify that no extra blank lines appear at the end of the document. To view the paragraph marks, click the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar. Remove all the extra paragraph markers. Select the Print Preview option to verify that the blank page has been removed.

With previous versions of Word, you could print multiple documents including the file properties. However, with the latest version of Word XP, you cannot print the file properties of multiple files. Word still includes the capability to print file properties, but you must print them on an individual file basis.

When a user reports that the application is asking for a paper size she does not have, the file may have been created with a different language version of Word and formatted to a different paper size. To adjust the document's paper size, open the Print dialog box from the File menu. In the Zoom section, select the paper size you want to use in the Scale to Paper Size box. Word then automatically scales the document to fit the selected paper size.

In worst-case scenarios, Word stops responding during print requests . The most suitable solution is to reinstall the print driver. It is best to verify whether the manufacturer has released an updated driver for the printer. Most manufacturers' Web sites contain driver updates that you can download directly.