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5 Common Office Printer Problems and How to Fix Them
Troubleshooting the Most Common Office Printer Problems
The importance of having a reliable office printer
When a business is in a perfect flow, the last thing you want is anything causing a disturbance. Far too often, we see businesses having their productivity and workflows disrupted by office printer problems and no expertise or knowledge on how to diagnose and remedy them. At Rawson Digital, we’re proud to have a team of engineers with decades of experience in the installation and maintenance of office printers.
We sat down with the team to understand the most common issues they face and how they would diagnose the issues. Here’s what they had to say:
1. Low ink causes poor prints
Faded prints? Colour looking off? Is the printer displaying a warning message? When a customer calls with printer problems, we first check whether they’re low on ink. This is by far the most common issue with any printer.
The good news is, there’s an easy fix. Replacing ink/toner cartridges, if you’re a Rawson Digital customer we monitor all of our customers’ devices as part of our commitment to amazing customer service and send additional toner before you run out.
Our engineers recommend adjusting print settings to reduce ink or toner usage, increasing the longevity of cartridges. Regularly check your ink/toner levels so you’re not waiting on a replacement cartridge. We’d also advise you to choose carefully when to print in high quality and full colour versus using a draft version or black and white to conserve toner.
2. Printer connection issues
If you’re unable to find your device on your network or you’re not able to print wirelessly, there may be a problem with your connectivity. There are many more issues that could cause this, and some may be the responsibility of your IT department. Such issues could be the printer is blocked by your company firewall or whether the device networking is correct. However, our team will be able to help in almost all situations.
Check your device is correctly connected to the network—the Ethernet cable should be firmly plugged in and connected to a working network port, if using a wireless connection, confirm the Wi-Fi login details are correct. If the problem still persists, our team can run firmware updates and check the correct printer drivers are installed.
When installing an office printer we ensure every device is connected correctly. However, we can still remotely access your office printer to troubleshoot and fix any issues that come up over the lifetime of your contract.
3. Printer taking a long time to print
If your office printer is taking too long to receive jobs, print documents, or is generally running sluggish, it’s likely to be one of two things. Overloaded memory or too complex a print job for your office printer.
Memory overload can be fixed by clearing the cache on an office printer. This process depends on brand, but most will have a clear cache option within the printer settings.
If your prints are to complex, we have two recommendations. First, if possible try reducing how complex your prints are. You can do this by simplifying fonts and graphics within your documents. If this isn’t possible, your office printer may not be suitable for your requirements, you will either need to compromise on print quality or upgrade to a more suitable office printer.
When you purchase or lease a printer from Rawson Digital, we take the time to understand your printer requirements and offer machines that meet and exceed your needs.
4. Office printer producing low-quality prints
If you’re experiencing blurry, streaked, or faded prints, we suggest you start with these checks:
- Dirty Printheads: this can cause all the issues listed above and can often require an engineer to fix as they’re a sensitive part of your printer.
- Low-Quality Paper: Many people overlook the impact that paper can have on the final outcome of a print. Check that your paper is high quality and is compatible with your model of printer.
- Incorrect settings: even with the correct paper installed, you may need to update your settings so that the printer knows what the paper type, thickness, and weight is.
Checking these 3 common issues is key to getting good-quality prints every time. Before leaving site our engineers advise of correct paper types.
5. Paper jam in my office printer
A paper jam can cause a significant amount of damage, paper can rip and shred deep inside your office printer causing a world of pain for any engineer trying to fix the issue. We have listed some important tips to help prevent jams in your machine:
- Take care loading paper into the printer
- Ensure paper is flat and the tray isn’t overfilled
- Clean and maintain feed rollers
These can be the main cause of printer jams, as they lose their grip and cause paper to feed into the machine incorrectly and jam.
Proactive maintenance tips and tricks
It’s important to address issues before they happen, meaning less downtime and efficiency for your business. That’s why we believe the best course of action is to leave it to the experts. At Rawson Digital we offer managed print services. This takes the pain out of managing your printers, we can even manage a whole fleet of machines across multiple offices.
At Rawson Digital, we take the pain away from your business by managing all of your print services. reducing the time and frustration of having to manage your print devices and ongoing maintenance. Allowing you to focus on your business.
Our managed print service includes:
- The delivery and installation of machines
- All toner, parts and spares
- Full training and support
Looking to take the pain out of print management or reduce your current costs? Contact our team today for a free print audit bespoke to your business needs.
