There are few things in the office more frustrating than when your team needs to print something in a pinch, but your business printer doesn’t want to cooperate.
Whether it’s faded text on the paper, streaky lines across your images, a paper jam or a printer that won’t even print your documents, dealing with a faulty printer can seriously impact the productivity of your team and even lead to wasted money.
In some cases, you may need the help of an IT expert to repair the issue or you may possibly even need to invest in a new piece of hardware. In other cases, you might be able to resolve the issue by yourself.
While specific troubleshooting solutions will vary depending on the make and model of your printer, understanding some common issues and how they are fixed can help you with your search for a successful issue resolution.
That’s why, in this blog, we’ve listed six of the most common printer problems that businesses run into and how you can troubleshoot them.
1 - The printer just won’t print
In some cases, a business printer will show no error messages and no other signs of failure… yet for whatever reason, it just won’t print. The most common fix here is to check the printer is still connected to the device you are trying to print from, whether via USB, ethernet cable or Wi-Fi (if it is a wireless model).
In some cases, it’s possible that the printer driver and software may have become corrupted on the device you are trying to print from. If the printer is connected, try deleting and reinstalling the driver or downloading the latest version of the driver from the manufacturers website.
2 - Bad print quality
There’s a range of variables that impact the quality of your final print product, including the paper you print on, the quality of the printer that you are using, and the print quality settings you are choosing for your printed pages.
For example, if you are printing high-quality photos, then you’ll need to choose the print quality settings to match. Playing around with these variables can help you find the print quality you are looking for.
3 - The paper keeps getting jammed
Even though they are significantly less common in recent years, paper jams still happen. The most common reason for a paper jam is paper misalignment. If the paper in your printer is askew, even just a little bit, it can quickly turn into a paper jam. Always make sure to square off the stack of printer paper before inserting it into the tray.
If this doesn’t solve the problem, other common reasons for a paper jam include overfilling the paper tray, the paper/media type setting on the printer menu not matching the current print job, as well as mechanical issues.
4 - It’s costing my business a lot of money to print
Printing expenses from copiers and printers can be one of the largest unmanaged costs for small to medium-sized businesses. Cheaper printing devices are typically offset by more expensive cost-per-page service agreements, which do not monitor the amount of toner which is put onto a page - meaning no matter how much toner you print on a document, it will be the exact same price as every other document.
If you want to save money on your printing costs, partner with a provider who has a colour-coded pricing plan so that your business only ever pays for the colour toner that you actually use.
5 - Inability to print from a mobile device
It can be incredibly beneficial for the productivity of an office to allow its team to print directly from their phones. It’s convenient, fast and allows team members to print documents while on the move. Most modern printers support apps that allow users to print directly from their mobile devices.
If you’re having issues printing from a smartphone or mobile device, it’s worth checking for a specific app or software update to ensure your device is compatible. In some cases, deleting an app and reinstalling can fix the issue.
6 - My printer is too slow
Some printers are designed to be fast, some are designed to be slow. This doesn’t typically impact print quality, but if efficiency is key to your operations then it can certainly slow your business down.
There are ways that you can speed up even the slowest of printers, such as printing in draft mode (as long as a low-quality document is fine), avoiding two-sided printing, as well as printing through a cable connection rather than through Wi-Fi.
Are you interested in learning more about how you can troubleshoot printer issues, or simply want to find the perfect printer office solution for your Ontario-based business? Get in touch with the OT Group team today.
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