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A Failure To Communicate
If your document will not print or the printed page contains garbage characters, such as symbols and meaningless text, the problem may be that the PC and printer are not communicating efficiently or at all. A few basic steps can resolve a surprising number of printing problems and help to define others. (NOTE: Throughout this article, “open the Print display” means to open the document you want to print and press CTRL-P, or you can open the File menu and select Print.) First, ensure the printer is turned on and securely connected to the PC. Check the lights and displays on the printer to ensure it is in an online (connected and ready) state.
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Print A Test Page
Open the Start menu and select Printers And Faxes. Locate your printer’s icon and double-click it. In the resulting display (print queue window), look for your document in the list. See if there are other jobs ahead of the job you are printing. If so, select Cancel All Documents from the Printer menu and try to print the job again. If there are no jobs ahead of the one in question, check the status. If it is Paused, click the listing, and from the Document menu, select Resume. If you do not see your document listed in the print queue, print it again. Watch your printer for changes in status lights (flashing is common) or the message display, nothing changes or messages you see. If you see changes in the printer’s status lights or message indicator, it generally means Windows is communicating with the printer. If Windows issues an error message (other than the standard “This Document Failed To Print” balloon) when you print, write it down and skip to the Error Messages section of this article. If there is no error message but the document does not print, check the status in the print queue window again. If there is no status, or it shows as Spooling or Printing, the file may be very complex and may need more time to process, so wait a few more minutes before you cancel the job. If the status is Error – Printing, the document has failed to print. Select the job in the print queue window and select Cancel from the Document menu. Check your printer’s documentation to identify and resolve problems signaled by the lights or messages you recorded, such as a paper jam, an out-of-paper, or ink condition or some other printer-based problem. If you see no printer status changes or error messages and the document does not print, cancel the print job, right-click your printer’s icon, and select Properties. On the General tab, click Print Test Page. Test Pages check the ability of the printer to reproduce basic text and graphics and provide information on the printer’s driver (a program that acts as a translator between the PC and the printer).
Test Page Won’t Print
If a test page will not print, the PC and printer are not communicating. First, check the printer’s documentation for instructions on printing a self-test page. If this will not print, the problem lies with the printer and you should contact the manufacturer. I
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Test Pages Print, But Not Documents
If you can print a test page, the PC and your printer are communicating and the problem lies with the program or your file. Open the Print display and make sure you chose the right printer (refer to The Printer Is Not Available section in this article for instructions). Make sure the Print To File checkbox is not selected. With the settings correct, create and attempt to print a simple document one page, no or very simple graphics, only system (native to Windows) fonts such as Times Roman or Arial. If it prints, the original document is likely either too complex or contains corrupt data. Open Printers And Faxes and right-click the icon for your printer. Click the Advanced tab and change the spool settings to Spool Print Documents So Program Finishes Printing Faster and, under that setting, select Start Printing After Last Page Is Spooled. If this doesn’t work, change the spool setting to Print Directly To The Printer. (Also, try closing other open programs before you Sending a test page to the printer will determine whether the printer and PC are communicating effectively. If your printer is not associated with the correct port or the port is not selected, you will not be able to print.
Experiment with these settings to see if any spool setting works. If adjusting the spool settings doesn’t help, reprint the original document one page at a time to see if a particular page is causing problems. Once you isolate the problematic page,
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Document Prints, But Not As Expected
If your document does print, but the quality or colors are off or the text and graphics are improperly positioned on the page, it may be a problem with your printer. However, first check the printer settings in Windows. From the program in which you are trying to print, open the Print display and click Properties. Note that if you want to change these settings on a global rather than a document level, open Printers And Faxes, right-click your printer’s icon, and select Printing Preferences. (NOTE: The following options listed may vary depending on printer type.) For problems with color or print quality, click the Paper/Quality tab and make sure the color setting is correct. Use the dropdown menu to ensure the media type is correct. Click the Advanced tab.
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The Printer Is Not Available
Open the Print display, and if your printer does not appear in the Name field, click the drop-down arrow to the right. Look for it there. Another program may have installed a printer driver that moved your The Fonts folder in Windows XP Home will show you whether the fonts in your document are TrueType (highly compatible) fonts or some other type of fonts. The
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Error Messages
Printing error messages fall into two categories: generic and model-specific. If you do not see your error message listed here, it is likely specific to your printer. Query the Microsoft Knowledge Base (support.microsoft.com) using the exact error message as your search string, or contact the printer’s manufacturer for further assistance. Generic printing messages in WinXP Home are fairly unusual, but you may encounter the ones listed below. Device Is Not Ready. This message indicates that Windows does not recognize the printer as being ready to accept data. Check the printer power and cable and make sure it is turned on and online. If you are using a network printer, make sure the network is up and you have the appropriate print permissions .(NOTE: There are other, similar variants to this message, as well.) Incompatible Print Driver. You’ll see this error if you upgrade to WinXP and the existing printer driver is not compatible. Contact the manufacturer for an updated driver, delete the printer as described above, reinstall it, and then provide the new driver during installation. Out Of Resources. This message indicates you have insufficient memory or hard drive space. Close programs, free some drive space, and try to print again.
Final Thoughts
The suggestions we have offered here should resolve 95% of printer woes. If not, try using the printer with another PC. If it doesn’t work, contact the printer’s manufacturer for further assistance. If it does work, then consider reinstalling Windows. If you think your problem may be specifically related to inkjet printers, laser printers, or MFDs (multifunction devices), other articles in this issue may help, as well.
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