10 Repair Methods for Common Printer Failures

Before servicing your printer, you need to know a little about printer problems. After the printer has a problem, the first thing to do is to use the printer’s self-checking system to detect it. It can be judged by the indicator light or the sound of the buzzer that comes with the printer. The indicator light can indicate the most basic faults, including out-of-paper, ink shortage, no power supply, etc. Secondly, line observation can be carried out, starting from the detection of printer cables (including the detection of ports, channels, and printing lines), and then analyzing the internal structure of the printer (including paper trays, paper inlets, print heads, etc.) to see if the components are working correctly. Lock relevant components for different fault conditions, and then determine the problematic components. Again, you can use the test method to print a test page or partially test the internal components of the printer to see the cause of the failure. Of course, another fault of the printer is a software fault, and similar faults need to be solved by upgrading the driver or visiting its official website.

1. The Handwriting is Not Clear

For inkjet printers, there may be two reasons, the ink cartridge is out of ink, the printer has not been used for a long time, or the nozzles are clogged due to direct sunlight. The solution is to replace the ink cartridge or refill the ink. If the ink cartridge is not used up, it can be concluded that the nozzle is blocked: remove the ink cartridge (for printers whose ink cartridge nozzle is not integrated, the nozzle needs to be removed), soak the nozzle in warm water for a while. Be careful not to immerse the circuit board part in water, otherwise, the consequences will be disastrous.

2. Unable to Print Large Files

This situation occurs more often in laser printers. It may be normal when printing small files, but it will crash when printing large files. This problem is mainly a software failure. You can check the remaining space on the hard disk and delete some Useless files, or query the number of printer memory, and whether it can be expanded.

3. Incomplete Printing

If you encounter such a problem, it can be said that it is caused by a software failure, you can change the printing interface settings in Windows95/98, select "Start → Settings → Control Panel → System → Device Management → Port → Printer Port → Driver → Change Driver → Show All Devices", change "ECP Print Port" to "Printer Port" and confirm.

4. The Print Effect Is Different from the Preview

Usually, this happens under a text editor, such as Word or WPS2000, etc., the format is neat in the preview, but when you print it out, you find that some fonts are overlapping. This situation is generally due to improper settings during editing. The solution is to change the paper size, paper type, number of words per line, etc. in the "Page Properties" of the file, which can generally be solved.

5. The printer Does Not Respond after Selecting Print

When this happens, the system usually prompts "Please check whether the printer is online and whether the cable connection is normal". The general reasons may be that the power cord of the printer is not plugged in properly; the printer cable is not properly connected; the contact is poor; the parallel port of the computer is damaged, etc.

6. The Printer Outputs Blank Paper

For dot matrix printers, most of the reasons for the blanking of the printing paper are due to the ink drying of the ribbon, the breaking of the ribbon, the damage to the print head, etc. The ribbon should be replaced or the print head should be repaired in time; It is because the nozzle is blocked, the ink cartridge has no ink, etc., the nozzle should be cleaned or the ink cartridge should be replaced; for laser printers, the cause of this type of failure may be that the developing roller does not absorb toner (the DC bias of the developing roller is not added), and also It may be that the photosensitive drum is not grounded so that the negative charge cannot be released to the ground, and the laser beam cannot work on the photosensitive drum.

In addition, the photosensitive drum of the laser printer does not rotate, so no image is generated and transferred to the paper. Disconnect the power of the printer, take out the toner cartridge, open the notch on the box cover, make a mark on the non-photosensitive part of the photosensitive drum, and then reinstall it in the printer. Start-up and run for a while, and then take out the check mark to see if it moves, you can judge whether the photosensitive drum is working normally. Blank pages can also be printed if the toner is not supplied properly or the laser beam is blocked. Therefore, it should be checked whether the toner is used up, whether the ink cartridge is correctly installed in the machine, whether the sealing tape has been removed, or whether there is any obstruction on the laser irradiation path. It should be noted that the power must be turned off during inspection, because the laser beam may damage the operator’s eyes.

7. Paper Output Goes Black

For needle-type printers, the cause of this failure is that the ribbon is depilated, the ink on the ribbon is too much, the print head is dirty, the quality of the ribbon is poor and the position of the push rod is too close, etc. The position of the push rod should be adjusted first during maintenance. If the fault cannot be eliminated, replace the ribbon and clean the print head, and the fault can generally be eliminated; for inkjet printers, focus on checking whether the nozzle is damaged, whether the ink tube is broken, whether the ink type is normal, etc.; for laser printers, most It is due to the failure of the corona discharge wire or the failure of the control circuit so that the laser has been fired, causing the printed output to be completely black. Therefore, it should be checked whether the corona discharge wire is disconnected or whether the corona high voltage is present, and whether the beam detector in the laser beam path is working properly.

8. The Print Color Is Light

For needle-type printers, most of the causes of this type of failure are the ink drying of the ribbon, the broken needle of the print head, and the position of the push rod being adjusted too far, which can be solved by replacing the ink ribbon and adjusting the push rod; Nozzles are blocked, ink is too dry, link type is incorrect, the air in the ink tube and the printer's working temperature is too high will cause this fault. The nozzle, ink tank, etc. should be inspected and repaired. For laser printers, when the toner is in the toner cartridge When the developing voltage of the developing roller is low and the photosensitive effect of the toner is poor, the printed handwriting will also be light. At this time, take out the toner cartridge and shake it gently. If the printing effect does not improve, you should replace the toner cartridge or adjust a set of photosensitive switches under the toner cartridge of the printer to match the photosensitive sensitivity of the toner.

9. The Handwriting Is Clear on One Side and Not Clear on the Other Side When Printed

This phenomenon generally occurs on dot matrix printers, and inkjet printers may also occur, but the probability is small, mainly because the print head guide rail of the printer and the print roller are not parallel, resulting in the distance between the two. The solution given is to adjust the distance between the print head guide and the paint roller to make it parallel. The specific method is: to loosen the adjustment pieces on both sides of the print head guide rail respectively, turn the adjustment pieces counterclockwise to reduce the gap, and finally adjust the print head guide rail and the printing roller to be parallel to solve the problem. However, pay attention to the direction of adjustment when adjusting, you can adjust it gradually and print it several times.

10. The Print Head of the Printer is Blocked, Stops Beeping, or Vibrates in Place

This is mainly because the guide rail of the print head of the printer will become dry when sliding for a long time, the print head will be blocked when moving, and the printing will stop to a certain extent. The solution is to apply a few drops of gauge oil to the print rails and move the print head back and forth to distribute it evenly. After restarting, if there is still obstruction, it is possible that the drive circuit is burned out and needs to be taken to the maintenance department.