Basic Printer Maintenance and Other Tips

Old School Printer Maintenance

2009-12-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've learned the hard way on how to nurse a printer along.

When I started working as a secretary and computers entered the office, we didn't have an IT department to call for help. The secretaries WERE the IT department. Since we were always on deadlines, a printer jam was a major problem. So here are the tips I can share with you on how to avoid some general issues:

1) Use good paper. I'm talking 24 lb weight if you can afford it but nothing lower than 20 lb. And give the recycled stuff back to the granola purchasing clerk to jam his/her printer. (Another tip - buy paper by the case, not the ream. You'll save a bundle.)

2) If your printer is trying to feed the paper, but just isn't picking it up, it's most likely paper dust that has collected on the rubber feeders. Get a box of alcohol pads (cheapest at the grocery pharmacy on the shelves with the diabetic supplies. A box of 100 runs around $1.75.) Run a couple self tests on the printer while holding an alcohol pad against the rubber feeders. When it is finished the pad will have black streaks and possibly tiny paper crystals on it. This means you cleaned it! Good job. Now test it.

3) If you're suddenly not printing and there is no obvious reason, just turn the printer off, count to 60 (the buffer has to clear itself and needs a minute, it's an emotional ordeal), then turn it back on and test it.

4) If you are connected to a wireless print server and you're not printing and #3 above didn't work, just unplug the USB and Power connections to the print server and turn the printer off. The secret to rebooting is to re-plug in the PROPER order. (No joke. It will make you crazy.) The order of re-booting a printer server is:
a) Turn printer on
b) Plug power supply into wireless print server - wait for Power and Wireless lights to go on.
c) Plug USB cord from printer into wireless print server - wait for USB light to go on.
Now try printing again. It should work.

5) If it still doesn't work after that, then do a system restore to set it back to the previous day that it DID work. For those instructions, click here for my blog post on System Restore.

6) Most printers are resilient. For instance, if you dump an entire mug of hot tea on your printer (cough cough) it will probably survive it. Just turn if off and spend the next hour mopping every crevice. Then test it. Eventually I bought a new one because I was never able to get it all cleaned up and it just made me look like a slob. (Hypothetically speaking, of course. Cough.)

7) Best computer maintenance tool is the Can of Air! Blow out the printer crevices, your keyboard, car dashboard, and hard niches to dust at home (I mean... "office"). I buy these in bulk at Costco. They also make a great office gift when wrapped in tissue paper.

Ink or Toner, what's the big deal?

2009-12-13T18:53:00.001-08:00

Computer Printer Ink or Printer Toner. That is the question. Which should you buy?

1) Toner (only works in Laser printers) is like the copier toner - that black powder stuff. It lasts longer, more printing, less mess, no color. (With the exception of the recent color toner printers, but they cost a bundle.) If your toner is running low, at least the paper starts to streak so you know and can budget, but you are still able to print about 50 more pages.

2) Ink (only works in Ink Jet printers) runs out quickly, smears, dries out if not used, drips into your printer and is just a mess. With some printers, if one color runs out, the whole thing quits until you replace that empty one. But color is beautiful and if pictures are a requirement, you need an inkjet.

3) Ink cartridges are refillable, but the manufacturers caught onto this and have programmed the printers to know by "weight" if it's a refill and your printer will probably not run correctly.

4) A discount ink vender is a viable solution and I've included a link to InkSmile at the top of this post as a recommendation.

5) So what do I use? One of each. 95% of my printing is on my laser jet (Samsung ML2510 - Love it!) and my pictures go to my HP PSC 1510, which I use mostly to scan documents for email. Very rare that I use it to print color.

Free PDF Printers

2009-12-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

I get asked occasionally, "What is a PDF printer?"

PDF stands for "Portable Document Format" and ANY computer can open and read the document even if it's not running the same software used to make the original document. Reading a PDF is automated and you may be familiar with the "Acrobat Reader" that sometimes opens. It's free and most computers come with it installed.

On the flip side, though, is a different story when it comes to "making" a PDF.
You must have a "PDF Printer" installed under Printers in your Control Panel. These generally cost money to download or sometimes come along with a program you purchased, i.e. Adobe Photoshop.

If this is something you need on your computer, but would rather not shell out the
$30 - $80, here are a couple of links to FREE pdf printers. I have 2 of them installed on my system. Use any one, they work great and don't cost a dime!

http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator This is a FREE download.

http://www.primopdf.com/ Also a free download, with a seperate option to create
PDF's online without having to download software to your system.

http://www.cutepdf.com/ Go to this link and click the "Freeware" Free Download link located at top of the web page.

How to Print Screen

2009-12-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

I remember way-back-when how easy it was to print a screen. We just hit the "Prt Scr" button on the keyboard above the Home and End keys, and immediately the printer would engage and shoot out a piece of paper with our screen on it.

Then Microsoft Window's 98 came out and it all changed. Unfortunately, many of us never learned the new (hidden) step.
Here it is:

If you need to print a certain window or dialog box (usually to show the IT tech support guy so he'll believe you really had an error message), here's how:

1. Have the dialog box on the screen

2. Hit the "Prt Scr" button above the Home and End keys to copy the screen from corner to corner.

OR

2. Press "Alt" + "Prt Scr" to just copy the active window (like an error msg).

Nothing happens immediately, but a copy is sitting on your clipboard waiting to be pasted.

3. Now open Word, Wordpad, or even an email screen

4. Paste (Ctrl V or Edit, Paste)

Short and sweet, and VERY handy.

Privacy Policy

2009-11-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

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