We love our printers. We love the way they print our pictures and print our text. Pleasure or business, they certainly get a lot of use. And then it happens; you’re humming along having the best time and then out of the blue with no warning there is a problem, the paper is jammed or there are lights flashing or there is no ink on the paper. What do you do? Slamming the printer to the floor or against the wall is probably not the best option even though it might be tempting. You might have to call a tech in, but before that, look at the list below and see if you can fix the problem and save the overpriced hourly rate. Can You Say “Paper Jam”? You know the sound.  That sound of paper tearing and crunching all at the same time. You flip open the printer and, oh yeah, it’s as bad as it sounded. Fortunately, there is a way to fix the problem, and it doesn’t include a chainsaw or a sledge hammer. Turn off the machine and pull the paper gently in the same direction as the paper path. What you don’t want to do is pull the paper backwards - doing that could mess up your printer for ever. Cancel the job on your computer, and send it again. How Much Paper Will Go Through the Printer at One Time? Oh how many ways can we spell frustration? You are almost finished with a printing session; the boss has already looked in three times to see if you’re finished and then, all the paper just fed through the printer at one time. This can’t be good. Can’t help you this time, but here are a couple hints to maybe keep this from happening again. Fan the paper before you load it into the printer, this will separate the sheets. Humidity can cause the paper to stick together so storing it in a dry, cool place will help. Hey Ma, Look!  No Words! You have installed a new cartridge, and after printing the first sheet – nothing! There’s not a single letter on the page. Two things might have happened. Are you sure you got every bit of the sticker off the cartridge before you put it in the printer?  If you did then the other thing to do is clean the print head. There’s a function for that installed in the printer. Running the print head cleaner will get any air bubbles out. Why Does My Face Look So Grainy? Guess what, your printer might not be at fault on this one. If the image quality is low, then the print quality will be low. Images need to be at least 300 dpi. Any dots per inch (dpi) lower than 300 will result in a grainy print. A Smudgy Printout Are you printing images that contain a lot of vibrant, bright colors? You could have the wrong setting for the paper selected. Text printing should not be done with the setting at the highest level. If you are using photo paper, make sure you are not using the regular setting. We know this is a small list of what can make your mild mannered printer go crazy, but it’s a good starting place.

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