There is really nothing more annoying than needing to print a document only to find your printer will not actually do its job and print. Or it will print...it just won't print properly. This is a frustrating issue that is all too common, but you can save yourself some time and some hassle by learning how to troubleshoot some common printer problems that you may encounter as a Windows Vista user yourself. There is no need to immediately scrap the printer as junk and buy a new one, or run out to the computer repair shop and have someone else do it for you. Often, the problem is simple to correct, and you can be your o
Pinpointing the exact problem with a printer issue is not always effortless, since there are so many different printers on the market today, and the same printer by the same brand may have a different model or version or two, or even several more, out there floating around. If your printer will not print, regardless of the make and model and brand, there are a few things to check on first before moving on to look for a more involved explanation and fix.
The easiest thing to do is check for the easy problems first. Make sure that your printer is actually on – maybe it shut itself off after a period of time when you left the room to make a cup of coffee? Also make sure that it is still plugged in to the wall outlet or power strip, and that it is further also still plugged into the computer itself. Printers are not always used constantly like your speakers or another more common peripheral is, so if you have a desktop computer that sits under your desk, it is not unheard of that you might have accidentally kicked the cord loose somehow without realizing it. Check on all that stuff first before you move on to other things, because these are common issues that arise and if that is what is going on, you do not want to waste time looking for drivers and more if all you needed to do was shove the USB plug into the port a little more firmly.
If neither of those issues are causing your printer issue, then it could very likely be a driver problem. Drivers are small pieces of software that Windows needs in order to make your various hardware components and other peripherals, like printers, work correctly. Without a driver, or with an outdated driver or corrupted driver, then your peripherals just will not work correctly, if at all. You may need to uninstall your driver and reinstall it or update the driver to correct your problem.
To do this, you can first try checking Windows Update. Windows Update is designed to detect the hardware plugged into your computer automatically and let you know if there is a newer driver out there. Open Windows Update by clicking on the Start button, then going to All Programs and clicking on Windows Update. In the left pane of Windows Update, choose Check for Updates and let Windows run through and look for updates for you.
If an updated driver for your printer is found, then go ahead and click on Install updates to install it. You may find this fixes the problem! But even if Windows Update does not find an updated driver, that does not mean there isn't one available that could solve your problem. Go to your printer manufacturer's site and find out by looking in the support section. Drivers are usually listed by printer model as well as by Windows edition.
These are some of the most common causes for a printer that just won't print. If your printer is not functioning correctly, run through these quick troubleshooting tips to see if you can't get it going again.
