Printers are a time saver without a doubt, and saves a lot of writing too. If you are experiancing problems there are a few basic things to look for:
Does the ink pack or cartridge have ink?
Some of the newer Ink Jet printers have the print head built into the ink cartridge, so when you change ink cartridges you are also changing the printer head.
Most printers will have a power on self test, usually you hold down the form feed buttom while you turn the printer on and it will do a basic print out of all the features. (Check the doc's that came with your printer, some vary on the method.)
If you perform this test and there is a fault, disconnect the printer cable and try again, if it still comes up with a fault then there is problems within the printer itself, contact the tech. support of the maker for more info.
If there is not a fault then try a new printer cable, the wires in these a very small and can break quite easily. If that dosn't fix it, try to print a page from the dos edit program. If it prints from this then it is probably the drivers for your platform are wrong or your printer is not supported.
As mentioned above some printers will emulate others, check the doc's of the printer and the program you are using to see if there is one model that both will accept. The most common being an IBM Proprinter.
If the print from dos edit fails and you have tried a new printer cable and the self test worked okay it could be the printer port itself is at fault, run Msd.exe from the dos prompt and check the printer port status.
Some motherboards have a printer port built in onboard but they need to be enabled by either a jumper on the motherboard or in the cmos configuration. Check the manual for more info.
If there is not an onboard printer port then it will be on a plug in controller card, usually the same card that controlls the HDD,FDC and com port interfacing, check the doc;s for the proper jumper settings for the controller card.
If the printer is not getting power try a diffrent cord, some printers use in inline tranformer that can also be the problem, contact the printer vendor for more info.
Lines printing with a blur in them is usually caused be a dirty print head or the ribbon being not installed correctly, for an ink jet remove the cartridge and gently clean the print head with a lint free cloth with a little rubbing alchol on it to remove any dryed up ink on it, be carefull not to touch the metal strip that makes contact with the printer as the slightest static charge can damage the cartridge.
If it is a ribbon type, with paper installed, take another piece of paper and rub against the metal tab that goes against the paper.
Always use a good quaility paper that is bonded, unbonded paper can leave fibers behind that over a period of time will just get into everything and make a mess.
Unless you are doing a good print use the draft setting as much as possable, this saves about 50% of the ink used as compared to a quaility print.
Is the printer compatable with the program you are using?
Are you using the proper driver for your printer?
Is the Printer Cable good?
Most printers will emulate many other makes, this makes them more compatable with various software.
Make sure you are using the latest drivers for your model of printer in the platform you are using(eg: WIN95, WIN3.1 )
Make sure you use a good quaility printer cable, espically if it is over 6 feet long, the signals sent to the printer are a vary low voltage, the better the cable the stronger the signal is going to be at the other end.
