How do I troubleshoot printing issues with Best Practice Software?

Transcription

1 How do I troubleshoot printing issues with Best Practice Software? This FAQ is intended to answer common questions about troubleshooting printing issues with Best Practice Software. Printing Problems If you are having printing problems follow these steps: Check to make sure the printer is turned on and connected to the network port or PC. Check the print monitor. If the queue is long, your document may not yet have had a chance to print. If only your print job appears, try to delete it and try to print again. Is the printer out of paper? Is the network cable plugged into the printer port (not the phone port)? Are you connected to the network? [check cables] Ask if other people are able to print to that printer. Did you send the document to the correct printer? [if not, change it] Are you out of memory? [close some windows/applications] Go to the printer and check that there is nothing physically wrong with the printer for example the printer is out of ink/paper or there is paper jam in the printer. If you find a physical problem with a printer please notify your hardware supplier as soon as possible. If the printer is in order then check the following:- Check Page size settings Go back to your PC and open the application you were using to print. Open the "Page Setup" dialog box located in the Word Processor "File" menu. Make sure that paper size is set to the correct size (almost always A4) as some printers will not print if you attempt to print to them with an unusual paper size. Once you have verified your settings click on the "OK" button. Try printing your document again. A test you can perform is to print a test page from the printer s properties which is independent to any application which will indicates if the computer is communicating with the printer. Select Start > Printer & Faxes. Right click on the printer name and select properties. Click on the button Print test page. If this prints correctly, try printing your document again. If it does not print, contact your IT support technician for further assistance. Page 1 of 6

2 Best Practice Software printer setup Best Practice Software printer setup can be found from the Best Practice main menu - Setup > Printers. "You must have permissions to access the Configuration menu". This screen allows the user to configure their printer settings. There is a setting for each document type within Best Practice. This allows you to either select different printers or different printer options for different document types. (e.g. Scripts could print from Tray 1 on Kyocera printer, Invoices could print from Tray 1 on the Canon printer and Letters could print from Tray 2 on Canon printer). You can configure a printer to Prompt for Printer so that you get the printer dialog box each time you print. This is useful for users who move rooms or move between clinics. You can also configure a printer to provide a Print preview. To change the printer to use:- Identify the document type that you want to configure the printer for. Highlight the printer field in the middle column and a blue arrow will appear. The list of installed printers will be displayed. Select the printer from the 'Printer' list. You can also select to 'Prompt for printer' from the drop down list which prompts the user with the windows Printer dialog box each time they print and will allow them to change printers on the fly. To change the printer settings:- Identify the document type that you want to configure the printer for. Highlight the printer field in the middle column, Click the Setup button. The Setup printer screen will appear Select the Paper source, Show preview or Horizonal or Vertical adjustments as required. The horizontal and vertical settings allow -ve values for printers margins that misalign text. Page 2 of 6

3 Best Practice Software Word processor setup Each user can also set their 'Preferences' setting for the Best Practice 'Word Processor'. This can be accessed via Setup > Preference > Letters. These settings act as the global default settings when creating new documents. User preferences to set are 'Default Font', 'Font size', 'Margins and 'Letter as Draft'. Within the Word processor you can also change specific settings for orientation and paer size via 'File > Page setup'. Paper Jams Among the most common problems with any make of printer are paper jams. A printer will jam for any number of reasons: It s dirty, the wrong paper type is being used, or the rollers on the printer that feed the paper through its pathway are worn down. While cleaning the printer periodically and using the correct paper type are easy fixes, roller replacement can be a difficult job depending on the model of printer. For some printers, the rollers are easily accessible, but you'll need to completely tear down other models to remove the rollers. Regardless of the cause, when removing a paper jam, always pull the paper in the direction of the paper path, because pulling it backwards can severely damage the printer. Any printer that holds the paper vertically and then pulls it down through the printer invariably ends up having paper jam problems. These models aren't designed for heavy use, but many organizations make use of them on individual systems and should be aware of this flaw. Deleting Stuck Print Jobs Sometimes print jobs may get stuck in the queue and will need to be deleted before anyone else can print. To delete a print job, press the Cancel button on the printer. You can also delete your own jobs by clicking Start > Settings > Printers, double-clicking the printer and deleting the job from the list. If you are having a problem deleting a print job, the printer may need to be powered off for 1 minute to clear out its internal memory. Handling Mismatched Print Jobs A mismatched job is one in which the options called for in the print job don t match the currently available options for the printer. For example, a print job that calls for legal paper or an envelope in a one-tray printer may be mismatched with the printer s current configuration. You can configure a printer to hold mismatched jobs on the Scheduling tab of the printer s Properties dialog box. Once the option is selected, the spooler will match the document s printer codes against the setup of the physical printer. If there s a mismatch, the spooler will hold the job in the queue, pushing other jobs ahead of it. At some point, when its convenient, you can change the physical printer to match the job, configure the Properties to match the change, and print the job. If you don t tell the printer to watch out for mismatched jobs, the mismatched job holds up the entire queue until somebody notices an error message (if you re lucky enough to get one) or notices the printer s blinking lights (and probably a message on the front panel asking for a manual feed of paper). Page 3 of 6

4 Some or all of the printing on the page is faded A faded print image is normally the result of one of three conditions: The printer is getting low on toner, the print density is set too low, or Economy mode printing is turned on. For the last two settings, a printer self-test (typically a separate button on the printer) will show what the current settings are. If Economy mode is on, and users are complaining about how light the print is, turn it off and/or set the print density higher. If the toner is low, simply removing the cartridge and shaking it to redistribute the toner more evenly can temporarily resolve the problem until you can replace the cartridge. Ghosting Ghosting is a condition where the image prints properly, but a much lighter copy of the image also prints elsewhere. This can be due to a problem with the power outlet that is supplying power to the printer. Check the power outlet by plugging in a different printer to see if the same results occur. Ghosting can also be caused when consumable printer parts (such as the drum or imaging kit) are near the end of their life. All of the consumable parts in a printer are rated for a certain number of pages. Once a printer gets near that magic number, you'll need to replace those parts to eliminate ghosting. Toner smears or does not stay on the paper If words and images come off the paper when a hand is run across them, there are a few possible problems. First, the fuser assembly may be damaged or at the end of its life. The solution is to replace the fuser assembly. Repairing a fuser assembly is generally not recommended because the fuser is considered a consumable printer part and not worth the time or effort to fix. Second, the toner cartridge may be defective and letting too much toner out at one time. In a black-and-white laser printer, the solution is to replace the toner cartridge. In a colour laser printer, only replace the cartridge that is exhibiting the problem. Third, some toner may have spilled in the printer. If so, you'll need to clean it out. Drivers for a particular operating system As new operating systems are released, new drivers will need to be loaded for your existing printers. Not all printers have a driver for every OS. In these cases, it s best to consult the printer manual and find out what printers the drivers will emulate. While not all of the functionality of the printer will be available under this emulation, at least basic printing will work. For example, most HP printers will print with the HP LaserJet II driver installed, although specific options, such as duplexing, will not work. Printer is not printing from the expected paper tray Look in two places to correct this particular error. First, look on the printing PC, and second, on the printer. If the application is set to print to the wrong paper tray, correct it within the application by clicking on Printer Properties and finding the Tray Selection source. On the printer, make sure that the paper sizes in the control panel match what is actually in the paper trays. Printer picks up all the paper from the manual feed tray rather than one sheet The pad that is responsible for separating the paper has likely worn out and needs to be replaced. You can order and install a new pad without sending the printer out for repair. It is also possible that the paper is wet due to humidity. Make sure the paper is properly stored and that it is fanned before putting it into the printer. Trouble printing onto envelopes Envelopes can cause many problems for laser printers. Make sure that the adhesive on the envelope is capable of withstanding the heat that the fuser puts out to keep the printing on the page. If you don t, the envelopes will come out of the printer already sealed. If envelopes are coming out of the printer wrinkled, they may be too stiff for the paper path. Open the rear of the printer and let them exit at that location instead. Page 4 of 6

5 Note: It is recommended to troubleshoot printing issues like you would any other computer/network related problem. Start at a general point and rule out the possibilities until you have the specific cause. The first question that needs to be answered is: "Is the problem hardware, software, network or performance related?". When troubleshooting networking problems with printers, you will typically follow the same lines of reasoning that you would troubleshooting a PC networking issue especially with newer models of printers. The very first thing to do is narrow down the scope the problem. Is it only an issue for 1 PC, multiple PCs or all of them? With most printers, over 50% of all problems are customer fixable. Setting a Default Printer After you have logged in, click on the "Start" button in lower left hand corner of the screen. Select "Printers and Faxes" then locate the printer you wish to set as the default. Right click on the printer and choose "Set as default printer." Performance: Performance related issues are usually the result of incorrect customer expectations. There are actually 3 parts to print performance. The time that it takes the job to get to the printer, the time that it takes for the printer to process the job(rip) and the time that it takes for the printer to actually print the job once it has received it. Let's look at each of these separately. Transfer time: This really has nothing to do with the printer at all. If jobs are taking a long time to get to the printer, check your network traffic. You may have to get a network sniffer or network monitoring software to check this. If you are using an external print server such as a Jet Direct box, consider the fact that you actually have a parallel connection to the printer which has a slower transfer rate than a network connection. The parallel connection from the print server to the printer is a bottleneck. Some printers are now supporting 100baseT connections which may help in this area. Processing time: The processing that occurs on a printer is called Raster Image Processing(RIP). This is the process of the printer converting the file sent into image data that the printer uses to "paint a picture" on the page. If this process appears to be slow, the first thing to consider is the size of the file being sent. If you are sending a 5mb file, it is going to take some time to process. Note: In order to view the true size of the file being processed by the printer, you must print to file and then find the size of the file after it has been run through the driver. PostScript files can be as much as 3x larger than the original file. Send over a simple notepad file with the word "test" on it and see if there is a significant difference. Find out if the printer's memory is upgradable. This can help with processing times. Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(dpi). File sizes will typically be larger when higher resolutions are selected. Print time: The print speed that is quoted by the manufacturer does not include transfer or processing time. It only includes print engine speed once the job is processed. If the printer handles multiple paper sizes, the print speed probably is referring to the speed for the smallest paper size. If you are printing on pages larger than 8.5x11 inches, the print speed will be slower. If it is a colour printer, find out if there are different speed capabilities for color and monochrome. Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(dpi). Printers will typically print slower in higher resolutions. WARNING: Some printers differ from computers in that they may not have shielded power supplies. That means that a plugged-in printer can expose you to full outlet power, which is enough to kill you. Never open a printer case unless the printer is unplugged! Page 5 of 6

6 MORE INFORMATION For more information consult the Best Practice Help Library or contact us via: Last Reviewed: 31/12/2008 Page 6 of 6