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Why won't my printer print?
It always seems to happen just when you need it most... We can help.

Why can't I print anything? If you didn't know better, you'd swear that your printer has a "dire need sensor" and the more urgently you need to print that report, homework, or list of mailing labels, the more likely it seems that it will suddenly just quit working!

This problem appears to be universal, and although it can sometimes be caused by a paper jam or bad cable, or a failure of the printer hardware itself, it is most often the result of a problem with software, configuration, or the printer driver (the program that tells your computer how to communicate with the printer).

What are the symptoms? Sometimes when your printer quits, you get an error message, sometimes you don't. In some cases, the printer stops working and remains that way. In other cases, it seems like it prints sometimes, but not all the time. Here are some typical symptoms that our customers report:

  • My printer stopped printing when I ran out of paper and now it won't start again.
  • I ran out of paper in the middle of printing and now it just prints one or two characters on each page and won't stop till it runs out of paper.
  • My printer hasn't worked right since I had a paper jam.
  • When I print, it takes a long time and then tells me the print job failed.
  • Sometimes my printer prints okay, but other times, it won't print at all.
  • I have a shared printer and can print from some computers, but not from others.
  • My printer seems like it's printing, but only blank pages come out.
  • Everything I print has white stripes through it.
  • I can't find my printer in the list when I go to print.

What can be done about it? Some printing problems can be solved by clearing the print queue and the print buffer (yes, yes, I know, that's geek speak, but I'll explain). Here's how:

  • Click open START then CONTROL PANEL then PRINTERS AND FAXES
  • If asked, click the link that says view or modify existing printers
  • You should get to a window that shows a list of printers that are installed on your computer
  • Look for the printer icon with a tiny little checkmark in a black circle to the upper right (see image below). This is your default printer, that is, it's the one that prints if you don't manually select a specific printer.


    Note how the checkmark indicates that the Brother HL-2040 Series is my default printer

  • In most cases, this is the printer you are having trouble with, but the following procedure can be applied to any printer on your system.
  • Double click open your default printer to view the print queue


    Note that there are two documents waiting to print in my print queue

  • If the print queue is empty, skip the next step
  • Click and pull down the PRINTER menu from the top of the print queue and select CANCEL ALL DOCUMENTS. This will delete anything that's stuck in the queue


    After clicking CANCEL ALL DOCUMENTS, it may take a minute or two for the queue to completely clear

  • Click and pull down the PRINTER menu from the top of the print queue. If there is a line item that says USE PRINTER OFFLINE and there is a checkmark to the left of it, click it once, otherwise, click CLOSE.
  • Now go to the printer and power it off, wait a few seconds and power it back on.
If these steps haven't solved your printing problem, then you probably need help.

How can Geek Housecalls help? When you call Geek Housecalls for help with printing problems, we will first try to determine if it's a software problem, or a problem with the printer hardware. This is important, because with the average price of printers hovering around $100-$150, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have you pay us that much, or more to tinker with an inexpensive printer, when the problem could be solved by simply replacing the printer.

Your geek will arrive prepared to solve your printing problems. All Geek Housecalls geeks have extensive hands-on experience installing, configuring, and troubleshooting printers including inkjet or deskjet printers, laser printers, photo printers, color printers, shared printers, network printers, all-in-one printers and multifunction printers. Our experience is not limited to specific manufacturers and our geeks are equally comfortable working with brand name printers like HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Dell, Brother, Fuji, and xerox, as well as lesser known and specialty brand printers.

In any case, you can count on Geek Housecalls to get in and solve your printing problems as well as make suggestions for how to prevent problems in the future, so feel free to look over our shoulder and ask questions! We want to leave you not only with a working computer, but also with a smile!

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Ink vs. Toner,
an epic battle is brewing in your wallet

"...Using the same price scale as printer ink, a cup of coffee would be $96..."

When it comes to buying ink for your printer, you might just think that the ink manufacturers took their pricing model straight from the perfume manufacturers... *Oh this eau de cyan is simply to die for, such a wonderful blue and at just $16 an ounce!*

When you consider that the average ink cartridge (also referred to as "ink tank") has a capacity of just .85 ounces, it makes the purchase of ink look pretty darned extravagant! Just for kicks, let's apply the ink pricing model to some other typical consumable liquids... How about a $96 cup of coffee, a $192 can of soda, or a $2048 gallon of milk? And don't even ask what it would cost for enough water to take a shower!!

So besides the excercise in math (which we geeks just revel in), is there another point to this column? You bet! If you find yourself picking up printer ink as often as groceries and are spending more than $50 a year on ink (and who isn't?), you should consider a laser printer. Why? Because the cost of laser printers has dropped down into the same price range as inexpensve inkjet printers, and although laser printer toner cartridges tend to cost 2-3 times more than ink, they will typically print 5 times more pages before running out, which means your cost per page and overall cost of use is significantly lower.

But what about your photos and other color projects you ask? We're not saying you should toss your color printer, just that you should put a laser printer into place as your default printer, and save the color printer for when you need to print in color. If you look at the typical shared printer usage in a family environment, there's page upon page of beautifully colorful printouts such as driving directions, maps, web pages, homework papers and such that would all be perfectly good in black & white, but that are printed in color because that's the printer you have.

And there are other benefits to consider...

  • Laser printers will usually print multiple page documents faster than inkjet printers
  • Many lasers have a "draft" or "toner saver" setting that extends toner cartridge life further by printing everything a little bit lighter on the page
  • The longer laser printer cartridge life not only means more pages per cartridge, it also means fewer cartridges per year and therefore fewer trips to the store (Andy's family of 7 goes through a laser cartridge about once every 14 months, compared to monthly runs for ink when the inkjet was the only printer at home)
  • Laser printer output is fused to the page via heat instead of being sprayed on like ink. As a result, laser output is more durable in terms of handling, and doesn't run when it gets wet.

Unless you hardly print at all, or print only photos and other projects needing color, putting a laser printer into place is usually a great economic choice. And one last thing... this column is a comparison of average black & white laser printers to average color inkjet printers. There will always be cases where the economies don't work out the same. The good news if you're trying to figure it out though, is that most printer manufacturers provide detailed specs online that can help you determine the actual costs of printing.

What's the best way to determine the overall cost of printing with different types of printers? when it comes to comparing printers, you can't just go by cartridge price alone, the best way to evaluate is to take the cartridge price and divide it by the published page-count per cartridge. That way, you end up with cost-per-page as a standard of measurement that can be applied no matter what type, brand, or model of printer you're considering.