Printers

Types of printers

Connection types:

Directly connected printers: Old printers used to have LPT port. Modern ones use USB
Network connected: LAN connected(wired), Wifi and WLAN Direct (wireless)

Technologies used to print:

Liquid ink (expensive, ink dries quickly)
Laser beam (cheaper, long life toner)

Size:

desk size printers (usb, serves one or two machines)
small office printers(multi function printers, serves a small office)
heavy duty printers (high initial cost, economic on the long run)

Installing printer drivers

For physical printers

search and download appropriate driver on the machine
Run executable (unzip before if needed)
follow steps for driver installer

troubleshooting:

go to device manager > scan for hardware changes
Under usb controllers section > check controller properties and make sure power saving options is unchecked

For network printers

go to devices and printers
select add a printer
If any network shared or active directory listed printers are available it’ll detect it
select add a printer using tcp/ip or hostname
create new tcp/ip port
assign ip address and uncheck automatic driver selection option(to avoid windows automatic driver installation)

From devices and printers > select the printer and enter properties
Under sharing tab, change the share name to an appropriate one or leave it as is
If another machine now accesses the UNC path (i.e. \\localhost\) of the printer enabled machine, it’ll be able to see and install driver
If the client machine has different windows versions than the host machine, it is configurable under the Advanced tab. We can add more drivers as needed for easy installation on the client machines

Printer terminologies

paper size & type:

A4, A3, A5, letter
plain, recycled, thick, thick 2

speed:

papers per minute (ppm)
for scanner feeder speed: ppm as well

duty cycle: printing volume per month printing quality: DPI (dots per inch), the more the better internal memory: important for request queuing. the more the better duplexing: printing on both sides bypass tray: useful for thicker type papers cartridge: the toner itself. can be laser or ink

To determine cost-efficiency the factors to consider are:

initial cost
toner price
how many pages it prints
other consumables (drum)

Common troubleshooting

Paper jamming

Most common issue is paper jamming. Open the back cover and check the printer for jammed papers(can refer online for guide). If it’s not the physical printer itself, the holy grail of IT solutions might just work. Simply turn it off and on again
We can also check for the USB cable connections for physical ones. For network printers, try to ping to the printer IP
Open the printer queue and toggle the “use printer offline” on and off
Go to services (services.msc), find Print Spooler. Restart the service. This should solve any queueing issues

Wrong format/wrong paper size

Sometimes users can send wrong paper formats or wrong paper sizes. For this:

from devices and printers > right-click open printing preferences
under advances, default paper size should be A4