Laser Printer Center

Printer Maintenance

PRINTER MAINTENANCE TIPS: A PRACTICAL USER’S GUIDE

This quick little help is not requiring that you buy flashlights or thosands of dollars in parts.  This is designed to help the average user with the average problems.

Configurations:  Are you having “weird” issues like your printer keeps beeping at you and says something like “paper size mismatch”?  If so, you probably have configuration issues.  The first place to look is the application.  You may have your peper set as a letter sheet in your application and then use the driver to try and print in legal.  Making sure everything is set like paper sizes and paper weights to the proper numbers will eliminate the need for about 35% of your service calls.

Paper Jams:  Probably the most common mechanical issue in a printer.  What can cause a paper jam?  Basically there are a few culprits that always seem to be in the mix when you constantly have paper jams.  What are these?

1. Bad pick up rollers in the tray.  If they are really smooth and have trouble getting some friction, you will have problems.  Solution — Replace the rollers (they are usually under $10)
2. Bad paper — Many people try and use the CHEAPEST possible paper and wind up costing themselves an arm and a leg in service calls.  Poor quality recycled paper is probably the biggest culprit in jamming issues stemming from poor paper quality.
3. Improper set up — With the Kyocera 4000DN, for instance, there is a little roll on the tray where you set the paper size.  If you have it set on legal and try to print letter, it quickly goes bad.

How to Address the Jam:

• Make sure your media is within the printer’s specifications.  If it is not, you may cause permanent damage to the printer.
• Always clear jams by pulling the paper in the same direction it was travelling when it jammed.  There are fragile paper sensors which can jammed if the paper is pulled in the opposite direction!
• Finally, be careful to ensure the whole piece is removed.  Leaving paper trails in the machine is like to cause continuous paper jamming!

Print Quality:

Print quality is another issue we get a lot of calls about.  Here are some basics on print quality. 

Initial Information you Should Gather:

1. Which way the paper was travelling through the machine when the problem occurred.
2. Specs of the paper you are using.  We prefer the Grams per Square Meter (gsm) rating.  “Pound” gets confusing because there is index and bond and they are completely different paper thicknesses.
3. What is the nature of the issue.  Does the toner flake off?  Is it shadowing? Is it not the “right color”? Are the lines showing up plainly? Does it look like someone ripped toner off with duct tape?  Come up with a description of what really happened.  Flaky, duct tape bonding issues will generally be your settings or the fuser.  Lines going through the page will generally be drums or imaging units. 

Communications:

Issues of this sort are generally confounding because there is a “where did that job go” problem.  Communications issues are usually one of these issues.

1. The printer is set for the wrong port type.  The printer is set as parallel but connected as a TCP/IP printer
2. The printer has the wrong IP address programmed in (most common problem)
3. The network card is flaky
4. The memory is flaky or bad
5. The firmware has glitches and needs to be reloaded

Basic Trouble Shooting:

With most printer brands, the easiest place to start is by checking settings.  If settings look good, the print cartridge is the next logical place to go.  Swap the cartridge and see if the problem goes away.  If it gets much harder than this, it may be time to get your IT staff or professional repair group involved.

Errors and Messages:

Every manufacturer builds in a set of codes which can give clues as to what problems are happening with your printer.  If it has a fuser overheating, you may get a code like A2… If you see C3 that can mean duplexing motor error.  WRITING DOWN this error and having the make and model number of your printer makes our life much easier and it makes it far easier to get the correct diagnosis the first time.  Calling in with the information “my laser printer is broken” is not the same from a servicing issue as calling in and saying my HP 4350dn, serial # BFG657849, Displaying an error code 59.4EP, can you help us out?”  As a service group, which call would you rather get?

Printer service is never fun, but the more information you can gather and basic steps you can follow to maintain your own device, the better it will be for you.  When you need help, it will help us get the printer fixed as fast as possible because we’ll be more likely to have a good idea of what we’re going out to fix and have the appropriate parts to get the printer maintenance done for you!