WPU CIEE605 PROJECT

Introduction: This guide will describe some general network-shared printer troubleshooting steps. 
 

THE PROBLEM:
A network-shared printer has already been installed to your computer. You login to your computer in your Network, verified that your computer has a valid network connection. You send a print job to the printer, but it refuses to print. The printer was working before but for some reason it stopped working.

Before going into details, let's check some very basic things first:

 Are you printing to the correct printer? Check your printer selection:
In the application from which you want to print, from the File menu, choose Print... . In the box that appears, check to see which printer the application is trying to access. Make sure that this is the printer you want to use. You might be sending to a different printer.

 Can you print from another application?
Print another type of file (for example, a .txt file) from another application (such as Microsoft Word or Excel). If you can print another file, the file that doesn't print correctly may be damaged, or the application that doesn't print might be faulty. It means the problem is specific to the that file or application.

If you cannot print any file or from any application, following are some common problems and their possible causes:

POSSIBLE CAUSES:
Network-shared printing problems basically can be caused by the following possible sources:
1- There might be a problem with the printer equipment.
2 - You might have a connection problem to the destination printer across the Network.
3 - The printer driver installed to your computer might have been corrupted.
 

The problem could be with the print device itself. To check the status of the printer, go to the computer that the printer is connected to.  From that computer try to print a document locally. If it prints, then skip this part and go to Step 2. If you cannot print locally, continue:

If you are at the printer site, you can determine whether the printer itself is functioning properly by printing a test page. Most printers have a built-in diagnostics program which can be very useful for troubleshooting problems and test-printing without a computer. Does it test-print?  If the printer test-prints OK, there is no mechanical print mechanism problem.



Is it plugged-in? Make sure the printer is plugged into a live outlet. Is it connected? If the printer test prints, but it won't go on line, check if the cable from the printer to the computer connected. Make sure that the printer cable between printer and computer isn't loose. Check to see that the printer is powered on and the network cable is properly connected to both the printer and the wall jack.
Please see the video clip below:



Is it on? Make sure the printer is turned on and there are no error lights (LEDs) lit. If there are error lights, refer to the user manual or manufacturer's web site.

Is it on-line? Most printers have an on-line LED button. The computer cannot communicate or send data to a printer that is not on-line. 

Does it have ink or toner? Is the Ink cartridge full, ribbon installed correctly? When the printer display menu states "low toner," it may be time to replace the toner cartridge.

Does it have paper? Be sure the paper is installed correctly and there is enough of it.

Is it jammed?  Turn the printer off, gently remove the jammed paper from the printer referring to your printer manual for guidance.
Turn back the printer on and try printing again.

The printer memory could be full. Turn off the printer for at least 10 seconds to flush its memory, and then turn it back on and try printing again. A print job may be stuck in the local print queue and deleting it from the queue may help.

Checking the Print Queue:
The print queue screen displays various kinds of information about the print jobs listed in the print queue. It can indicate whether the queue is working or not. It can report the status of each print job (spooled, printing, deleting, or error messages). To check the status of a print job:
- Click the Start button, then Printers and Faxes,
- Double-click the desired printer name listed in the Printers screen.


The print queue screen will appear with the currently printing print job at the top of list and all pending print jobs listed below it.
Cancel the print jobs in queue. Usually the top print job (currently printing) is the culprit causing the problem, so try canceling it first. Click Document, then Cancel (this cancels only the one highlighted document). If you cannot get the top print job to disappear, you may have to recycle the printer once or twice to clear the memory of the printer completely.

The printer may need to be recycled to reestablish its connection. If the print job will not disappear in the print queue list after deleting, try recycling the printer. This should clear the memory of the printer and will usually enable the printer to print again. It may also clear out any pending print jobs in the list as well. To recycle the printer: Turn off the printer power switch, leave it off for a while, and then turn it back on again.

If, after all of the above, the drivers may have become corrupted and need to be re-installed. Uninstalling and reinstalling the printer driver often fixes problems. If you don't have the printer installation CD that came with the printer, first download the driver from the manufacturer's website.  (A printer driver or a print processor is a piece of software that converts the data to be printed to the form specific to a printer. The purpose of printer drivers is to allow applications to do printing without being aware of the technical details of each printer model.)
 
Uninstalling Printer Driver: For the complete deletion of local printer driver including all associated files, refer to the following steps:

- Open Printer Folder and right click. Select Server Property.
- Click Drivers tab, and select the driver for deletion. Click Remove.
- For the confirmation message for the deletion, click Yes.


Now, restart the computer, put in the CD and an installation program will begin that you can follow step by step to reinstall the driver. If you download the driver from the manufacturer's website, double click on setup file and follow the directions on the screen.

If you can print locally at the printer site, but cannot print from your own computer, test the network connection to determine whether or not your computer is actually communicating with the printer over the network. If the network connection is intact, it will "reply" to the connection test.

You must first find out the name of the computer which the printer is connected to. To do so:
-Click Start, click Printer and Faxes. Network shared printers will be displayed in the format:

"Name of the printer" on "name of the computer it's connected to".



In our example, the printer that we are having the problems is  "Brother HL-2070 series on LIBMain" .

Here "Brother HL-2070 series" is the name of the printer, and "LIBMain" is the name of the computer that this printer is connected to.

Now, to test the network connection

- Click Start, click Run,
- Type \\NameOfTheComputeThePrinterIsConnected

In our example, you would type \\LIBmain.
Be sure to type backslashes as shown, not forward slashes (/)! Click on the OK.

If a successful  connection can be established to the computer, you should see a screen similar to the following:





If the connection to destination computer cannot be established, you will get a message saying "the network path was not found.". This shows that there is a Network connection problem, the printer is not communicating with the network, contact your System Administrator.



 

If your printer can print locally,
If you can establish a network connection between your computer and the computer that the printer is connected to but still cannot print from your computer, most probably the printer drivers installed to your computer are corrupted.

Uninstall the current driver, delete the printer in the Printer and Faxes. Reboot the computer if needed, reinstall the driver. Reboot if the installation asked you to.

1. Choose Start > Settings, and then double-click Printers (Windows Me, 2000, 98, or NT) or Printers and Faxes (Windows XP).
2. Right-click the network printer, and then choose Delete from the menu.

To completely delete the driver files, follow the instructions in Step 1, where it says "Uninstalling Printer Driver". Do the same steps for your computer as well and restart your computer.



To install the same printer driver again:

1- Click Start, click Run
2- Type the path for the print server and printer (for example, \\NameOfTheComputeThePrinterIsConnected), and then click OK. (In our example type \\LIBMain )
3- You will see the shared printer. Right-click on the printer icon and choose "Connect". The printer will be installed.

Now click Start-Printer and Faxes and check if you have new printer. (In our example, it's "Brother HL-2070N series on LIBMain".)
If you have completed the process successfully, you may right click on it and Set as Default Printer.


 

Follow the steps in the given order

In this guide, we've discussed common network shared printer problems. Please follow the steps in given order to work through these problems. The solution may be as simple as reconnecting a loose cable. Also, note any recent changes to the computer system that may affect printing, such as the following:

- adding new hardware or software
- removing a hardware or deleting a software
- updating hardware or software
- installing or removing fonts
- disconnecting from the network
- installing a firewall

Keep a record of changes made to the system to help you troubleshoot printing and other problems.
 

 RESOURCES:

If this guide did not meet your needs, please try to check the following sites for more options:
- How to Use Windows XP to Share a Printer with Others on Your Network
- How to troubleshoot printing problems in Windows 2000 and in Windows Server 2003
- Picture It!: General printer troubleshooting steps for Windows XP
- Dux Computer Digest – troubleshooting guide
- Troubleshooting network printing

 

WPU College of Education
CIEE 605-60: Learning Technology Operations and Concepts, Fall 2007
Dr. Heejung An

This guide is prepared by Murtaza Ozdemir as an assignment projectr.

 

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