Archive for the ‘Other Troubleshooting’ Category

Even though email is readily available and efficient, fax machines are still great to have around the office. If you’ve recently brought one home, unwrapped it and set it up, you may think you are ready to go. However, with most HP fax machines, the only way to ensure that the fax is setup correctly is to run a test fax. While in the past with HP or nowadays with other manufacturers you may have to have a friend send and receive a fax with you, HP’s free Fax Test operation gives users a fast and efficient way to test whether or not your fax unit is correctly up and running. If you have about 10 minutes or so, you are ready to go.

Make sure your fax machine is plugged in, turned on and filled with paper.

Take a fax cover machine and fill it out completely. You will probably need to write your name and fax number on this sheet. For the recipient, simply write in the HP Fax Test number. This number is 1-888-473-2963. Also make sure you mark the number of pages, in this case it will only be two.

Take a blank sheet of paper and the face cover sheet, and place the cover sheet on top. Depending on your machine, place your sheet either face down or face up.

Next, type in the test fax line number into the keypad of your machine. Remember, this fax number is 1-888-473-2963. Depending on your machine, you will either need to press “Send” or “Start”.

About five or ten minutes after the fax has been sent, HP will send you a return fax. When you have received this back from HP, you will know your machine is functioning properly on both ends. If this does not work, you can try installing the unit again and running the test page again.

Are you experiencing some sort of trouble when trying to print connected with Windows? If so, there are many different reasons you may be experiencing an issue connecting your printer to your Windows operating system.

First and foremost, you should check the hardware you’re operating with. Surprisingly, many problems when printing are caused simply because the hardware isn’t properly set up. You need to first check the power. Make sure the switch is on or that the color light indicates so.

You should also check the extension cord, surge protector or outlet that the printer is supposed to be plugged into. If it is unplugged, you’ve solved your problem. If its plugged into a surge protector, ensure that the switch on that is turned on as well. You also want to make sure that all cords between the printer and computer and plugged correctly.

After that if your problem isn’t solved, use a troubleshooter. This can help fix problems during installation, connection or spooling. Just click your “Microsoft Fix it” button to fix the problem. Then go to the “File download” box and click the “Run” option. Follow all the steps that you are given.

If the first two suggestions don’t work, there’s one last thing to try— you need to update your drivers. You can do this one of three ways. The first is to use Windows Update. Make sure that you also set this to automatically download and install any updates that may occur. You can also install this software from the manufacturer of your printer.

Generally printers come with a CD that you can download from. This may contain the old version, as well as the updates. The last way is to download and install updates from your manufacturer’s website.
If none of these ideas work, you may need to contact Windows directly.

If you operating with a Mac operating system and are trying to connect your wireless Canon Pixma MP620, you are probably experiencing a technical issue. If this is an issue for you, it most likely has something to do with the default Mac firewall installed on your computer. For an easy fix to this issue, follow the steps below.

First, click on the apple icon on your upper left hand corner of your page, then choose “System preferences”.

You will need to click a button that reads “Show all”. This helps you see all of the options listed. Now click the tab that says “Personal” and then click “Security”. Three tabs should pop up at the top, and you need to make sure that you choose “Firewall” and then click on it.

There should be three different options that appear on your screen next, but you will want to choose the first option, “Allow all incoming connections. This will change your firewall settings to allow wireless printing.

With your firewall disabled, you should be easily able connect your Pixma MP620. You will need to click onto the “Show All” button which will take you to the “System Preferences” page. Click on “hardware” then click on the “Print and fax” option.

There should be a list of printers that pops up on the left side of the screen. If your printer series “MP620” is listed, delete it from the options. Now put your Canon installation CD that came with the printer to reinstall the printer onto your computer. If you can no longer locate the installation CD, go to Canon’s website download the driver there.

Now that it’s downloaded, try printing from your unit again. If that works, you should be able to re-enable your firewall settings by clicking “Allow only essential services” tab.

If the printer still works, you are goo to go. If it doesn’t work, you will need to set up an exception on your firewall settings.

Windows and Mac seem to be the two most used operating systems out there on the market. However, there are some that aren’t as well known that are just as efficient. Citrix is one of those that generally get forgotten about, and users rarely find the support they need online. If you are trying to add printers to Citrix but are having problems, read these simple instructions to get you up and running.

Log onto Citrix using your normal login. Once you are on, locate your home or your company’s print server from a list and click on it.

Go to the “Start” menu and then to “Run”. Here you will need to type in your printer server’s name into the box.  Then click “Ok”.

A new list should pop up. Here you can select the printer you are trying to install and double click it. A download should begin.

Now that you can print, you may want to add a few policies and settings to your machine.

Click on the “Start” option and then “All Programs”. An option called “Citrix” should open. Click on it.

When a new list pops up, choose the “Policies” option, and then click “HDX Plug-n-Play. Now select “Printing”.

A new box will pop up, and the option “Client Printers” should be in there. Choose the “Auto-creation” function, and then start this up by choosing “Enabled”.

Next, click on “Create dynamic session-private client printers”. Here you will need to click the “HDX Plug-n-Play” option once more, and then click on “Printing”. There will be an option called “Session printers” that you will need to click into, and then choose “Enabled”.

Once you are done, click on the button that reads “Apply” and then click “Ok”. This will save all the changes you have made. After you have done all of these steps your printer should successfully be setup with your Citrix system.

If you have an HP in the LaserJet P2010 series you know how great of a product you have. What may be a little annoying about the machine, though, is its status lights. There are six status lights and each one stands for something different. Each light can also be combined with other lights to mean something completely different. To better understand, consider these seven lights as lights 1-7.

If light number one is the only light flashing, you have a printer jam that needs to be cleared.

Light two simply means that toner is missing. All you have to do is reinstall the printer cartridge.

When the third light is blinking, you are out of paper and need to restock.

The fourth light blinking means that the door to the cartridges is open. To fix this, simply close the door.

If the fifth light is on and solid, that means that your printer is ready for operation, but there is no activity in progress. If it is blinking, then your printer is processing the data. If you need to cancel the print job, hit the “Cancel” button.

When light four is blinking and light six is solid, you are probably having a manual feed error. To clear this, press the “Go” button on your machine. You also may have a general continual error, a personality/job related error or memory configuration error. For all of these, follow the same instruction.  

If lights four through six are lit up, you are having a fatal error and must turn the printer off for at least 10 seconds before turning the printer back on. If that doesn’t work, contact your manufacturer.

When the second and fifth light are solid, that means your toner is low, so make sure you have some in stock before the printer is completely empty.

Whenever the third light is blinking and the sixth light is solid, it shows that your loaded paper isn’t supported by your printer.

One of the best things about the HP OfficeJet machines is that most after 2008 offer wireless capabilities. Many HP OfficeJet units offer faxing, but how do you get the wireless faxing setup? If you have a wireless router and printer in hand the process is fairly simple.

Plug your fax machine into an outlet and turn it on. It has to be in operating mode before you can connect it to the network. Your OfficeJet printer should have a “Line-In” port—plug your telephone line into that. The telephone line is what gives your unit the ability to receive and send faxes.

On your fax machine, hit the option “Menu”.  Chose the “Network” button. Here your computer should pull up a list of all wireless networks in range. Pick the wireless network that you want your printer to be connected with. Some printers, depending on your privacy settings, may make you enter your password at this point.

After you’ve entered the password, click “Enter” to save the changes you’ve made. This allows configuration to the printer’s internal memory so that every time you turn the unit on it will connect to the wireless network.

Next, you will need to load any drivers onto your computer. Generally these may be found on a CD that came with the OfficeJet unit. However, if you don’t have your original CD, you can load these drivers directly from HP’s support website.

You should now be connected to the wireless fax network, but you should test a fax page to make sure the process has been completed. If the test fax doesn’t work correctly, then try the process once again. If that doesn’t work, consult your user’s manual or call the manufacturer directly. However, if a successful fax does send, then you are ready to send and receive faxes via your wireless network.

If you own an HP Deskjet in the 6100 series, you are probably pretty used to the blinking lights that are very common. You may not know what each of these blinking lights mean or how to fix them, though.

On the front panel, these units have three lights and four buttons. The status of the printer can actually be determined by what the lights are doing. The top button is your “Cancel” button, the next is a printer cartridge status light. The next one down is your unit’s “Resume” button and light, followed by the power button and power light.

If your print cartridge light is flashing, there could be two issues with your machine. The first is that the top cover of the printer may not be closed properly. If that is the case, close the top of the unit and lock the printer into place. The second is that the correct ink cartridges are not installed. You should have an HP 78 and an HP 45 in place. This light may go off if one cartridge is empty as well.

If the resume light is flashing, your problem lies in the paper. You may be out of paper, have a jam or need to switch to the paper for a two-sided document. If you are out of paper, simply refill. If you aren’t out of paper, there is probably a jam so remove any paper or any fragments of paper that may be stuck. The last issue means that you need to follow the onscreen instructions for printing a two-sided document. Then press the “Resume” button.

If your power light is flashing, this isn’t a problem, but more of a warning that your machine is preparing for a print job. When the light stops flashing, the printer is ready to print.

If all your lights are flashing, don’t be alarmed. Most likely, your printer will just need to be restarted. To do this turn the printer completely off and disconnect it from power.

When using an inkjet printer, like one that uses Canon BCI-6Y ink, or a laser printer in conjunction with any Windows operating system—7, Vista or XP—an error called “System error 1068” can be quite common. This message may flash up on your computer screen during a print job when it is time for your printer spooler to be reset. The error reads that “System error 1068 has occurred…The printer spooler service is not running.”

In order to reset the print spooler, there are only a few steps you will need to follow. Before you completely reset the spooler, though, you should try simply restarting it first. To do this, go into the “Administrative Tools” option on your Start menu and click the “Services” button twice. When the print spooler begins running, click on the “Restart” button. After it is finished, try printing a test document with the HP 02 Black ink. If everything prints normally without error messages, you have fixed the problem. If not, continue these next few steps.

Next, you will need to boot safe mode and reset your print spooler. In order to restart your computer in safe mode, restart the computer and press “F8” before the computer loads completely. Select the “Safe Mode” option, and then hit “Enter”. When it has finished loading, log into your computer.

When you make it to this step, you are reader to remove or reset the printer spooler. Open the “Start Menu”, and choose the “My Computer” icon. You will then need to go into your C: drive and go to “Windows\System32\Spool” folder. Next, open the “Drivers” and “Printers” folders on your PC, and delete any files or folders inside of them. When they have been successfully removed, you will need to restart your computer in standard mode. Now, your spooler files should be reset when you use the ink, like Epson T069220 ink, the error files should no longer come up. If they do, you can try these steps one more time. If that doesn’t work, though, you will probably need to contact your manufacturer.

A term that may be foreign to you, but is important for all printer owners to know and understand is print queue. A print queue is involved in each and every print you send to a printer, such as a Canon FX-9 toner printer, yet many people don’t actually know what that is—a queue displays information about files that are waiting to be printed. In your queue you can view the status of your document—meaning spooling, deleting or printing—and you can see whether or not there are errors with your job. Also listed are the number of pages, sizes of jobs and the owner’s name.  Here you can even cancel print jobs.

So how do you get to your printer’s queue? First, click the “Start” button at the bottom of your screen and then click the “Control Panel” option. After that click “Hardware and Sound,” followed by “Printers”. Here you will open the print queue by choosing the printer you are using, and you can also see your printer’s status here.  If your Brother TN360 toner printer, for instance, is already printing the document you will find a “currently printing” message at the top of the list. It will say “pending” if print jobs have not began.

You can also check the Dell 330-1436 toner level and status online because most new printers actually serve their own web pages. To check this way, find your printer’s IP address and enter that into the address field of your web browser. When the screen appears that asks you if you want to install your printer’s utility program click “Yes”. A screen will then appear with your status information.

If you choose to cancel a print job already in the queue, try simply clicking on the “Cancel” command; however if you wish to print multiple jobs, click on the “Purge” command.  You can also pause jobs midway through by clicking the “Pause Printing” option in your printer menu.

If you have an HP LaserJet printer, such as a model with HP Q5951A toner, you probably find it to be both reliable and durable. These machines are high-quality—there’s no question about that, but sometimes just like any other printer, your HP LaserJet is going to act up and possibly have a problem. Sometimes this problem is miniscule but annoying—like the beeping that sounds when your printer is connected to a power strip, surge protector or uninterruptible power supply (or UPS).

What is causing this annoying beep to keep going? This has something to do with the power supply you are using. When your printer is processing the job, it sends a current to your UPS, surge protector or power strip, which will then fluctuate slightly. This fluctuation can actually cause an inadequate supply of power to pass through.  Basically, your UPS or surge protector is not allowing the printer to receive sufficient voltage. Your printer doesn’t have speakers built-in, so these noises are coming directly from your external power strip or UPS power source, not the printer itself. 

The beeping is not the only problem that will occur because of a current problem—actually there are quite a few things that can go wrong. If you are receiving false errors or not waking up from sleep mode, there could be an issue with your power supply.  Incorrect printouts, slower than normal printing and jobs only printing halfway with  HP C9733A toner are also common signs, as well as your monitor losing power and shutting off. If your computer reboots itself while jobs are printing, the problem could be with the power supply too.

To find out if your connection is the issue, simply plug your HP CB436A toner printer directly into the wall. If the noises stop, then you have found your problem. If possible, printing directly from the wall daily might be your best bet. However, if  a surge protector, power strip or UPS is needed, this product most likely just needs to be replaced.