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    PRINTER TYPES

    AND FEATURES

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    TYPES OF PRINTERS

    LASER PRINTERS

    A laser printer is a type of electrophotographic printer that can range from a

    small, personal desktop model to a large, network printer capable of handling

    and printing large volumes continuously.

    Figure 22-1 shows an example of a typical laser printer for a small office.

    Laser printers require the interaction of mechanical, electrical, and optical

    technologies to work.

    Laser printers work by placing toner on an electrically charged rotating drum

    (sometimes called the image drum) and then depositing the toner on paper as

    the paper moves through the system at the same speed the drum is turning.

    Figure 22-2 shows the six steps of laser printing.

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    Note that Figure 22-2 shows only a cross-section of

    the drum, mechanisms, and paper.

    Remember that the drum is as wide as a sheet of

    paper.

    The mirror, blades, and rollers in the drawing are

    also as wide as paper.

    Also know that toner responds to a charge and

    moves from one surface to another if the secondsurface has a more positive charge than the first.

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    THE SIX STEPS OF LASER PRINTING

    ARE LISTED NEXT:

    Cleaning. .

    A sweeper strip cleans the drum of any residual toner, which is

    swept away by a sweeping blade. Erase lamps light the

    surface of the drum to neutralize any electrical charge left on

    it. These erase lamps are usually in the top cover of theprinter.

    Condi t ion ing.

    The drum is conditioned by a roller that places a high uniform

    electrical charge of600V on the surface of the drum. The

    roller is called the primary charging roller or primary corona,which is charged by a high-voltage power supply assembly.

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    CONT..

    Writ ing.

    A laser beam discharges a lower charge only to

    places where toner should go. The uniform charge

    applied in Step 2 is discharged only where you want

    the printer to print. This is done by controlling

    motors and mirrors that direct the laser beam to

    scan across the drum until it completes the correct

    number of passes for each inch of the drum

    circumference.

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    CONT..

    Developing.

    The developing cylinder applies toner to the surface of the

    drum. The toner is charged and sticks to the developing

    cylinder because of a magnet inside the cylinder. A control

    blade prevents too much toner from sticking to the cylindersurface. As the cylinder rotates very close to the drum, the

    toner is attracted to the part of the surface of the drum that has

    a100V charge and repelled from the600V part of the drum

    surface. The result is that toner sticks to the drum where the

    laser beam has hit and is repelled from the area where the

    laser beam has not hit.

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    CONT..

    Transferr ing.

    In the transferring step (shown in Figure 22-2), a strong electrical

    charge draws the toner off the drum onto the paper. This is the first

    step that takes place outside the cartridge and the first step that

    involves the paper. The transfer charging roller puts a positive charge

    on the paper to pull the toner from the drum onto the paper. Then thestatic charge eliminator (refer again to Figure 22-2) weakens the

    charges on both the paper and the drum so that the paper does not

    stick to the drum. The stiffness of the paper and the small radius of

    the drum also help the paper move away from the drum and toward

    the fusing assembly. Very thin paper can wrap around the drum,

    which is why printer manuals usually instruct you to use only paperdesignated for laser printers.

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    CONT..

    Fusing.

    The fusing step uses heat and pressure to fuse the

    toner to the paper. Up to this point, the toner is

    merely sitting on the paper. The fusing rollers apply

    heat to the paper, which causes the toner to melt,

    and the rollers apply pressure to bond the melted

    toner into the paper. The temperature of the rollers

    is monitored by the printer. If the temperature

    exceeds an allowed maximum value (410 degreesF for some printers), the printer shuts down.

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    INKJET PRINTERS

    Inkjet printers

    use a type of ink-dispersion printing and dont normally provide the high quality

    resolution of laser printers, but are popular because they are small and can print

    color inexpensively.

    Most inkjet printers today give photo-quality results, especially when used with

    photo-quality paper. Earlier inkjet printers used 300 x 300 dpi, but inkjet printers today can use up to

    5760 x 1440 dpi.

    Increasing the dpi has drawbacks. It increases the amount of data sent to the

    printer for a single page, and all those dots of ink can produce a wet page.

    An improved technology that gives photo-quality results mixes different colors of

    ink to produce a new color that then makes a single dot. Hewlett-Packard calls thisPhotoREt II color technology.

    HP mixes as many as 16 drops of ink to produce a single dot of color on the page.

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    Inkjet printers tend to smudge on inexpensive paper, and they

    are slower than laser printers.

    If a printed page later gets damp, the ink can run and get quite

    messy.

    The quality of the paper used with inkjet printers significantlyaffects the quality of printed output.

    You should use only paper that is designed for an inkjet

    printer, and you should use a high-grade paper to get the best

    results.

    Figure 22-3 shows one example of an inkjet printer.

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    An inkjet printer uses a print head that moves across the paper, creating one line of theimage with each pass. The printer puts ink on the paper using a matrix of small dots.

    Different types of inkjet printers form their droplets of ink in different ways.

    Printer manufacturers use several technologies, but the most popular is the bubble-jet.

    Bubble-jet printers use tubes of ink that have tiny resistors near the end of each tube.

    These resistors heat up and cause the ink to boil. Then, a tiny air bubble of ionized ink (ink with an electrical charge) is ejected onto the

    paper.

    A typical bubble-jet print head has 64 or 128 tiny nozzles, all of which can fire a dropletsimultaneously. (High-end printers can have as many as 3,000 nozzles.)

    Plates carrying a magnetic charge direct the path of ink onto the paper to form shapes.

    Inkjet printers include one or more ink cartridges.

    When purchasing an inkjet printer, look for the kind that uses two or four separatecartridges. One cartridge is used for black ink.

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    In addition, some color printers use one cartridge for three-colorprinting (colors are yellow, blue, and red, better known as yellow,cyan, and magenta, sometimes written as CcMmY). Other moreexpensive printers use three separate color cartridges.

    Some low-end inkjet printers use a single three-color cartridge

    and dont have a black ink cartridge. These printers must combine all colors of ink to produce a dull

    black.

    Having a separate cartridge for black ink means that it prints trueblack and, more important, does not use the more expensive

    colored ink. To save money, you should be able to replace an empty cartridge

    without having to replace all cartridges.

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    Figure 22-4 shows two ink cartridges.

    The black cartridge is on the left and the three color cartridge is

    on the right.

    The print head assemblage moves across the page as it prints.

    When not in use, the assemblage sits in the far-right positionshown in the figure, which is called the home position.

    This position helps protect the ink in the cartridges from drying

    out.

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    IMPACT PRINTERS

    An impact printer creates a printed page by using some

    mechanism that touches or hits the paper.

    The best-known impact printer is a dot matrix printer.

    It has a print head that moves across the width of the paper, using

    pins to print a matrix of dots on the page. The pins shoot against a cloth ribbon, which hits the paper,

    depositing the ink.

    The ribbon provides both the ink for printing and the lubrication for

    the pinheads.

    The quality of the print is poor compared to other printer types.

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    However, three reasons you see impact printers still in

    use are:

    (1) they use continuous tractor feeds and fanfold

    paper rather than individual sheets ofpaper, making

    then useful for logging events or data;

    (2) they can use carbon paper to print multiple

    copies at the same time; and

    (3) they are extremely durable, give little trouble,

    and seem to last forever.

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    Occasionally, you should replace the ribbon of a dot matrix printer.

    If the print head fails, check on the cost of replacing the head

    versus the cost of buying a new printer.

    Sometimes, the cost of the head is so high its best to just buy a

    new printer. Overheating can damage a print head (see Figure 22-5), so keep

    it as cool as possible to make it last longer.

    Keep the printer in a cool, well-ventilated area, and dont use it to

    print more than 50 to 75 pages without allowing the head to cool

    down.

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    THERMAL PRINTERS AND SOLID INK

    PRINTERS

    Two similar technologies are thermal printers and solid ink printers.Both use heat to produce printed output.

    Thermal printers use wax-based ink that is heated by heat pins thatmelt the ink onto paper.

    The print head containing these heat pins is as wide as the paper.

    The internal logic of the printer determines which pins get heated toproduce the printed image.

    Thermal printers are popular in retail applications for printingreceipts, bar codes, and price tags.

    A thermal printer can burn dots onto special paper, as done by older

    fax machines (called direct thermal printing), or the printer can use aribbon that contains the wax-based ink (called thermal wax transferprinting).

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    One variation of thermal printing uses thermal dye sublimation

    technology to print identification cards and access cards (see

    Figure 22-6).

    A dye-sublimation printer uses solid dyes embedded on different

    transparent films.As the print head passes over each color film, it heats up, causing

    the dye to vaporize onto the glossy surface of the paper.

    Because the dye is vaporized onto the paper rather than jetted at

    it, the results are more photo-lab quality than with inkjet printing.

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    Solid ink printers use ink stored in solid blocks, which Xerox calls colorsticks.

    The sticks or blocks are easy to handle and several can be inserted in theprinter to be used as needed, avoiding the problem of running out of ink inthe middle of a large print job.

    The solid ink is melted into the print head, which spans the width of thepaper.

    The head jets the liquid ink onto the paper as it passes by on a drum.

    The design is simple, print quality is excellent, and solid ink printers are easyto set up and maintain.

    The greatest disadvantage to solid ink printing is the time it takes for the print

    head to heat up to begin a print job, which is about 15 minutes. For this reason, some solid ink printers are programmed to anticipate that a

    print job might be coming based on previous use of the printer, andautomatically heat up.

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    VIEWING TYPES OF PRINTER CONNECTIONS

    AND CONFIGURATIONS

    In this section, you find out how printers are connected to

    computer systems in order to communicate.

    There are a number of different ways to connect a printer to a

    computer the following are the most popular methods:

    Parallel connectionsNetwork connections

    Universal Serial Bus (USB)

    Serial

    Infrared

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    PARALLEL CONNECTIONS

    The most popular method for connecting a printer to a computer

    was, for many years, the parallel port.

    The end of the parallel cable that connects to the computer is a

    male DB-25 connector, while the end that connects to the printer

    is a male 36-pin Centronics connector.

    Figure 5-6 displays a parallel cable with the DB-25 and

    Centronics connector.

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    The maximum length of a parallel cable is 10 feet long any

    longer and the cable runs the risk of crosstalk or data skew:

    Crosstalk is electrical interference from other

    equipment, fluorescent lights, and other cables.

    Data skew is the concept of the signals that travel downthe different wires in the parallel cable not traveling at the same

    speed and thus arriving at the destination at different times. This

    results in the data being unreadable at the opposite end.

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    Parallel connections deliver data 8 bits at a time at a speed of approximately 150Kbps.

    Parallel printers and their cables should conform to the IEEE 1284 standard forparallel cables.

    This standard addresses parallel communication to and from the device attachedto the cable.

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    SERIAL CABLE CONNECTIONS

    Serial cables, which arent very popular for printers, use either a

    9-pin or 25- pin connector.

    Serial connections send data one bit at a time and are not

    susceptible to data skew.

    The maximum length of a serial cable is 25 feet long.

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    NETWORK CABLE CONNECTIONS

    Network-based printers have built-in network cards that allow the

    printer to connect directly to the network.

    The printer runs the TCP/IP protocol and is assigned an IP

    address so that it can participate on the network.

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    There are a couple of advantages to a network-based printer:

    The network printer is available all the time. Network-based printers are connected directly to the network, so they dont rely

    on a computer being on in order to communicate with the

    network.

    Dedicated print servers are not required. A network

    printer can be accessed from anywhere in the network, and you dontneed to have a server in order to print to it. You may print to the

    network-based printerfrom the client computer directly.

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    UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS (USB)

    Most printers today that are purchased for home or small-office

    use are USB printers, meaning that they connect to the computer

    via a USB port.

    Figure 5-7 shows a USB connection.

    USB has a number of benefits, including the fact that it is a Plugand Play technology meaning that you can plug the device in

    without shutting down the system.

    USB 1.1 has a transfer rate of 12 Mbps, while USB 2.0 has a

    transfer rate of 480 Mbps.

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    FIREWIRE AND SCSI

    You may also find printers that connect to a system via FireWire

    and SCSI connections.

    FireWire has two versions one that runs at 400 Mbps and one

    that runs at 800 Mbps.

    FireWire 800, also known as FireWire 1394b, is a fairly recentupdate to the FireWire technology.

    SCSI is another common type of printer device that you may

    come across with Macintosh systems.

    Most PC-based systems dont use SCSI printers, although it is

    possible.

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    UPGRADING PRINTER HARDWARE

    Printers arent nearly as upgradeable as computers. There are

    only a few items that may need upgrading on a printer:

    Printer memory

    Disk space on larger printers

    Firmware updates

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    UPGRADING MEMORY

    A printer uses memory to store the information that needs to be

    printed, so the more memory a printer has, the larger the print

    documents it can store.

    If you ever receive an insufficient memory message when printing

    a large document, your printer probably doesnt have enough

    memory.

    Youll need to buy and install some more memory for the printer if

    you have this problem.

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    ADDING A DISK DRIVE

    On larger printers, you can add hard disk space, typically through

    a PCMCIA slot on the printer.

    The additional hard drive can store information used by the

    printer; for example, you may want to install some fonts on the

    printer, or you could have a print queue stored on the actual print

    device and use the hard drive to store the queued documents.

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    UPGRADING THE FIRMWARE

    You may also need to update the firmware on the printer.

    The firmware dictates the capabilities of the printer and is similar

    to the BIOS of a computer.

    Actually, it is so similar that you upgrade the firmware in a similar

    way as upgrading a BIOS. You need to download the firmware update from the

    manufacturers Web site.

    This update is usually in the form of a self-extracting executable.

    After you have downloaded the update, you double-click it to run

    the update.

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    INSTALLING A PRINTER

    When you connect a USB print device to a Windows computer,

    Plug and Play kicks in and detects the hardware.

    If Windows has a driver for the print device, it will load that driver

    automatically; if it doesnt, it will prompt you for the driver disk.

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    For the following example, assume that you have a parallel print

    device that is connected to LPT1.

    You need to install a printer in Windows that connects to that

    device so that you can print.

    To install the printer in Windows XP, follow these steps:

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    4. Also on the screen shown in Figure 5-8, specify whether you wantWindows to try to detect the type of printer that is connected to yoursystem.

    You will select the printer you are installing, so turn off thatoption and then click Next. You are then asked what port the printer

    is connected to.5. Make sure that LPT1 is selected and then click Next.

    6. Select the type of printer you wish to install (as shown in Figure 5-9)and click Next.

    Choose the manufacturer on the left side and then themodel of the printer on the right side. If your printer does notappear in the list, you can click the Have Disk button toprovide the driver CD that came with the printer.

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    7. Click Next to accept the default name of the printer.

    8. Indicate whether you would like to share the printer andthen click Next. Sharing the printer allows other users on

    the network to connect and print to it from their computers.For now, dont share the printer.

    9. If you want to print a test page to verify that the printer you areinstalling works, choose to print a test page.

    10. Click Next to go to the summary screen in the Add Printerwizard. A summary page appears, displaying informationabout your newlyinstalled printer.

    11. Click Finish to complete the printer installation.

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    CONFIGURING A PRINTER

    After the printer has been installed, you may want to configure it.

    To configure the printer, choose StartPrinters and Faxes, right-click the printer, and choose Properties.

    The printers Properties dialog box opens.

    The following is a list of popular printer settings that may need tobe changed depending on how you want to use the printer:

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    Priority:

    If a group of users needs to have a higher priority on a

    print device over others on the network, you could install two

    printers to refer to the same print device. After you have both

    printers installed, set the priority of one of the printers

    higher than the other anyones print jobs sent to that printer will

    have a higher priority on the print device. You can set the priority

    of a printer on the Advanced tab of the printers Properties

    dialog box (shown in Figure 5-10).

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    Schedule:

    If you have a group of users that should be printing only

    at certain hours, you could set the schedule of the printer

    so that it can print only during those times. The user can send

    print jobs to the printer and the printer will queue the

    job, or store it, until the scheduled time. At the

    scheduled time, it will then print the job. The schedule option

    can also be seen in Figure 5-10.

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    Spool settings:

    In Windows, when a user chooses to print a document,

    the print job creates a temporary file on the disk for the document

    being printed. After the file is stored on disk, the user gets control of

    the application and the system sends the temporary file to the

    print device to be printed. While the temporary file is sent to the

    print device, the user gets to use his or her program again. This is

    sometimes referred to as background printing

    where the user thinks the print job has been sent, but

    in actual fact the print job is being sent while the user continues

    using the computer.

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    The purpose of this process, called spooling, is so that

    users can continue using the computer instead of waiting for the 20

    pages to actually get sent to the print device. Because temporary

    files are stored on the disk when spooling is enabled (which

    is the default with all Windows printers), if you dont have

    the hard disk space on your computer to store the temporary files,you wont be able to print. If you get a spooling error, you may

    turn off spooling by choosing Print Directly to the Printer on the

    Advanced tab. Again, you can see this option if you look back at

    Figure 5-10.

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    Driver:If the driver goes corrupt for your printer, you may want to change the driver. To change

    the driver for a printer, go to the Advanced tab of the printers Properties dialog box and click theNew Driver button. You will then be asked for the make and model of the printer.

    Print Test Page:

    If you run into trouble with a printer, you may want to print a test page by going to the

    Properties dialog box of a printer and choosing the General tab. On the General tab, click Print TestPage. Printing a test page will help you determine if you are having a problem with the printer or aproblem with an application. For example, if you cannot print from Microsoft Word but you can printa test page then there is a setting min Microsoft Word that is causing the printing problems.

    Sharing:

    If youre in a networked environment, you can share the printerso that other users onthe network can print to it from their computers. To share the printer, go to the properties of the

    printer and click the Sharing tab. Select the Share This Printer option and give the printer a sharename, as shown in Figure 5-11.

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    TROUBLESHOOTING PRINTER

    PROBLEMS

    Check the simple stuff first

    The first thing you want to do when you cannot print is to verify the simple

    stuff.

    Is the printer connected, powered on, and online?

    Visually check the printer itself and make sure that you can see the online

    lamp that indicates that the printer is ready for use.

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    Paper jams

    Another type of problem that occurs a lot is paper jams.

    If you experience a number of paper jams over and over again, then you may

    want to verify that you are using the correct type of paper for the printer.

    The best thing to do here is to check the documentation of the printer and

    verify that you are using the correct size paper.

    If you are using paper that is too thick for your printer, it may jam up a lot.

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    To print a test page in Windows XP, follow these steps:

    1. Choose StartPrinters and Faxes.

    2. Right-click the troublesome printer and choose

    Properties.

    3. On the General tab, click the Print Test Page button.4. Click OK if the page printed properly or click the

    Troubleshoot button if the page did not print correctly. A

    troubleshooting Web page will appear, giving you a number of tips

    on how to troubleshoot the problem.

    S O S O S G G O

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    SPOTS OR SMUDGING ON THE

    PRINTOUT

    In general, spots or constant smudging on printouts are good

    indications that youre using the wrong type of paper for your

    printer.

    Again, check the documentation for the printer to find out what

    type of paper you should be using.

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    SPOOLING SERVICE PROBLEMS

    In Windows, the print spooler service is responsible for managing theprinting environment.

    If you notice that a print job is hung in the print queue and will notprint or you cannot delete it, then you may have a corrupt queue.

    When this happens, you need to stop and restart the print spooler

    service in Windows. Stopping the print spooler service deletes all print jobs and

    essentially reboots your printing environment for you.

    Figure 5-13 shows the print spooler service being restarted, whichyou can do from the Services console.

    The Services console is found in Start | Control Panel | Performanceand Maintenance | Administrative Tools.

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    If you have a number of problems printing in Windows and you havedetermined that the problem is not hardware-related, you may need to movethe print spooler folder.

    By default, the print job is spooled to the hard drive at the%systemroot%\system32\spool\printer directory the %systemroot%variable is typically the Windows folder on drive C.

    If you are running out of space on drive C, you may want to change the

    partition for the spool directory. To change the default spool folder inWindows, follow these steps:

    1. Choose StartPrinters and Faxes.

    2. Choose FileServer Properties.

    3. Click the Advanced tab, shown in Figure 5-14.

    4. Enter the path of the new Spool folder. If storage or drive

    speed is your motivation, this should be on a different partition ordrive.

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    DOT MATRIX PROBLEMS

    Faint printing: If you experience faint printing with your dot matrix printer, theprint ribbon is simply worn out. You need to replace the ribbon.

    No printing: If your dot matrix printer simply doesnt print, a print head cablemight be disconnected, or the print head might have torn through the ribbon. Inthese cases you will need to connect the print head cable or replace the ribbon.

    Paper jamming:Again, a lot of paper jams is a great indication that you havethe wrong type of paper or the wrong size paper. Check the documentation foryour printer.

    Line across the page: If your dot matrix printer prints a line all the wayacross the page, you might have a pin in the print head that is stuck out. You

    may be able to loosen the stuck pin or you may need a new print head.

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    INKJET PROBLEMS

    Paper jam:A paper jam indicates that you may have the wrong type or size of paper. If youhave the correct size paper, the feeder wheels might be dirty they areresponsible for moving the paper through the printer.

    Poor print quality:

    Having a poor-quality printout could indicate that the ink needs to be replaced orthat you have the wrong type of paper. Change the ink or check thedocumentation to ensure you are using the correct type of paper.

    Fading print:

    If the print from your inkjet printer is fading, that could be an indication that you

    need to change the ink.

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    LASER PRINTER PROBLEMS

    Faint print: If you find that the print is getting faint in your laser printouts, then you most likely need toreplace the toner.

    Paper jam: If you find you get a lot of paper jams, you need to verify that you are using paper of the correctsize and thickness. If youre sure you have the right paper, you could also have a problem with misalignedrollers.

    White stripes: If you find you have white stripes throughout the printout, then your transfer corona wire ismost likely the problem there may be a problem getting the charge to the paper, resulting in toner missing onthe page in areas.

    Blank page: If you have a blank page for output, you know there is nothing wrong with the feedermechanisms because the paper is moving through the printer. A blank page indicates a problem getting thetoner to the paper, so there is something wrong with the corona wires or you have no toner.

    Vertical line:A vertical line on the printout typically indicates that there is a scratch in the print drum youshould replace the toner cartridge because it contains the print drum. If you replace the toner cartridge and theproblem still exists, then there could be a problem with the laser.

    Smeared pages: If toner smears off after the page has printed, something is wrong with the fuser rollers. Youmay need to replace the fuser rollers. Be cautious when working with the fusing components because they arevery hot.

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    SCANNERS

    scanners were very popular because they were one of the onlyways to get your photos into a digital format.

    Many different types of scanners have been manufactured over

    the years.

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    FLATBED

    The flatbed scanner is the most popular scanner today.

    With a flatbed scanner, you lift the cover of the scanner and place

    the photo on the flat sheet of glass (called a platen).

    A scan head then moves beneath the picture, scanning the image

    by using a piece of technology called a charge-coupled device(CCD).

    Figure 6-1 shows a flatbed scanner.

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    HANDHELD

    A handheld scanner is great in environments where it is impossible toplace the object to be scanned on a flatbed scanner.

    To use a handheld scanner, you move the scanner over the object

    that you want to scan.

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    SHEETFEED

    A sheetfeed scanner acts very much like a fax machine in the sensethat the scan head is stationary.

    You insert the paper object to be scanned, and the feeder passes the

    paper over the scan head.

    This scanner type looks very similar to a portable printer and is alsothe scanner type typically found in multifunctional printers.

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    DRUM

    A drum scanner uses a technology called a Photomultiplier Tube(PMT), which involves wrapping the photo around a glass tube.

    The drum releases light that is converted to electrical data to become

    the image file.

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    COMMON PRINTING PROBLEMS

    Print job status says: "Printer busy...or printer error."

    Certain print codes in the file that is printing can confuse the printer, causing

    the job to get stuck in the print queue.

    Delete the top print job or purge the print queue if printer still won't restart. If

    the print job still remains in the queue, recycle the printer up to two times to

    clear the job.

    Wait five minutes before printing a test page.

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    Print job status says: "Insufficient memory."

    Indicates that the print job probably has image files in it that are too large for

    the printer memory to handle. They may have to be changed to a different

    image format to accommodate the limits of the printer, or perhaps printed to

    another printer with more memory. (Files in tiff format are very large and can

    be converted to jpg format).

    Delete the print job or purge the print queue. If necessary, recycle the printer

    up to two times to clear the job.

    Wait five minutes before printing a test page.

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    Print job status says: "PowerSave On." Indicates that the printer needs to have its Gobutton pressed to wake it up. It

    should print soon after.

    The current pr in t job(at top of job list) will not disappearafter deleting it. Print job status continues to be:

    "Deleting...printing" If necessary, recycle the printer up to two times.

    Wait five minutes before printing a test page.

    A pending pr in t jobwill not disappear after deleting it. Printjob status continues to be: "Deleting...spooling"

    If necessary, recycle the printer up to two times.

    Wait five minutes before printing a test page.

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    Print queue screen (blue title bar) indicates queue is "paused." Unpause the printer (see instructions above in the section CHECKING PRINT

    QUEUE.

    Print test page to printer.

    Print queue screen (blue title bar) indicates queue is "stalled orstopped."

    This may mean that the printer itself has been set "offline." Direct the caller to check the printer display menu to see if it says "offline."

    Pressing the Go button can put it "online" again so it says "Ready."

    Printer should now begin printing again.

    Print queue screen (blue title bar) indicates queue is "unavailable" or"cannot connect."

    This means that the print queue is not working. Check other public print queues to see whether they are displaying the same

    message. If more than one print queue is unavailable, then the Printers print serveris probably down.

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    Error in software: "Error initializing output device."

    When printing within a program like WordPerfect, Word, Excel, etc., users

    may occasionaly see this error message appear on the screen when

    attempting to print a file. It is often caused by a temporary network "glitch" in

    the processing of the print job. There are two options below that will often

    clear this printing problem.

    Save your file and exit the program, log off the network, then login, get into the

    program and try printing again.

    If this doesn't work, shut down and power off the computer, wait 20 seconds and

    power it on again. Login to the network, get into the program again and try printing.

    If the error still doesn't clear, wait at least 15-20 minutes and then try printing again.

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    Printer display menusays "Ready" but doesn't print; there is no printjob showing up in the print queue screen, even though a print job wassent to it.

    Recycle the printer up to two times. Wait 5 minutes and then try to print a test page. If itdoesn't print, do the following:

    Test printer software: Try printing to a nearby printer. If you can print successfully to it, itmay indicate a corrupt printer driver for the problem printer that must be deleted and re-created as follows:

    Click Start,then Settings, then Printersand highlight the printer.

    Delete this printer definition.

    Re-create a new definition for the printer by following instructions in the sectionPrinting from aWindows Computer to a Public Printer.

    Print a test page to the printer using the new printer definition.

    If you can't print to a nearby printer, test the network connection by trying topingtheprinter. (You may need to find the correctprinter domain nameor IP addressbefore you

    can do so. See instructions above). Ifpingdoesn't work, the printer is not communicating with the network.

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    Printer display menu intermittently says "receiving data" or"processing job," but the print job has stopped printing.

    This message will often appear when the printer is printing out a large PDF

    file wil charts and images in it. It takes the printer time to "digest" the contents,

    so be patient! It will periodically pause, then print, then pause again as it

    sends the pages of the PDF file to the printer.

    If the printer stalls for a very long time, pressing the Go button will sometimes

    help to start the printer printing again.

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    Printer disp lay menushows message with error numbers (example: error41.3) or message that the printer needs maintenance.

    Any of these messages require an LBIS printer technician's site visit.

    Printer disp lay menusays there is a paper jam.

    Note:Sometimes the printer display menuwill say "paper jam" but it is actually indicating that the papertray is empty.

    Opening the front and back "doors" of the printer or removing the paper tray or toner cartridge willusually allow access to the jammed paper so that it can be released.

    Paper should be removed slowly and gently so that it doesn't tear.

    Paper that is too difficult to remove should be left "as is" and reported to the HelpLine, who will dispatchthe LBIS printer technician.

    Turn off the printer until it can be serviced and place an Out of Order sign on it.

    Printer disp lay menusays "paper tray empty" or "low toner."

    If it is apublicprinter, one of the Helpline staff can be dispatched to replenish the paper or toner if non isavailable at the lab site.

    If it is a departmentalprinter, the administrative assistant who manages the printer must be contacted.

    PRINTER ERROR CODES - WHAT YOU

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    PRINTER ERROR CODES- WHAT YOU

    MUST KNOW

    You have noticed that your printer has been displaying the words'Error 11' or 'Error 12' for a few hours now.

    What does that mean?

    How do you get the error messages to go away?

    Don't panic. These are just printer error codes to let you know thatyour printer needs some attention, even if the problem isn't major.

    Here are some common error codes that you may see fairly often,

    as well as what to do about them.

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    ERROR 11

    Error 11. This just means that the printer is out of paper. Noproblem-just grab some of the paper that is designed for your

    printer model and refill the paper draw. Make sure that the paper

    is aligned correctly according to the diagram or example in the

    paper draw and close the tray securely. Your printer should be

    running fine after that.

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    ERROR 12

    Error 12. This error is an indication that there is no cartridge in theprinter, or that the printer is open. Check to make sure all paper

    trays and parts of the printer are closed before you start printing.

    Also check to make sure that your cartridge is secure and does

    not need replacing before trying to complete a big printing job.

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    ERROR 13

    Error 13. The Error 13 message on your printer screen is probablyone of the most common printer error codes. It means that there

    is a paper jam. Most service printer repair manuals will give you

    instructions on how to get rid of the paper jams, so be sure to

    follow the directions on the printer screen or paper tray for the

    best way to remove crumbled paper from the rollers and get yourprinter up and running again.

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    ERROR 16

    Error 16. This is an indication that the toner on the printer is low.Error 16 is another one of the common printer error codes and the

    error can be fixed by simply ordering more toner and placing it in

    the printer. There are instructions for this in the introductory

    manual for the printer as well.

    O

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    ERROR 21

    Error 21. You may think that you need a printer repair specialistafter seeing this error, but Error 21, or print overrun, lets you know

    that the job you are requesting is too complex. You can change

    these printer error codes by replacing the font on some of the

    documents you are trying to print, or by adjusting some of the

    margins on your page so that the document will fit inside of themeasurements of the printing page.

    ERROR 55

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    ERROR 55

    Error 55. This is perhaps one of the more complicated printererror codes when it comes to printer repair, but Error 55 will let

    you know that the internal communication between the printer and

    computer did not fully process for some reason. The DC controller

    on the printer is not receiving the proper information and you

    should check the DC controller connections in order to fix this.Your printer may not be receiving enough power from the power

    supply, so changing the power supply may help with this problem.

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    Scanners, like printers, can suffer from the dust, dirt, and debrisissues.

    Scanners tend to have a sealed body, which keeps the internal

    optics clean, but they usually need to be opened every year or

    two to clean the internal components.

    During regular maintenance, only the deck (the glass platen) of

    the scanner needs to be cleaned; use a glass-grade cleaner

    unless your scanner has a special coating.

    In addition to this issue, scanners usually have a locking

    mechanism that should be used when moving the scanner, which

    will keep the scanner properly calibrated.