If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

Running out of ink on your printer is probably one of the computer user’s most dreaded things, especially if in the process of printing something important. While it seems easy enough to go out and buy an ink cartridge, it’s not as appealing when you find yourself strapped for cash. Those with a limited budget may find themselves buying a compatible ink cartridge, which is far cheaper than their OEM counterparts, but what do you do if your printer doesn’t recognize the compatible cartridge? Was your money ill-spent?

You can try checking your cartridge’s ink first. Is it really incompatible with your printer? Printers today are programmed to accept only certain kinds of ink, which are often specifically made only for one printer type. Factors such as ink viscosity and thickness can affect the way it flows down the printer’s nozzles, and using the wrong ink type can damage your printer.

Also anticipate the possibility that your cartridge might not have the exact ink type for your printer. Clean the printer heads before you install the cartridge, as this can improve the chances of your printer accepting the compatible ink cartridge. Clogged printer heads can be a problem, especially if the printer has been sitting idle for quite a long time. Dried ink can lead to problems later on, and even if you have full ink in your cartridge, it will not flow down to the paper because of the clog.

There are also instructions on how to best install your ink cartridge. Make sure that you follow them exactly as prescribed, since doing so greatly increases the probability that your printer may accept the compatible cartridge.

Printing, for those working in offices, schools, and businesses, have become almost as common as breathing. We print, print, and print, but then you become witness to one of the most dreaded events in office life — paper jam. You scream, you writhe, and you bang the printer in frustration and anger. While one paper jammed inside your printer is bad enough, think about how frustrated you can become if 10 or more sheets are jammed in a single time.

If you think about it, it’s not that rare an occurrence as you might initially think. Papers get jammed all the time; the only difference here is the number of paper stuck inside your printer. So what do you do if this happens?

First, take a look at your printer. There should be a back door that you can open to get to the paper rollers in your printer. Use this to open your printer and make your way to the rollers and turn them manually. The rollers on today’s printers aren’t that hard to turn, so you don’t need to worry too much about this.

An alternative solution is a slower albeit more methodical approach. If you can, pull the papers out by two, slowly of course. And if the stack of papers stuck is small enough, then you can gently proceed to pulling the entire thing out of your printer.

With paper jams, the most important thing to remember is to remain patient all throughout the process. Forcibly pulling out the paper from your printer can not only waste a lot of your time and energy, but it can also damage your printer as well. So do it slowly, gently, and mercifully. After all, your printer remains an important piece of equipment despite its blunder.

Printing quality photos can take quite a while, especially on inkjet printers. You wait for at least a few minutes just for a print to come out right. But just when you think that you’re finally done with everything, you realize that a white line runs through straight down the middle of your print! Not only do you have to redo the process, you have to use up more printer ink in doing so as well.

Wasting colored ink is costly, especially if you’re cash-strapped and your ink reserves are relatively low. Therefore, avoiding those pesky white lines on your prints becomes one of your top priorities whenever you need to print something.

So where do these white lines come from? These can come from partially blocked print nozzles – a common occurrence seen after changing cartridges. One thing you can do when this happens is to run the print head cleaning utility. This clears up the printing nozzles quite well, but this also consumes a substantial amount of ink in the process.

Another way of determining the cause of the white lines on your prints is to make sure that the sealing tape on your cartridge has completely been removed. Sometimes, there can be pieces of the tape left on the cartridge, and this can also prevent the flow of ink. As simple as this may sound, things like these can actually happen, especially if you’re rushing to replace the cartridge.

You can also try reseating the cartridge, since this can be the cause of your prints not coming out the way you want them to. Cleaning the cartridge of any debris can help as well. Then just to be certain, run the print head cleaning utility a few times. This should do the trick.

If there is one application that is probably being used 24/7 at different time zones across the world, it has to be Microsoft Word. Whether you are using Word 2000, 2003 or 2007, it remains to be the premier word processing software today. What we have now is indeed a far cry from the days of Word Star and Word Perfect (yes, I was able to use them both!).

Life, though, is not a bed of roses, so do not expect life with Word to be all sunshine all the time. Luckily, if and when you do have problems with the application, the solutions are normally just a Google (or Yahoo, or Bing, whichever it is you prefer) search away.

When having problems with printing, the initial reaction may be to think that there is a need for the printer driver to be updated. However, this may not necessarily need to be the first course of action. In some cases, updating the driver may lead to some sort of trouble. Before turning to that, you may want to look for a solution in Word itself or check the print settings on Windows.

The first thing that you may want to try is to reset the normal.dot template (or normal.dotm for MS Word 2007 users). Microsoft provides ample assistance on how this can be accomplished through a document on Microsoft Support entitled “How to troubleshoot printing problems in Word 2007 or in Word 2003”.

If that does not quite cut it, then you may want to try to reset Windows’ print settings. One can choose to use the one-click Fix it routine on the Windows site.

If all else fails, then you may indeed need a printer driver update. Checkl online if there is a driver version that supersedes the one you have at this time. If there is one, then download that version and save it where you can easily get to it.

Remote Desktop, an application included with the Windows XP OS, is used to connect with separate workstations from your home office computer. It also allows you to print documents from a remote computer on your own network printer or USB. If you’re trying to use the printer option and running into problems, it may be as simple as adjusting the settings for Remote Desktop on your computer. Here’s how:

1. Check Your Printer’s Connection: Always verify that your connections between the local printer and local computer are complete before you try troubleshooting in the program. Network printers need to be hooked up with an ethernet cable. Try printing off a document to verify the connection.

2. Are Your Driver’s Up to Date? If not this could be affecting your ability to run the application.

3. Check Your Firewall: You may need to adjust your firewall to allow the application to do its job. If your firewall is set too high or not set up to allow this action it will block it from occurring.

Still not working? You may have to manually configure your computer.

1. Click on the start menu and open the all programs list.

2. Expand Accessories and then the subfolder communications.

3. Click on remote Desktop Application. This will open a small window

4. Click options and then go to local resources.

5. There should be a list of services and options displayed here.

6. Put a check in the box next to printers, this will turn on Remote Desktop.

7. Connect the remote computer as usual.

8. Proceed to print as you’d intended.