Printer and scanner troubleshooting

Printer problems: separating hardware, queue and network

Most printer trouble is not the printer. A printer that says offline in Windows or on a Mac has usually lost its network address or its connection to the computer, so check that it has a Wi-Fi light or an address on its own display, print a test page from the printer itself and then re-add it on the computer. If the printer prints locally but not from a device, the queue or the driver is the fault; if it cannot print at all, the cause is the hardware: ink or toner, paper path or a jam. Blank pages or missing colors point to dried-out ink or blocked printheads, doubled text to a misaligned head, and a grinding noise to a jam or a carriage that cannot move.

Work from the printer outward. Confirm power, paper and ink first, then the connection (USB cable, Wi-Fi or Ethernet), then the computer's queue. If a printer cannot find your Wi-Fi during setup, move it nearer to the router and check that the router is not hiding its name or using only the 5 GHz band that older printers cannot join. Run the maker's head-cleaning only as often as the manual allows, since each cycle uses ink. Brand codes and light patterns for Epson, Brother and Canon printers are on their own pages.