24 Feb What to Do if Your Printer Is Underperforming
You rely on your office printer to help you maintain efficiency, productivity, coordination, and organization in and out of the office. If your printer is underperforming, it can make it very hard for people to do their jobs efficiently or communicate effectively. Here are some tips on what to do if your office printer is underperforming.
How to Tell if Your Printer Is Underperforming
Check the owner’s manual or look online to find out how many black and white and color pages your printer should be able to print per minute. Compare that to how fast your printer is actually operating. Also, check your printer to see if it is displaying any error messages, has the correct paper type loaded, and isn’t showing any maintenance lights blinking. Next, look in the printer settings or online to confirm that the printer is connected to the correct network. Finally, try turning the printer off for five minutes and turning it back on again.
Reasons Your Printer May Be Running Slowly
The most common reasons that office printers run slowly are:
- Printing in the wrong mode – you don’t need to print in high-quality mode if you’re just printing black and white documents.
- Wrong paper selection – choosing the wrong paper size or type can cause delays in the communication between your computer and printer.
- On the wrong network – if your printer is connected to the wrong network, it may run slowly or may not connect at all.
- Using the wrong printer – if you do a lot of printing, you shouldn’t use an inkjet printer, which prints much slower than a laser printer.
- Drivers are out of date – your printer should automatically download driver updates, but sometimes it doesn’t. If your drivers are out of date, the printer won’t perform as well.
- It’s too far away from the router – if your printer has been moved recently and is now acting sluggish, it may be too far away from the router.
Call an Expert
If none of the issues above are the reason your printer is underperforming, and your troubleshooting hasn’t solved the problem, it’s time to call in an expert. A printer repair technician can come to your office and find out exactly why your printer isn’t working correctly.
If you’re having printer issues, come see us at Arizona Business Equipment. We provide printer sales and leases in Tucson for businesses of all sizes, and we offer full maintenance for all printers we sell or lease. If you’re interested in renting or leasing office equipment in Tucson, contact our team online or at (520) 888-2679 for assistance in finding the best solution for your company’s needs.