Welcome back in today’s tutorials, I’ll be covering many possible solutions to fix printer problem not working or printer problems in windows 10. A problem with a printer could be caused by a number of reasons.
Hopefully, today’s tips and tutorials will help it. let’s get into the first method to fix the problem we’ll be looking at three different types of problems printer not detected.
Printer not working? How to Fix Printer Problem on Windows 10 PC
The printer detected but not working and the printer offline feel free to try all of the solutions for all the types of problems to increase your chances of fixing it.
This is primarily aimed at those of you with personally owned printers so if yours is on a network it’s probably best to contact the network manager.
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Let’s move on to some general solutions first the first few possible solutions will focus on the printer itself, it’s worth turning it off and then unplugging your printer’s power connector now and then after 10 to 15 seconds plug it back in and turn it on simply turning it off and on again could solve minor issues of course only unplug it when it’s not in use.
If you think the problem is with the mechanical elements of the printer or the ink cartridges. I would recommend you read the manual or contact the manufacturer as they would be better placed to suggest things to do.
In this instance, the next thing to look at is the connections and the ports if your printer uses USB try using it on another port perhaps at the back of your desktop computer.
If you have one it’s possible that your printer may be USB to rather than three and this could cause compatibility problems also check that the ports and the wires are in good condition if there are any faults or broken connectors then you may need to replace them.
If your printer is wireless ensure it is in range and also revert to the manual for the correct connection process as this will differ depending on the manufacturer. Also if you are using a wireless printer try using the wire if you have one as this might fix any problems with the wireless connection.
Now that we’ve reset and checked the printer and its connections let’s look at some of the possible solutions we can try within windows 10.
We’ll first check to see if the window is detecting your printer checking this will allow us to determine whether the problem is with the connections the printer itself or if it’s software related to check.
First, go to the control panel, you can get there by searching for it in the search bar in the control panel click on where it says view devices and printers which is the link in blue under the hardware and sound heading.
You should see your printer in the printer section it will likely be named as the manufacturer and then the model number.
If you don’t see your printer then the problem is likely to do with the connection so check again.
It’s also worth trying your printer on another PC.
If you can to rule out connection problems
If your printer still isn’t showing up on this screen There are a few things that we can try if you do see your printer here then you can use the chapters to skip ahead to the fixes for when windows are detecting it.
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However, you could try some of these fixes just in case.
It’s worth mentioning that your printer may be disguised as another device with a generic USB name for example in here if that is the case continue with the tutorials and try all of the possible solutions.
Let’s move on to a few quick fixes if your printer is not being detected the first thing to try is to check your printer’s manual to see if there are any buttons to press some printers may require you to press a certain button in order to allow it to be detected by windows.
Next if using a wired printer try cleaning the ports of both the connector cable and on your pc and printer.
If you can try another cable and also make sure that you are fully inserting the cables into the ports.
The next thing I recommend trying is deleting the printer software if you have it you should be able to uninstall it by going to the settings page then to apps and then it should be somewhere on the list delete or uninstall any software that you have for the printer and then try a fresh install of it from the manufacturer’s website.
Finally, I’ll leave a link to an article that focuses on a specific bug within windows on the most recent update.
So check that out if this issue has just occurred in a recent update if you are sure this issue is caused by the recent update.
You can uninstall that update click the card on screen now for a video showing you how to uninstall an update but please only do this.
If you are 100% the update caused the printer issue if your printer still isn’t being detected it might be worth contacting the manufacturer.
However, you could continue with the this as some of the fixes might cover the issue you’re having.
It will make sense which fixes you are able to try although you may not see your printer’s name as it might show up as an unrecognized device but treat it as if it was the printer.
If your printer is detected by windows 10 but isn’t working; we’ll now move on to fixing that firstly we’re going to use the built-in troubleshooting feature in windows 10.
Windows will automatically try and fix printer problems to run the troubleshooter go back to the devices and printers section in the control panel.
Using the method we covered earlier now find your printer in the printers section and right-click on it now select troubleshoot and allow windows to check for and fix any problems it finds if windows return a problem but can’t fix it itself.
Research this specific problem online for a fix.
However, we might fix it in the rest of the tutorials so stick around just in case if you don’t have a printer to troubleshoot go to the main settings page by clicking the cog icon (Window Button) within the start menu then choose devices and then printers from the options on the left click on the run the troubleshooter link on the right side of this page.
We’ll now try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer you can do this one even if your printer is not currently being detected properly to do this go back to the devices and printers section in the control panel and find your printer or what you think.
Your printer is if it isn’t being detected properly right-click on it and select remove device you will need admin privileges to do this. Now reconnect your printer to your pc and windows should automatically reinstall it. if it doesn’t reinstall automatically try restarting windows.
Update Drivers Automatically.
The next method we’re going to try is to update our device drivers we’ll first let windows automatically.
Search for driver updates again this can be done in the control panel if you’re still on that screen this time right-click on your printer and select properties look for a tab called the driver and click on it if you don’t see the driver tab go to hardware and then double click on your printer from the list of devices on this screen.
You should now see the driver tab so Click on that if you think a recent driver update may have caused it then you can select rollback driver and follow the steps whether or not a recent driver update caused the problem.
It’s worth checking for driver updates so this time click on update driver and then choose the automatic option to allow windows to search for and install any driver updates if it finds them.
If windows weren’t able to find any driver updates I would now recommend looking for them on the manufacturer’s website.
Search your printer manufacturer such as hp and navigate to the driver’s section on the website search for your specific model and then download and install the driver updates.
From there just ensure you are downloading them from the official website we’re now going to try resetting and clearing the print spooler.
This is done within windows and first you want to go to services.
You can get there by searching for services in the search bar in the new window go to the standard tab this option is at the bottom in the standard tab find the service called print spooler and double click on it.
Now click stop leave this window open
but now type the following in the search bar “%WINDIR%system32spoolprinters” and then hit enter.
You should be in the printers folder if the text hasn’t worked in the search bar then just follow the file path.
The screen to get there delete the contents in this folder and you will need admin privileges to do this. Now go back to services and double-click on print spooler to open up the window again choose the start and make sure it is set to automatic in the startup type drop-down box.
The next possible solution will be to set the printer as default to do this.
Go to the main settings page by clicking the cog icon (Window Button) within the start menu then choose devices and then printers from the options on the left now click on your printer and then select open queue now click the printer in the new window and select set as default.
Stay in here for the next method
The final solution I have is to clear the print queue to select any documents in here and remove them to clear the print queue and so those are all the methods I have If you haven’t already tried restarting your pc now to check if that fixes it also if you still have no luck.
I would recommend contacting the manufacturer or search your specific maker model of printer to see if there are any problems with that exact device. I really hope I was able to help you today remember to share and feel free to comment if the tips and tricks helped thanks so much for coming and I will see you in another Basic Computer Knowledge
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