Download Handout: Printers and Scanners

Handout: Printers and Scanners
Revision Date: 9/15/11
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If a printer can print a test page directly from the printer but not from windows, check the cable between the computer
and the printer
In Windows XP, you can configure a printer to only be available for a certain time frame in the Printer Properties on the
Time tab
An inkjet printer sprays ink on the paper to create the image
To print a test page in XP go to Printers and Faxes in Control Panel and access the Properties of the Printer. Select
General and select Print Test Page
The print spooler manages the printing subsystem. If the spooler service stalls, the printer will not be able to print and
documents cannot be deleted from the queue. Restart the spooler service to correct this. The spooler service can be
found in the Services applet of Computer Management or Administrative tools or by typing services.msc at the run
command
When installing an ink cartridge on a laser printer, make sure you remove the toner release strip before trying to print
Firmware is the software built-in to the motherboard of a printer.
If a page printed from a laser printer smudges then the fuser is not working properly. If a page from an inkjet smudges
most likely the wrong paper was used
If a printer output on an inkjet is fuzzy you should run the printer calibration; most likely the print heads are out of
alignment
An IEEE 1284 printer cable supports bi-directional printing
If a scanner lamp is locked in place, the lamp cannot scan the document. You should release the locking mechanism.
If the scanner functions are not available, you need to install the scanner software
After installing a printer, the last step is to print a test page to verify that everything is running properly
If installing a USB printer, use the manufacturer CD with the installation program and connect the printer when
prompted to do so
To obtain the most recent printer drivers, visit the manufacturer’s website
If a document will go to the queue but the printer doesn’t print it, make sure the printer is turned on and connected
properly
The only advantage to an impact printer is that it is cheap and prints multi-part forms
To install a network printer onto a Windows XP machine, you need the server name and the printer name
Print permissions are assigned by default when a shared printer is enabled on a Windows computer
An IP-based network printer will connect to a computer through an RJ-45 network cable
If a printer is not installed in Windows XP only the Document Image Writer icon will appear in the printer folder
The manufacturer’s service manual will display printer error codes and their resolution
Print Devices
Print Devices are the printers themselves. Common printer manufacturers include Canon, Dell, Brother, Lexmark, Samsung, HP
and Xerox.
There are many different types of printers. These include:
Impact. To create text or image by physically make the print head to press the ink ribbon and cause the ink deposition
on the paper in desired form is called impact type. Normally it is quite louder in nature when compared to other types of
printers. The well known example for impact type is Dot Matrix and Daisy wheel. Some of the latest impact based
printers on the market are Line printer (high speed impact printer), IBM electromagnetic table printing machine, and
Apple Image writer.
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Handout: Printers and Scanners
Laser Printers. These are toner-based printers. The laser printer has a sophistacted process of laser technology to
render the image, transfer it to the page and fuse it there. The steps to the Laser Printing Process are listed below:
Inkjet. These are liquid ink systems. They render the image by spraying tiny drops onto the page. These are the
most common consumer printers. Printers today can print high-quality images and photos
Solid Ink Printers. These are also known as phase-change printers and use thermal transfer to transfer the image.
Dye-sublimation printers. This uses a printing process of heat to transfer dye to a medium such as plastic card,
paper or canvas.
There are also inkless printers like thermal printers and UV printers
Printer Drivers
If you run into problems while installing a printer, or if you've added a printer but are unable to use it, you might need to install or
update the printer driver so that it is compatible with the version of Windows you're running.
Some drivers ship with Windows, are available through Windows Update, or are saved to your computer through the hardware
installation process and are ready to install. In other cases, you'll need to install drivers using a CD or DVD provided by the
printer manufacturer. To install these drivers, follow the steps for using the Printers folder. If the driver you need is not already
stored on your computer or if you don't have a CD or DVD, try searching the printer manufacturer's website to see if you can
download and install it from there.
The most updated drivers can be found a downloaded from the printer manufacturer’s website.
Laser Printing Process Steps
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Handout: Printers and Scanners
Step
Description
Cleaning
A rubber blade removes excess toner from the photosensitive drum. The excess
toner is collected in the debris cavity. An eraser lamp also removes any excess
charge off the photosensitive drum. This leaves the drum with a charge of 0 Volts
Conditioning
The primary corona, which is a high voltage wire adds a negative charge to the
photosensitive drum of around -600 to -1000 volts
Writing
The laser light hits the photosensitive drum. Where the light hits the drum it
dissipates the negative charge to the center of the drum which is grounded. This
then leaves sections of the drum with a voltage of around -100 volts
Developing
The drum rolls through a supply of negatively charged toner particles. Where the
drum hasn’t been touched by the laser light a lower negative charge is still there,
so the particles are not attracted to this section of the photosensitive drum
Transfer
A strong positive charge is applied the paper, the negatively charged particles of
toner are attracted to the paper
Fusing
The toner that is on the paper is heated and pressed into the paper by the fuser
assembly. The toner cools and becomes bonded to the paper
Print Spooler
A print spooler is a software program responsible for managing all print jobs currently being sent to the computer printer or print
server. The print spooler program may allow a user to delete a print job being processed or otherwise manage the print jobs
currently waiting to be printed.
If the spooler stalls all documents in the queue will remain there until the spooler service is restarted. You can restart the print
spooler from the Services management console.
Troubleshooting Printers
To learn how to troubleshoot printers, read through the Printer Problems in Windows support page from Microsoft:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/printer-problems-in-windows
Scanners
A scanner is a device that captures images from photographic prints, posters, magazine pages, and similar sources for computer
editing and display. Scanners come in hand-held, feed-in, and flatbed types and for scanning black-and-white only, or color. Very
high resolution scanners are used for scanning for high-resolution printing, but lower resolution scanners are adequate for
capturing images for computer display. Scanners usually come with software, such as Adobe's Photoshop product, that lets you
resize and otherwise modify a captured image.
Scanners usually attach to your personal computer with a Small Computer System Interface ( SCSI ). An application such as
PhotoShop uses the TWAIN program to read in the image. Some major manufacturers of scanners include: Epson, HewlettPackard, Microtek, and Relisys.
When a scanner is shipped, the lamp gets locked in place. You need to unlock the lamp for the scanner to work. You also need
to install and use the scanner software that is developed for the scanner.
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