1. Printers
Chapter 20

2. Overview In this chapter, you will learn to
Describe current printer technologies
Explain the laser printing process
Install a printer on a Windows PC
Recognize and fix basic printer problems
Instructor Tip
When gaining attention and establishing common ground, ask questions oo the class such as, “How many here do not have a printer?” or “How many of you have had printer problems?”
For a positive statement, tell the class, “In this lesson, we will learn about the various types of printers and how to install and troubleshoot them!”

3. Getting the Right Sound Card
Essentials
CompTIA A+ Essentials
Getting the Right Sound Card
Printer Technologies

4. Impact Printers Impact printers leave an image on the paper
Physically strike an inked ribbon against the surface of the paper
Relatively slow and noisy
Used for multipart forms
Point of sale receipts
Offices

5. Dot-Matrix Printers Dot-matrix printers
Use an array of pins known as printwires to strike an inked printer ribbon and produce images
The case that holds the print wires is called the printhead
Use either 9-pin (draft quality) or pin (letter or near-letter quality)

6. Inkjet Printers Inkjet printers
Simple devices that consist of the following:
Printhead, support electronics, a transfer mechanism, and a paper-feed component
Work by ejecting ink through tiny tubes
Ink is heated by tiny resistors or electroconductive plates at the end of each tube
The resistors or plates boil the ink, which creates a tiny air bubble that ejects a droplet of ink onto the paper
Some inkjets use mechanical methods to eject ink
Most color printers are ink-jet and produce a high-quality image

7. Inside an Inkjet Printer

8. Inkjet Key Features Print resolution Print speed
Density of the ink
Dots per inch (dpi)
Print speed
Pages per minute (ppm)
Can print to almost anything

9. Dye-Sublimation Printers
Dye-sublimation printers (or thermal dye transfer printers) use sublimation
Sublimation causes something to change from a solid form into a vapor and then back into a solid
Used for fine detail and rich color
One pass for each color
Produces high-quality output

10. Thermal Printers Thermal printers
Same as first generation of fax machines
Two types: direct thermal and thermal wax
Use a heated printhead to burn dots into the surface of special heat-sensitive paper
Still used for receipts at some businesses

11. Laser Printers
Laser printers use a mechanism called electro-photographic imaging
Produce high-quality and high-speed output of both text and graphics
More expensive than inkjet or impact printers
Use lasers as a light source
Tech Tip
Hidden Costs
Some printers use consumables at a much faster rate than others, prompting the industry to rank printers in terms of their cost per page. An inexpensive printer (laser or inkjet) costs around 4 cents per page, while an expensive printer can cost more than 20 cents per page—a huge difference if you do any volume of printing. This hidden cost is particularly pernicious in the sub-$100 inkjet printers on the market. Their low prices often entice buyers, who then discover that the cost of consumables is outrageous—these days, a single set of color and black inkjet cartridges can cost as much as the printer itself, if not more!

12. Laser Printer Parts Toner cartridge Photosensitive drum Erase lamp
Holds the toner
Many other parts that suffer the most wear and tear contained in toner cartridge
Photosensitive drum
Aluminum cylinder coated with particles of photosensitive compounds
Erase lamp
Exposes the entire surface of the photosensitive drum to light

13. Laser Printer Parts Primary corona Laser Toner
Enables voltage to pass to the drum and charge the photosensitive particles on its surface
Laser
Acts as the writing mechanism of the printer
Toner
Fine powder made up of plastic particles bonded to iron particles
Discussion Point
Toner
Toner is nasty! It is a very fine powder that seems to jump onto your new dress shirt from across the room! It gets into everything. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to clean up—just a damp cloth or paper towel will collect it. However, it is nearly impossible to get out of clothing. Also, many governments consider it a hazardous waste, not to be thrown in the trash. Many companies recycle toner. Please check with your local authorities for disposal methods.

14. Laser Printer Parts Transfer corona Fuser Fuser assembly
Applies a positive charge to the paper
Fuser
Attaches the toner permanently to the paper using the pressure roller and heated roller
Fuser assembly
Fuses the toner to the paper

15. Laser Printer Components

16. Laser Printer Parts Primary power supply High-voltage power supply
Provides power to the motors that move the paper, system electronics, and transfer corona
High-voltage power supply
Provides power to the primary corona
When inserting a new toner cartridge, always turn the laser printer off before opening it
Turning gears
Discrete units called gear packs or gearboxes
Safety Alert
Because of the high voltage present in a laser printer, you should unplug it even before changing toner cartridges.

17. Laser Printer Parts System board Ozone filter Sensors and Switches
Contains the main processor, ROM, and RAM
ROM can often be “flashed”
Not enough RAM results in memory overflow error
Ozone filter
Ozone (O3) can damage printer components
Filter needs to be replaced periodically
Sensors and Switches
Detects paper jams, empty paper trays, low toner levels, and so on

18. Solid Ink Printers Use solid sticks of nontoxic “ink”
Produces vibrant color
Ink is melted and absorbed into the paper fibers
Only needs a single pass
More expensive than other printers
But ink sticks are significantly less expensive than inkjet cartridges

19. Printer Languages
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
Basic alphanumeric characters and a variety of control codes for transferring data and controlling printers
Limited in its capability
The PostScript page description language (PDL) developed by Adobe
Device-independent printer language capable of high-resolutions and scalable fonts
Printers print faster because most of the image processing is done by the printer and not the PC
Postscript files are very portable

20. Printer Languages
Hewlett Packard developed the Printer control language (PCL)
Expanded set of printer commands
Dependent on the printer hardware
Does not support advanced graphical functions
Does not define the page as a single raster image
Windows 2000/XP uses the Windows graphical device interface (GDI)
The operating system handles print functions
If the printer has a capable raster image processor and enough RAM, you don’t need to worry about the printer language

21. Printer Connectivity
Most printers connect to one of two ports on the PC
DB-25 parallel port
USB port
The parallel port was a lot faster than the existing serial ports at the time
Slow by today’s standards with a maximum data transfer rate of 150 KBps
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1284 standard addressed standardizing parallel ports

22. IEEE 1284 Standard The IEEE 1284 standard requires
Support for five modes of operation
Compatibility mode, nibble mode, byte mode, EPP, ECP
Standard methods of negotiation for determining which modes are supported
A standard physical interface
A standard electrical interface
All data transfers are half-duplex with the IEEE 1284 standard.
Many techs confuse the concept of “duplex” printing—a process that requires special printers capable of printing on both sides of a sheet of paper—with bidirectional printing. They have nothing to do with each other!
Although the phrase “Centronics standard” was commonly used in the heyday of parallel ports, there actually was no such animal. Prior to the development of IEEE 1284, there was only a very loose set of “standards” adopted by manufacturers in an attempt to at least reduce incompatibility issues.

23. Parallel Connections, Cabling, and Electricity
A standard printer cable
A male DB-25 connector on one end and a 36-pin Centronics connector on the other
Acceptable for transferring data at
150 KBps at distances of less than six feet
IEEE 1284-compliant cable
Can be up to 32 feet
Tech Tip
No Cheap Cables!
Some parallel cables are cheaper than the IEEE 1284 cables, but these may—or may not—work. Don’t set yourself up for unnecessary hassles— just get an IEEE 1284 cable! Installing a parallel cable is a snap. Just insert the DB-25 pin connector into the parallel port on the back of the PC and insert the Centronics connector into the printer’s Centronics port, and you’re ready to go to press!

24. USB and FireWire Printers
Most new printers now use USB connections
Most use USB type A on one end and USB type B on the other end
FireWire
Works as easily as USB
USB B
In almost all cases, you must install the drivers before you plug a USB printer into your computer.
Some printers come with both USB and parallel connections, but this is becoming increasingly rare, so if you need a parallel printer for a system, be sure to confirm that the particular model you want will work!
USB A

25. Network and Other Printers
Printers can be connected on a network
Needs NIC and connection (typically RJ-45)
Needs IP address (either manually assigned or automatically assigned from DHCP)
Can be connected to print server
Some also have wireless and Bluetooth capabilities
Other printers
Rare, but may see serial or SCSI printers

26. The Laser Printing Process
IT Technician
CompTIA A+ Technician
The Laser Printing Process

27. Physical Side of the Process
California Cows Won’t Dance The Fandango
Clean
Charge
Write
Develop
Transfer
Fuse
Discussion Point
Mnemonic
The A+ exam expects students to know the steps of the laser printing process in order. To help students remember the laser printing process order—Clean, Charge, Write, Develop, Transfer, Fuse—try this mnemonic: California Cows Won’t Dance The Fandango. It may sound silly, but it works!

28. Clean the Drum
Printing process begins by physically and electrically cleaning the photosensitive drum
Physically by scraping the surface of the drum with a rubber cleaning blade
Electrically with an erase lamp to completely discharge any particles

29. Charge the Drum
Next the drum is charged by applying a negative charge to the entire surface
Charged by primary corona wire
Between ~600 and ~1000 volts

30. Write and Develop the Image
A laser is used to write and develop an image on the surface of the drum
Every particle hit by the laser will release most of its negative charge into the drum
Discussion Point
Charges
Remember the phrase from high-school science class, “opposites attract”? That is the underlying principle behind laser printers. The toner jumps around from one place to another based on the positive or negative charges it is following. The negatively charged toner seeks out and jumps to the positively charged paper.

31. Transfer the Image
Using the transfer corona, the paper is charged positively
The negatively charged toner particles leap from the drum to the paper
Discussion Point
Charges
Remember the phrase from high-school science class, “opposites attract”? That is the underlying principle behind laser printers. The toner jumps around from one place to another based on the positive or negative charges it is following. The negatively charged toner seeks out and jumps to the positively charged paper.

32. Fuse the Image Image fused to the paper
The heat roller made of a nonstick material and the pressure roller are used to fuse the image onto the paper
Toner particles melted into the page
Static charge eliminator removes charge from paper
Stops paper from sticking to drum
The heated roller produces enough heat to melt some types of plastic media, particularly overhead transparency materials. This could damage your laser printer (and void your warranty), so make sure you’re printing on transparencies designed for laser printers!

33. The Electronic Printing Process
Raster image
Laser printers generate a raster image of the page
A raster image is a pattern of dots
Raster image processor (RIP) chip translates the raster image into commands for the laser

34. The Electronic Printing Process
RIP needs RAM in order to store this data
Mem Overflow error indicates insufficient RAM - Add RAM, reduce the resolution, or print smaller graphics
HP LaserJet 21 error means the data is too complex - Reduce complexity by using fewer fonts and less formatting, reducing graphics resolution, and so on
Resolution enhancement technology (RET)
Enables the printer to insert smaller dots among the characters to smooth out jagged curves
Disabling RET helps MEM OVERFLOW errors

35. The Electronic Printing Process
Resolution
A laser printer can print at different resolutions
Resolution is expressed in dots per inch (dpi) such as 600 x 600 or 1200 x 1200 dpi
The first number is the horizontal resolution—how fine a focus can be achieved by the laser
The second number is the vertical resolution—the smallest increment by which the drum can be turned

36. Installing a Printer in Windows

37. Printing in Windows 2000/XP
The physical printer is called a print device
The printer is a program that controls one or more print devices
One printer can support more than one print device
Print drivers
Print spooler
Exercise
Troubleshooting
As usual, surreptitiously make changes without the students present. This will more closely emulate a real tech-environment service call. Have some bad cables available for students to eliminate as the cause of a printer problem. Delete printer drivers. Move different printers from one computer to another (without reinstalling the drivers) so the computer doesn’t recognize the printer. Use old toner cartridges or ink cartridges. While a laser printer is running a sheet of paper through, kill the power to simulate a paper jam. Then have the students perform the service calls.

38. Setting Up Printers PnP devices usually works after plugging them in
If necessary, can use applets to install
Open the Printers applet
Windows XP: Start  Printers and Faxes
Windows 2000: Start  Settings  Printers
Or find applet in Control Panel
Click the Add Printer icon to start the Add Printer Wizard

39. Setting Up Printers Add Printer wizard Select local or network printer
Select a printer port

40. Setting Up Printers Add Printer Wizard Add the driver
Windows Update easiest to use (if driver installed)
Or can download driver from manufacturer or use CD accompanying printer and use Have Disk
Checkmark indicates default printer

41. Optimizing Print Performance
Printout may not match screen colors
Monitors use RGB
Printers use CMYK
Both don’t always match exactly
Calibration
Manually calibrate monitor
Print a test image and adjust monitor to match printout
Automatically calibrate printer
Use an International Color Consortium (ICC) color profile
Instructs the printer to print colors a certain way

42. Troubleshooting Printers

43. General Troubleshooting Issues
Tools of the trade
Multimeter
Cleaning solutions such as denatured alcohol
Extension magnet for retrieving loose screws
CD or USB drive with test patterns
Phillips-head or flat-head screwdriver
Tech Tip
Readme Files
You’ve seen how to get your system to recognize a printer, but what do you do when you get a brand-new printer? Like most peripherals, you’ll have an installation CD that contains various useful files. One of the most important, but least used, tools on this CD is the Readme file. This file, generally in TXT format, contains the absolute latest information on any idiosyncrasies, problems, or incompatibilities related to your printer or printer driver. Usually, you can find it in the root folder of the installation CD, although many printer drivers install the Readme file on your hard drive, so you can access it from the Start menu. The rule here is read first to avoid a headache later!

44. General Troubleshooting Issues
Job never prints
Is the printer on? Connected? Does it have paper?
Check the spooler status
Can bypass spooler if desired
Strange sizes
Points to setup error
Check the Page Setup option in the application

45. General Troubleshooting Issues
Misaligned or garbage prints
A corrupted or incorrect driver—reinstall
You may have asked the printer to do something it can’t do, such as printing Postscript with a PCL driver
Consumables
Printer components should be properly disposed of to avoid environmental hazards
Some companies buy used toner cartridges

46. Other Issues Sharing multiple printers Crashes on power up
A mechanical switch box may be used to share multiple printers
Laser printers should only be used with electronic switch boxes
Crashes on power up
Printers require a lot of power on start up
HP recommends that you turn on the laser printer first and then the PC

47. Troubleshooting Dot Matrix Printers
Dot-matrix printers require regular maintenance
The printhead and the platen should be cleaned with denatured alcohol
Prevents problems such as white bars on text, dots and smudges on paper, and so on
Gears and pulleys should be lubricated according to the manufacturer’s specifications
Bad-looking text
Dirty or damaged printhead
Clean with denatured alcohol or replace
Bad-looking page
Clean the platen with denatured alcohol
Replace the ribbon

48. Troubleshooting Inkjet Printers
Use the maintenance software that came with the printer setup program
Align and clean the print heads
Ink will dry out in a short time if an inkjet printer is not used—the ink in the tiny nozzles of the printhead dries out
Multisheet grab
Fan the paper
Let the printer rest if you’ve been printing a lot
Humidity can be an issue
Clean the small tank where the printhead rests or parks with a paper towel
All inkjet inks are waterbased, and water works better than alcohol to clean them up.

49. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Print a diagnostic print page as a first-step in troubleshooting
Hold down the On Line button as the printer is started as a first step in troubleshooting
Blank paper
Out of toner
Print a diagnostic page, remove the toner cartridge, and look at the imaging drum—if an image is there, the transfer corona or high-voltage power supply is bad

50. Laser Printer Maintenance
Keep printer clean
Excess toner and paper dust commonly cause the printer to get dirty
Clean with a special low-static vacuum designed for electrical components or a can of compressed air
The rubber guide rollers will pick up dirt and paper dust over time, which causes paper jams
Before you service a laser printer, always, ALWAYS turn it off and unplug it! Don’t expose yourself to the very dangerous high voltages found inside these machines.
The photosensitive drum, usually contained in the toner cartridge, can be wiped clean if it becomes dirty, but be very careful if you try this! If the drum becomes scratched, the scratch will appear on every page printed from that point forward. The only repair in the event of a scratch is to replace the toner cartridge.
Failure of the thermal fuse (used to keep the fuser from overheating) can necessitate replacing the fuser assembly. Some machines contain more than one thermal fuse. As always, follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Many manufacturers have kits that alert you with an alarm code to replace the fuser unit and key rollers and guides at predetermined page counts.
Always let the fuser assembly cool down before cleaning it because they operate at 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit!

51. Laser Printer Maintenance
Certain components should be replaced regularly
Follow manufacturers recommendations
Most manufacturers sell maintenance kits for most of their printers
Clean or replace ozone filters regularly
Check and clean fuser assembly and heat roller

52. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Blank Paper
May be out of toner
Check the imaging drum to see if image is on drum but just not transferred to paper
Could be transfer corona or high-voltage supply
Dirty printouts
Light dusting of toner on the paper (front or back) indicates dirty printer
Clean the printer

53. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Ghosting
Can be light ghosting or dark ghosting
Light ghosting explored on next slide
Dark ghosting can be from a damaged drum—replace the toner cartridge
Low temperature or low humidity can aggravate ghosting problems

54. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Light ghosting
Caused by printing an extremely dark or complex image
Referred to as developer starvation
Lower the resolution
Use different pattern
Avoid 50% grayscale and dot-on/dot-off patterns
Change the layout so grayscale patterns do not follow black areas
Make dark patterns lighter and light patterns darker
Print in landscape
Adjust print density and RET settings
Print a completely blank page before the next one

55. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Vertical white lines
Clogged toner
Try shaking the toner cartridge or replacing it
Blotchy print
Uneven dispersion of toner
Try shaking the toner cartridge from side to side
Make sure the printer is level
Make sure the paper is not wet in spots
Check the fusing rollers and photosensitive drum for foreign objects

56. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Spotty print
Try wiping off the fuser rollers
Check the drum for damage
Embossed effect
Like putting a penny under a piece of paper and rubbing it with a lead pencil
A foreign object on a roller
A foreign object on the photosensitive drum
Replace the toner cartridge

57. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Incomplete characters
These may occur on transparencies
Try adjusting the print density
Creased pages
Cotton bond paper is more susceptible
Try using a different paper type

58. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Paper jams
Do not pull on the paper to remove it
Can damage the printer by pulling jammed paper out
Check manufacturer's jam removal procedure
If there is no jammed paper, sensors may be bad
Pulling multiple sheets
Try using a different ream of paper—if that works, the issue is humidity
Check the separation pad—a small piece of rubber or cork that separates the sheets as they are pulled from the paper tray

59. Troubleshooting Laser Printers
Warped, overprinted, or poorly formed characters
Paper that is too rough or too smooth
Don’t open a ream of paper until it is loaded into the printer
Always fan the paper before loading it in the printer
Do a printer self-test to determine if it is the printer or the computer
Replace the toner cartridge, check the cabling, replace the data cable
Turn off advanced functions and high-speed settings to see if they may not be supported by your software configuration

60. Also called IEEE 1284.4 standard
Beyond A+—DOT4
Also called IEEE standard
Created for multifunction peripherals (MFP)
Devices that combine printer, fax, and scanner in one piece of equipment
Allows simultaneous sending and receiving across a single physical channel