PrinterHelp

Poor print quality

This means that the paper feeds and printing action occurs, but the print is bad or even blank.

Possible causes:

Ink or toner tank empty

Print head partly blocked.

Print head electrically defective.

Fault on print carriage loom (service fault)

logic board damaged (service fault).

Any combination of the above.

If you think you have an electrically defective print head, be aware that it IS possible for the print head and logic board to engage in mutual damage, (A blows B and then B blows A’) - a situation that can cause grief if the owner tries to solve the problem cheaply by buying a new print head! The safe option is to take the printer for service and let a technician sort it out.

If you suspect that the print head could be partly blocked, you can check this out by getting the printer to perform a test pattern. Most printers can do this, either from the printer driver software (in Windows XP, click on Start, Printers and Faxes, (right-click on the relevant icon), Properties, Maintenance,Test Pattern), or by some button-pressing on the printer itself, or both.

Look at the output to see what’s missing.

Ink or toner empty:

Be aware that readouts showing an ink tank to be part full may not be telling you the truth. In many cases, to the great surprise of owners, these are not a measurement at all, but the output of some clever software making a guesstimate of how much ink is remaining based on the amount of printing and purging done. And this guesstimate can get confused and be totally wrong. Mostly they work quite well, leaving owners convinced that a £70 printer contains six electronic liquid level gauges! Think about it now, ask your car dealer how many electronic fuel level gauges you can buy for a few pounds…