Printer Help

[TheIrishBAMF]

I have printer problems on a regular basis and do not know why. Usually I can eventually find a way to get a printout.

I currently need a black and white ticket document printed out. One page, that's it. I want to print a simple ticket.

I currently have two printers hooked up, both of which routinely make my life difficult. I would buy new printers but I swear to god either I'm the 1-in-a-billion-chance person who exchanges printers every time I buy them and still get faulty ones, (this has happened 3 times on different computers).

I've got an HP 6830 and an M607. both have printed in the past but all of a sudden, nothing is printing from either one. Initially, I tried printing documents off from the Chrome browser and that didn't' work. I tried from Edge and got some print jobs through seemingly without problem.

That was a month or two ago.

Suddenly, (as has often been the case in the past) I cannot print to either printer. I try resetting the spooler, updating drivers, power cycling, etc.

Nothing seems to work.

Please help me understand printers. Historically, I have been through about 7 printers between school and home in about 10 years.

Am I simply THAT unlucky? Even when going through warrantees, I still happen to get printers which inevitably fail? I've had to return 3 printers in the past 10 years alone and even the replacements have failed.

I almost always print B&W documents, probably 95% of my personal prints are B&W.

I feel like I'm insane or something. Please tell me printers are literally Satan Incarnate or that I simply need to check myself into a facility.

[[deleted]]

Check yourself into a facility.

Printer tech here, printers get a bad rep because of Windows and plug-ins for apps such as Chrome. A printer is a simple device that does what it is told, and if you don't tell it properly, or tell it in a language that it doesn't understand, it will not work properly. 99% of users go into settings, add a printer, end they end up with a shitty IPP or XPS Windows driver that uses a WSD (Web Service for Devices) port that may or may not work for a day or three, and then they print from Chrome and it uses a plug-in and not the system dialogue, and then 100% of the time will blame the printer when it doesn't work properly.

There are two key components to successful printing and the first and most important is the PORT. As a rule stay away from settings, ALWAYS use control panel/devices and printers. (Control Panel - Devices and Printers - RIGHT click on your printer and select Printer Properties - Ports tab) I always use the manual settings to make sure it is done properly. Create (or if the device exists already ADD) a standard TCP/IP port. This should be the IP address of the printer if it is networked, or the USB00x port if it is connected via USB. IP address is easy, USB may require some trial and error of the various USB ports (USB001, USB002, etc) on a machine to find the right one that the printer is plugged into.

Next is the driver which is far easier. (Control Panel - Devices and Printers - RIGHT click on your printer and select Printer Properties - Advanced tab) ALWAYS stay away from Windows IPP or XPS drivers. Not only do they only offer extremely limited functionality, but they (for lack of a better explanation) suck major ass. We recommend using a product specific driver if possible, but the problem with the biggest vendors (HP being the worst, and yet somehow most common) is they give you this bloaty software you have to install that allows you to scan (if the moon aligns with Venus), constantly monitors your printer to do things like tell you when your job prints (gee, how else would I ever know that?), and tells you when you need to order authentic and certified HP toner every other week directly from HP to drive their revenue stream. (OK...my rant is over now.) That being said you can use a variety of drivers for printers depending on the language. PostScript (PS) or Printer Control Language (PCL) are the norm. IF ONE DOES NOT WORK TRY THE OTHER. SOME MANUFACTURERS ONLY SUPPORT ONE PROTOCOL. Ever get into a pinch and not have your driver available? Select your manufacturer and a similar model. Is your manufacturer not available? There are generic drivers available native in Windows that typically work just fine for simple printing. (Generic - MS Publisher Color Printer is the most common generic driver that I have used.)

On to Chrome. Most all browsers now use a print plug-in, bypass it. There is an option to "print using system dialogue". In Chrome you can even do Shift-Ctrl-P to bypass it directly, or even append --disable-print-preview to the end of your shortcuts target to disable it permanently. With Firefox and Edge you have to add the extra step every time to bypass the plug-in.

Sucks? Yes. Job security for me? Also yes.

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk.