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• Printing Tips • Ink Cartridges • Keyboards •
Vic's Printing Tips
NOTE FROM
LINDA: Click HERE for my
favorite printer tip from Vic...this one SAVES YOU
MONEY!! :-)
Replacing a
Printer Driver
This will show you how to
replace a printer driver that is giving you problems in Windows. The
main mistake many beginners make when replacing or updating printer
drivers, is that they don't completely remove the old drivers first.
What we want to do is uninstall the printer and then reinstall it.
- Click
Start>Settings>Printers
- Right-click the printer giving
you problems and then click Delete.
- If asked if you want to remove
all the files associated with the printer, click YES.
- Restart your computer to make
sure all the old files will be removed.
- Once back in Windows, click
Start>Settings>Printers, again.
- Double-click Add Printer, click
Next and then select your Printer from the list and follow the
instructions to reinstall your Printer and drivers. If your printer is
not on the list, insert your Printers manufacturers drivers disk in your
floppy drive or CDrom, and click Have Disk. Browse to select your driver
and let Windows install it.
- Once reinstalled, reboot and do
a test to see if your problem is solved.
- If not, try installing the
"Generic/Text Only" driver for your printer. This will help
determine if your printing problem is really driver related.
- Again, click Start>
Settings> Printers.
- Double-click Add Printer, click
Next to start the wizard and select Generic from the Manufacturers list
on the left to choose the Generic/Text Only printer driver as a local
printer, and install.
- Now test to see if you can
print using this driver. Understand that the printing will be very
simple and low quality - this is normal.
- If you can print successfully
using the Generic/Text Only printer driver, your problem really is your
printer driver. You should then try to get an updated driver from
the manufacturers web site.
- Download the correct drivers to
your hard drive or a floppy and then repeat the above steps to remove
and reinstall your printer. Click Have Disk, and insert the floppy or
navigate to the location on your hard drive with the printer driver on
it, and follow the on-screen directions.
- Your problem should now be
resolved.
To update your printer drivers
at any time.
- Click
Start>Settings>Printers
- Right-click the printer whose
driver you wish to update.
- Click Properties and then the
Details tab.
- Click on New Driver.
- Answer Yes to the warning box
that pops up.
- Click Have Disk, and browse to
the folder containing your updated drivers.
- Follow the on-screen directions
to install.
Speeding up your printer
If you find your printer is printing at a slower speed than then you are
accustomed to, it could be that you simply need more memory. Printers
need memory too and the more you have the faster your printing jobs will
be. You will especially notice a speed boost when printing
graphics. Most printers must store the data of an entire page before it
can print it. The majority of all printers come standard with 1MB of
printer memory. For peak performance, try upgrading to 2MB of memory. If
you constantly print large graphic files, try upgrading to 4MB. Refer to
your printer’s manual or the manufacturer for specifications on adding
memory.
Changing your default printer.
If you have multiple printers, you may want to change the default
printer to a printer of your choice. To change the default printer:
Double-click the My Computer icon.
Double-click the Printers icon.
Now simply right-click the printer that you want as the new default
printer and then choose Set As Default.
Creating a Shortcut on the Desktop
To create a shortcut to your printer on the Desktop, click on the
"Start" button, point to "Settings", and click on
"Printers". Click once on your printer to highlight it. Click
on the "File" menu and then click on "Create
Shortcut". A message will be displayed asking if you want to create
the shortcut on your desktop. Click "Yes". Now that you have
the shortcut on your desktop, you can double-click it at any time to see
what documents are printing. You can do much more by using the right
mouse button such as pause printing, resume printing, and set the
printer as the default printer (if you have more than one printer). You
can also cancel all printing documents by selecting "Purge Print
Jobs".
Stuck Printer Jobs - Windows NT\2000
Every once in a while, particularly on a heavily used NT print server, a
print job will get "stuck" in the print queue. Viewing
the queue usually indicates that the job is being deleted, but it never
leaves, and new jobs won't print. Rather than reboot the server,
which will also solve the problem, just restart the print spooler.
Open the Services applet in the Control Panel. Highlight the
Spooler service, and click the Stop button. After the service
stops, click the Start button to restart it. You should then be
able to delete the job from the queue, if it is not deleted
automatically.
Spooling - Windows 2000
When you are in an application, and you choose to Print, there are two
ways that Windows 2000 can be configured to handle the print job.
You can configure it to allow the application to print directly to a
printer, but the application will generally be busy and unavailable then
until the print job is complete. The other way to configure the
printer is to allow Windows to spool the document. With this
setting, the application basically prints to the OS (which is very
quick), and then becomes available to you again. The OS handles
printing in the background then. With this setting, you can also
choose whether to begin printing the document while it is still
spooling, or wait until the entire document is spooled before beginning
to print. These settings can be found on the Advanced tab of the
printer properties (Start, Settings, Printers, right-click the printer
and choose Properties).
General Troubleshooting
If your document doesn’t print, there are several things you can
check:
-
Make sure there is paper in the printer and that there are no error
lights on. Also, make sure the printer is "On Line". Sometimes
there is an "On-Line" or "Pause" button that needs
to be pressed.
-
Make sure the printer is on and that the printer cable is still plugged
in. Both the power cable and the data cable need to be plugged in.
-
Has the printer run out of toner or ink? If so, install a new toner
cartridge, ink cartridge, or ribbon.
-
Have you ever been able to print to this printer? If not, maybe you need
to reinstall the printer driver. It’s probably best to delete the
printer first before reinstalling it. To delete a printer, open up the
"Printers" folder by clicking the "Start" button,
pointing to "Settings", and clicking on "Printers".
Click once on the printer to highlight it. Then, press the
"Delete" key on your keyboard. After deleting the printer,
reinstall it per the manufacturer’s instructions.
If you’re still having problems, check your hard disk space. You need
at least 2MB or more to print a document. Larger documents need even
more. To check your free space, double-click the "My Computer"
icon on the desktop. Click once on the hard disk icon, click the
"File" menu, and then click "Properties". If you
don’t have enough space, empty your recycle bin, delete unnecessary
files, or uninstall programs you don’t use anymore.
Printing 4 Pages On One Page
from WinPlanet.com
If you have good eyesight and want to save trees, you can print four
pages to one page from any application under Windows 95. Here's how:
Download a PostScript viewer application (RoPS or GhostScript/GhostView)
Run the Add Printer Wizard (Start, Settings, Printers, Add Printer)
Select Local Printer, Apple, Apple LaserWriter (or any other PostScript
printer)
Set the port to FILE:, answer No to Make Default Printer and Print Test
Page
Shuffle some Win95 diskettes or insert the Win95 CD
Right-click on the new printer icon and select Properties
Click on the Paper tab and select 4 up in Layout
Click on the PostScript tab and select PostScript (optimize for
portability - ADSC) and click on the Advanced tab
Select PostScript Level 1 for RoPS. Click OK twice to get back to
Windows.
Close the Printers folder.
Any time you want to have your output crammed on less paper, print to
the PostScript driver and open the resulting file in your PostScript
Viewer to print to your real printer.
Print
to File
To
set up a special "printer" to print documents to a text file,
first open the Printers folder in the Control Panel. Double-click on Add
Printer. Select Local Printer and click on Next. Select Generic from the
manufacturer list, and Generic/Text Only option from the printer list,
then click on Next.
Select File from the available ports list and click Next a couple times
to add the printer. Highlight the new
icon, right-click it and select Properties, then the Paper tab, and
change the paper setting to: "continuous, no page-breaks".
You can now select this printer from any Windows 98 application, sending
the output in text format to a file. You will be prompted to choose a
filename when you print.
Replacing Cartridges
Replacing inkjet cartridges can be costly -
often the cost of a OEM replacement cartridge is close to the price you
paid for the printer itself. However, it doesn't have to be this way -
there are many places on the net that provide generic or remanufactured
replacement cartridges for the most popular printer brands and they are
guranteed to be as good or even better than an OEM replacement, but at a
fraction of the cost.
When choosing a supplier, make sure there is a gurantee, refund policy
and a good shipping policy (ie: quick and low cost)
Click here for a list of the more
reputable sources for inkjet replacement cartridges.
Print To Multiple Printers From The Win98
Explorer
You can easily print most any document on your computer by simply
right-clicking on the file in the Windows 98 Explorer and selecting
"Print" from the drop-down menu. This is fine if you have
only one printer on your system. What if you have more than one
printer? Here's a tip that will help you send that document to the
printer of your choice.
1 - On the desktop, double-click the "My Computer" icon.
2 - In the My Computer window, double-click the "Printers"
icon. Move the Printers window to a corner of your screen.
3 - Click Start and chose "Programs" then "Windows
Explorer."
4 - In the left Explorer pane, navigate to the "C:\Windows\Sendto"
folder.
5 - Right-click and drag a printer icon from the Printers window to
the Sendto folder.
When the warning box appears asking you whether you want to create a
shortcut, click OK.
6 - Repeat Step 5 for each printer you want to add to the Send To
menu.
From now on, to print a document directly from a folder or Explorer
window:
1 - Right-click the document.
2 - Choose "Send To" from the drop-down menu, and then
choose the printer of your choice from the menu.
Changing Printer Settings
Follow these steps to change printer properties such as print
quality:
When you are ready to print a document, instead of just clicking the
printer icon on the toolbar, click on the "File" menu and
select "Print". This will allow you more control on how
your document will print. You can change things like what pages to
print, and how many copies.
Click on the "Properties" button. Different printers may
have different tabs listed, but most printers have a
"Paper" tab and a "Graphics" tab.
On the "Paper" tab, you can change things like print
quality. If you want to save ink and print something in draft mode,
you can make the change on this tab. On the "Graphics"
tab, you can change the quality of how graphics will print. Some
printers allow you to set up different printing profiles and save
them. You could set up a profile for draft printing, one for
printing black and white text, and one for high-quality color
printing.
You can also get to the printer properties from your desktop. If you
created a printer icon on the desktop, double-click on it.
Otherwise, click on the "Start" button, point to
"Settings", click on "Printers", and
double-click on your printer. From the "Printer" menu,
select "Properties".
Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles dealing
with print problems:
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