Four steps to fix your printer (and the rule for when to stop)
People just don't have the need to print as often as they used to. But every once in a while, you end up needing a nice freshly printed document. Usually for something important. You hit the print button and wipe the dust off your old printer waiting for it to come back to life. But you see "Tray 1 missing," even though there is obviously no missing tray. You tap the screen, hit the buttons, and you hear it roar to life. Then... nothing. You go back to your PC and try another print, because this time it'll work. It's alive now. Nothing. You try again. Nothing.
Printer error messages have always been cryptic. I'm not sure why. Think back to the PC LOAD LETTER error of Office Space. Modern printers have replaced phrases like PC LOAD LETTER with "Tray 1 missing" (which doesn't seem like much of an improvement). Essentially the printer is just putting up a flag saying "I'm unhappy," and it's up to you or your friendly IT person to figure out why.
A rule before you start
Below is a list of some easy troubleshooting steps to take that will clear up many of the most common issues. If you have a printer that isn't working right, and you aren't sure why, try these steps in order. Try each step only once. If you keep trying print jobs and rebooting, you are likely wasting your time. If the first print or reboot doesn't work, it's unlikely to work on the second.
Also a quick note: if you have your printer connected to your computer via Wi-Fi, any kind of changes to your Wi-Fi password will keep your printer from working. If you got a new Wi-Fi router (and even kept your SSID and password the same), you may still need to reconnect your printer.
First 4 steps
If you are unsure why your printer is not working, try these 4 steps first.
Step 1: Clear the print queue
This is the move that fixes the most printer problems for the least effort. Open your computer's printers list (Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners on Windows; System Settings, Printers & Scanners on Mac), pick your printer, and open its queue. If there are old jobs sitting there, cancel them all.
Two things this does. First, an old stuck job can block everything behind it, including the print job you just sent. Cancelling the old jobs unblocks the queue. Second, if you've already hit print eight times trying to make this work, those eight jobs are now stacked up. Clear them now or you'll print eight copies of your contract the moment you fix the actual problem.
Try printing again. If it works, you're done.
Step 2: Reboot the printer
Power it off. Unplug it. Wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in. Power it on.
The 30-second wait matters. A quick off-and-on doesn't fully clear the printer's memory. The capacitors inside need a moment to discharge before the internal state actually resets. This is the difference between a reboot and a flicker.
A reboot fixes a surprising number of things: stuck network connections, pending firmware updates that needed a restart to apply, cached jobs the printer thought it was still working on, and the general weirdness of a device that's been running for three months without being turned off.
Try printing again.
Step 3: Remove and re-add the printer on your computer
This sounds like a big move and it isn't. In your printers list, find your printer, hit "remove device" (or the equivalent on Mac), then hit "add a printer" and let your computer find it again.
What this fixes: a corrupted driver, the printer being set to "paused" or "use printer offline" without you knowing, the wrong printer being set as default (very common when you have a "Microsoft Print to PDF" entry sitting at the top of the list), and any Wi-Fi mismatch that crept in after a network change. Adding the printer back forces a fresh handshake. The computer and printer rediscover each other from scratch.
If your printer is wireless and your computer can't find it during the re-add, that's your sign you have a network problem. The printer and the computer have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. Many homes broadcast a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz network with different names, plus sometimes a guest network. The printer can only be on one. Your computer needs to be on the same one.
Step 4: Print a test page directly from the printer
Every home printer made in the last decade can print a test page or "configuration sheet" without a computer involved. Usually it's a button-hold sequence on the front panel, or a menu option labeled Reports, Setup, or Maintenance. If you can't find it, search "[your printer model] print test page" and the manufacturer will tell you exactly which buttons to push.
This is a diagnostic step, not a fix attempt. It tells you where the problem actually lives.
If the test page prints, your printer is fine. The problem is in the connection between your computer and the printer (driver, network, software). The four steps you've already run will have fixed most of those, so if you're still stuck, you're past the 90-second window.
If the test page doesn't print, your printer has a hardware or supply problem. Out of paper, low ink or toner, a paper jam, or dead. This usually shows on the printer's display panel, but not always.
When to stop trying
If those four steps didn't fix it, you have two options.
You can spend the next hour or so doing what an IT person would do: driver reinstalls, firmware updates, manufacturer support tools, and decoding error codes the printer hasn't bothered to explain. If you actually like printers, this can be satisfying. If you don't, it's an hour you'll never get back.
Or you can replace the printer.
For a small business that prints maybe once a week, replacing it is almost always the right call. A basic black-and-white laser printer runs around $150 to $200. It will print fine for years. It does not care if you ignore it for six months between print jobs.
Inkjets are the opposite. They degrade when they sit unused. The ink in the cartridges dries out, the nozzles clog up, and the printer eventually starts telling you the cartridge is "low" when it's actually full of ink that just can't get out. Every month an inkjet sits, you lose a little more print head function. If you barely print, an inkjet is the worst kind of printer to own. A laser printer doesn't have this problem because toner is a powder, not a liquid. It doesn't dry out.
If your printer is more than five years old and you're staring at it after running through these steps, that's your likely answer. At that age, the math of fixing it versus buying a new one almost always says buy a new one.
You aren't an IT person, and you don't have to be.
What to skip
A few things that look like fixes and aren't.
Don't replace cartridges as your first move on an inkjet. A printer that's been sitting has dried-out nozzles, not empty cartridges. The new $40 cartridge will not fix it. Run a printhead clean cycle from the printer's menu first. If two cycles don't fix the streaks, a third won't either, and you're now wasting ink trying.
Don't try to decode error codes on your own. If your printer shows something like "E5" or "0xC19A," don't guess at what it means. Search "[your model] error E5" and the manufacturer will tell you in ten seconds. Looking it up is fast and worth doing. Guessing isn't.
Don't keep hitting print. Eight failed print jobs is eight items in the queue you'll have to clear later. Plus you're spending energy that could be going toward step 1.
One last thing
Printers suck. I think most IT people would agree. We don't like dealing with them. Which means non-IT people really hate dealing with them. But printers are just machines that are trying to turn digital information into a physical item. It's not as easy as it sounds under the hood. Which makes them unpredictable at times. But time has shown these steps are a great start to troubleshooting your printer problems before having to call in the IT cavalry. Bonus: if you do end up calling someone, you'll impress your IT person with your excellent troubleshooting steps!
If you've found a fix these four steps didn't cover, I'd like to hear about it.
Joel