Welcome to the printer advice section of the site.
It’s annoying when your printer goes haywire and you have no idea what to do.
I should know I have been there and I have talked to hundreds of people helping them to correct their printer problems.
The bottom line is, some printers can be fixable, with a bit of fiddling reinstalling etc.
However, in some cases the printer will need serviced, it’s just a fact of life when it comes to printers.
However this page will give you some helpful advice on some general troubleshooting for printers. Also Included is helpful advice for the different printers mentioned on this site.
Use this as a printer guide for the deskjets and officejets.
The general deskjet reset - What everyone should know.
If you are printing and your printer goes alien minded, for example feeding paper out all the time, flashing lights, or just not responding the way you would like it to.
I would suggest you perform, what is known as a deskjet reset.
To do this follow these simple instructions:-
First of all, make sure there is no paper going through the feeder (coming out of the printer)
If there are any jams or you think there might be, open the back door on the printer and you will see some rollers. Look for any paper in there and if so, pull it out.
If your deskjet printer does not have a back door panel, just look for where the paper goes in, and try to remove any jams as best as you can.
(Most hp deskjets have a back door panel where you can easily remove any jams without damaging the unit.)
Now open the lid of the deskjet, normally at the top of the printer.
Now the cartridges should come to the middle, remove both cartridges and close the lid.
Now literally pull the power cord out from the back (the plug which powers the printer) and leave the unit standing for a good 30 seconds.
Now simply power on the unit, open the lid put the cartridges back in, and let the printer settle give it a chance to sort its self out. Now do a test pageor a print of any kind. It is good to know this troubleshooting printers reset for deskjets. I personally have often had problems with deskjets where a simple deskjet reset has resolved the issue. This reset will enable the user to perform their daily tasks.
For troubleshooting printers (officejets) performing the same sort of reset for persistent weird messages that won’t disappear, or the unit is just going crazy, really depends on the manufacturer.
For troubleshooting printers I will list some hardware resets for printers I have used and solved problems for.
Obviously I can’t list every reset, as I have not used or helped with every printer made.
However we can provide the resets for the all in one hp officejets, and some other brands we have encountered
Click here for the officejet hardware resets for the Hp officejets