A+ Chapter 26 Printers and Multifunction Devices
What is the advantage of inkjet in relation to print media?
Inkjets can print on the widest array of media including: glossy paper, fabric, optical disks, and more.
How does an inkjet printer work mechanically?
A roller grabs paper from a tray and takes it into the print area. There the printheaad moves along a traverse guide (a rod that runs the length of the print area) driven by a traverse assembly, as it does so it takes ink from the cartridge caddy on the printhead and sprays it on to the page.
What are the electronics in a printer called?
A system board, containing: ROM, RAM used to store the image before printing, and a processor. In many printers this is not a unified board, but several that are referred to as sub-logic boards.
What if the page looks peppery? Impact
Clean the platen
How many toner cartridges do color laser printers have?
Four for CMYK
What is another term for inkjet printers?
Ink dispersion printers
What is the minimum recommended scanner?
2400x2400 dpi, 48-bit Color Depth, 16-bit Gray Scale
What types of grayscale are most common?
8-bit, 12-bit, and 16-bit
What makes up the dots in a dot matrix printer?
> 9 or 24 pins > A 9 pin printer is called draft quality, and a 24 pin printer is called letter quality or near letter quality
What are miscellaneous printer settings?
> Apply a watermark > Header/footer settings > Collate: Print out a full set of a document as opposed to printing the first page ten times and then printing the second ten times and so on...
What are the typical layout settings?
> Duplex: where and how to use each side of a printed page > Orientation: landscape or portrait > Multiple page: Print multiple pages on one physical page > Scaling Setting: Scales down a large document to a single page, or a small document to fill a page > Reverse or Invert: Prints a mirror image of your documents for transfer paper or other special use cases
What determines horizontal and vertical resolution?
> Horizontal: How fine a focus can be achieved by a laser > Vertical: The smallest increment by which the drum can be turned What two rollers are used in a laser printer? A heated roller and a nonstick pressure roller.
What is a dye sublimation printer used for photos called?
A Snapshot Printer
What sort of file does a scanner produce?
A bitmap grid of pixels, but pixels are referred to using dpi, often this is referred to as a resolution
How do laser printers print in duplex?
A duplex assembly is a device that reverses the pages to pass them back through.
What should you get to help you keep a laser printer up and running?
A maintenance kit, which will give you replacement parts for ones that tend to wear out, make sure to reset the page count after installing one.
What is the name for the paper tray of an MFD?
AFD: Automatic Document Feeder is a paper tray that is mounted on top of the unit, and will usually have something to indicate if pages should be face up or face down.
What does a laser do in a laser printer?
Acts as the writing mechanism of the printer, any particle on the drum struck by the laser becomes conductive and loses its charge, and has around a -100V charge.
What is a gear pack?
Also called a gear box, it is an assembly of gears meant to drive the functions of a laser printer, there will be two or three in a printer, and they can be removed and replaced in the case of failure.
What if you get a paper jam?
Always read the manufacturer's instructions, because clearing a jam the wrong way may damage the printer.
What does ASCII stand for?
American Standard Code for information Interchange
What two components clean a laser printer drum?
An erase lamp and a plastic cleaning blade.
How does an impact printer and a laser printer differ in how they print a page?
An impact printer will go through a page one character or one line at a time, a laser printer will charge the drum to print an entire page at once.
Where is dye sublimation printing used?
Applications for which fine detail and rich color are more important than cost.
What is rich black?
Black with other colors mixed in
How does a toner cylinder work?
Charges the toner powder with between -200 to -500V.
What should you do if a laser printer is putting out dirty or smudged pages?
Clean the printer
What is a fuser assembly?
Close to the bottom of the toner cartridge, will usually have two rollers to fuse the toner: a pressure roller and a heated roller.
Where can you go to change the print configuration?
Control Panel > Devices and Printers
What if a printer goes down?
Delete the job in the spooler and use a different printer.
What is PostScript?
Developed by Adobe in the 1980s to control printers, with the interpreters embedded in the printer at a hardware level, with most of the required processing being done by the printer and not the CPU making printing much faster. It defines the page as a single raster image.
What is a static charge eliminator?
Discharges the charge on the paper so that it doesn't roll around the drum.
How do you look at the spooler?
Double click the printer's icon in the notification area or go to control panel.
What is the print management console?
Enables you to view and modify all the printers and rviers on your system or connected ot the network.
Why do you need to clean inkjet nozzles?
Even being off for a short time can cause ink to solidify and block the nozzles
How do local vs network printers work on Windows?
If a printer connection is made locally or over the network makes no difference in regards to sharing the printer with other members of the domain/workgroup.
Where is grayscale most important?
If you are regularly working with black and white images.
What is developer starvation?
If you ask a laser printer to print a very dark page the toner cartridge may not be able to charge enough toner to produce it
Why do you need to be careful when exchanging paper rolls or clearing jams in an impact printer? Impact
If you do it incorrectly you may damage the printer.
What is a backed up print queue?
If you try to send too many print jobs to the device simultaneously then you may have problems, the easiest thing to do is to delete them and try again.
What can cause ghosting on a laser printed page?
Imaging drum has not fully discharged and is picking up toner from an old job, so the supply of charged toner is insufficient, or the cleaning blade may be worn out
What is a print server?
It can be a stand-alone device that you use to connect a non-wireless capable printer to a network, or it can refer to the ability to share a printer that is integrated into something else. Technically a print server is anything that can share a server.
What does ASCII do for printers?
It contains a variety of control codes that will allow a printer to produce a text document, all printers respond to them, but they are very limited, and as such is not used much any longer.
What is an imaging drum?
It is a aluminum cylinder that is coated with particles of photosensitive compounds, the drum is grounded and will disperse electrical charge.
How is a dye sublimation printer different from other methods of printing?
It is a continuous blend of different overlaid dye colors, as opposed to other "dithered" images in which many small dots are used to give the illusion of blended colors.
Why should you be careful when trying to clean the fuser in a laser printer?
It runs between 200-300 degrees Fahrenheit so make sure you give it time to cool down
What care does a transfer corona/roller need?
It sits outside the toner cartridge and because of it's charge will attract dirt, toner and other debris. Most machines have an automatic method of cleaning it, but it can also be cleaned with suitable alcohol and a cotton swab.
What cartridges will an inkjet printer have?
It used to be two, one for black and one CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow), but if any one color ran out the whole cartridge would need replacement, so now CYMK is three seperate cartridges and high end printers feature extras.
Why is it a bad idea to run a head cleaning program often on an inkjet printer?
It uses a lot of ink to clean them, its better to just run a test page once a week if they're not in use
How does a thermal wax printer work?
It uses a ribbon of wax that then gets melted on to the page, it does not require special paper to do so. This is cheaper than dye sublimation, but the quality is inferior.
What is OCR?
Optical Character Recognition: Technology that allows a scan of a document to be turned into a text file
How might paper cause a job to fail to start?
Laser printers are configured for a specific type of paper, and if that paper is not present it may not start the job, it is usually easy to override it by pushing the "start" or "go" button on the printer.
What should you do if you travel?
Lock the scanner light assembly
What should you do if a printer is giving an error without any real issue?
Look and make sure the switch isn't stuck or dirty.
What if you are getting print jobs that aren't coming out correctly?
Make sure that the user is setting it up correctly in whatever application they are using, and if it keeps happening try to update the drivers, and if it keeps happening, the printer engine may be bad.
What is the source of demand for new dot matrix printers, and what advantage of the technology is it based on?
POS (point of sale) because a dot matrix printer can do multipart forms.
How do color laser printers work?
Most models send each page through four different passes, but there are a variety of methods
How do you install a printer on Windows?
Most printers should be plug and play with Windows automatically detecting it and installing any necessary drivers. If there is an issue go to devices and printers applet in the control panel and select add a printer.
What is another name for an MFD?
Multifunction printer
What is printer emulation?
New printers may be released without unique drivers and may run off of an older set, and there are also scenarios where there won't be drivers available for a device, but in either case having some main drivers from major manufacturers will enable you to print from the device.
What if there is an embossed effect on an image? Laser
Object on a roller or the drum, if it's the drum a new cartridge will be needed, if its the rollers just clean them, also try to lower the contrast if it doesn't go away
What should you do to make sure a printer is running correctly?
Print a diagnostic print page, also called an engine test page
What does a duplex assembly allow a printer to do?
Print on both sides
What is PCL?
Printer control language was developed by HP to replace ASCII, it only supports text documents and uses a series of commands to define the characters on a page, the commands have to be present in the printer, meaning a PCL file is less portable than PostScript.
Why might you encounter older standards of USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth ect on printer?
Printers tend to have longer lives than other computing equipment.
What is a RIP?
Raster Image Processor: Takes digital commands from the files to be printed and translates them into a raster image, found on laser as a chip and inkjet in software
What is RET?
Resolution Enhancement Technology: Is an ability laser printers have to print smaller dots in the gaps of printed elements that are supposed to be curved leaving smoother edges, but this requires memory, and can make some print jobs too large to handle.
What is the best way to keep a laser printer running smoothly?
Run the automatic cleaning cycle every time you change the toner cartridge
Where can you go to change the media type your printer is configured for?
Settings > Devices > Printers and Scanners > select the printer > manage > printer preferences
What is a virtual printer?
Software that processes a computer file into a different file that shows what it would look like if printed on a page.
What is the first step before opening up a laser printer for any reason?
TURN IT OFF AND UNPLUG IT, IT HAS DANGEROUS VOLTAGES
What is the default driver for scanners called?
TWAIN: Technology Without An Interesting Name
What is a print spooler?
The CPU sends print jobs here, they will form a queue to be sent to the printer.
What is a primary corona or charge roller?
The component that charges the surface of the imaging drum, giving it a uniform negative voltage of between 600-1000 volts.
Why is a laser printer power supply dangerous?
The corona requires extremely high voltage, so make sure to disconnect it from any power sources before doing anything with it.
What if you are getting a spotty print?
The drum may be damaged of there may be toner stuck the the fuser rollers try wiping off the rollers and check the drum for damage
What is the downside to 48-bit color depth scanners?
The file size is twice as large as 24-bit.
What is the risk of using a roller on transparencies?
The heated rollers can melt the plastic, so make sure to only use a laser printer intended for use with transparencies.
What can go wrong with a processor in a printer?
The jobs submitted to it may be simply too complex for the RIP to handle, adding more memory will not help. On an HP printer this is referred to as a "21 ERROR"
What should you do if a laser printer is putting out faded or blank pages?
The printer is likely running out of toner
How does Windows relate to a printer?
The printer is the program that is used to control a printer, and the physical printer is called a print device by Windows. The drivers and spoolers are part of the printer to Windows.
What is the right way to manage scanning speed?
The scanning speed that will be advertised is the fastest speed possible, it will slow down if you select greater gray scale, color depth, and resolution, so the thing to do is consider the job and adjust settings the the minimum amount necessary to adequately complete it. You don't need rich color depth and resolution for a document that you're going to use OCR on.
What is another name for dye sublimation printing?
Thermal Dye Transfer Printing
What if the image is faded and you know the ribbon is good? Impact
Try to adjust the print head closer to the platen
What can you do for a printer LCD screen that is failing?
Try to restart it, leave it unplugged for a few minutes, if the screen is the only problem and it didn't start after a firmware update take it to a service center.
What should you do if you have misaligned or weird looking characters?
Try to restart the printer, make sure you're using the right drivers, uninstall and reinstall the driver, swap out the data cable, move the printer to another outlet, try a different connection
What should you do if there are crashes on power up?
Trying to boot up a computer and a printer at the same time may cause issues because both draw more power when they're starting up then when they are operating. Start the printer or computer first then the other one.
What should you do before servicing a printer?
Turn it off and unplug it from its power source.
What types of connectors might be found on old printers knocking about out there?
USB, 802.11, Bluetooth, parallel port, serial port, SCSI, tunderbolt
How do you distribute a large number of printers to different computers on a network?
Use a group policy to map what printers should go to what machine
What is color calibration?
Uses hardware to generate an International Color Consortium (ICC) color profile so that screen representations and the final printed product match.
What should you use to clean inkjet nozzles?
Warm water, all inkjet inks are water based
What if characters are warped, overprinted, or poorly formed?
What if characters are warped, overprinted, or poorly formed?
What causes a memory overflow?
When the system doesn't have enough memory to store an image.
What is the advantage of the Windows model of printer usage?
Windows can run multiple print devices off of a single printer program.
What is XPS?
XML Paper Specification Print Path was introduced in 2006, and then in 2009 ECMA-388 formally named XPS the Open XML Paper Specification or OpenXPS it has better color management and better print layout fidelity than GDI.
What causes a printer to grab multiple sheets of paper?
> Humidity > Overworking the printer in a short time * To help avoid this, fan the sheets of paper before putting them in the tray
What should you do to help maintain data privacy on a printer?
> If it has a cache to store copies of print jobs, make sure to clear the cache one way or another. > Make sure to implement authentication on the printer before it processes print jobs
What are the first six questions you should ask if there is a print job that won't print?
> Is the printer on? > Is it connected? > Is it online? > Is there an error message? > Does it have paper? > Is the computer online?
What cleaning materials are suitable for a printer?
> Lint free cloths > Isopropyl alcohol > Compressed air (Use outside if cleaning a laser printer) > Toner vacuum if cleaning a laser printer indoors
What tools should you have to deal with issues with printers?
> Multimeter for troubleshooting electrical problems such as bad oulets > Cleaning solutions > Extension magnet (can also be used to clean up toner) > USB thumb drive with test patterns > Screw drivers
What two types of resolution are there?
> Optical resolution: What the scanner achieves mechanically > Enhanced resolution: What the scanner achieves using on board software (Don't pay attention to this)
What are the two types of fouling that will effect a laser printer?
> Paper dust (aka paper dander) > Toner build up What is one area of cleaning a laser printer that instructions often neglect? The rubber guide rollers through which the paper is run during the print process, clean them with a fibrous cloth with a little isopropyl alcohol.
What paper settings are typical?
> Paper size: standard, legal, custom > Paper type: thickness, coating, special formats > Paper source: Choose what paper tray, or manual feed
What types of virtual printing are most common?
> Print to PDF > Print to XPS > Print to Image
What two types of print output maintenance routines do laser printers run?
> Registration routines > Color calibration
What are the four things to consider when purchasing a scanner?
> Resolution > Color Depth > Grayscale Depth > Scan speed
What quality settings are there?
> Resolution: What dpi the document will have > Optimizations for graphics or text, or manually configure them > Reduced Ink Use: Environmental or cost reasons
What should you do if color registration is off?
> Run the printer's registration or alignment routine > Check any color settings on the printer > Check the color profile on the printer and the monitor > Calibrate colors again on both devices > If it is an inkjet make sure colors are in the right slots and that the print head is clean, if not clean them
How can you respond to a memory overflow error?
> Try reducing the resolution > Printing smaller graphics > Reducing the complexity > Turning off RET *The best solution is of course to buy more RAM for the printer
What should you do if a printer won't connect?
> Try resetting it > Go into the network settings and adjust them if necessary
If it is routinely pulling in multiple sheets what should you do?
> Try some new paper: if it works fine then it is a humidity issue > Make sure the separation pad is in good condition, a worn pad will look shiny
What should you do if the color is coming out wrong?
> Try to print the diagnostic page > Check print settings > Check ink/toner levels
What should you do if the print out rubs off on your fingers?
> Try using a lighter weight paper > Replace the fuser
What are the causes of and solutions to bad looking text? Impact
> White bars going through the text points to a dirty or damaged print head: Try cleaning it, if that fails replace it > If the characters are chopped off at the top or bottom: adjust the printhead > Degraded characters: the printhead may be wearing out, so replace it
What two performance specs are there for inkjet printers?
> dpi (dots per inch) the resolution in horizontal by vertical dots per inch, more results in a better quality picture > ppm (pages per minute
What are the eight steps to fixing ghosting?
> lower the resolution of the page > Use a different patter > Avoid 50 percent grayscale patterns that do not follow black areas > Make dark patterns lighter and light patterns darker > Print in landscape orientation > Adjust print density and RET settings > Print a completely blank page immediately before the page with the ghosting image as part of the same job * Ghosting can also be caused by low temperature or low humidity
What to do if the image is good on one side and fades as you move to the next? Impact
The platen is out of adjustment, take it to a service center
What takes paper off the stack in a laser printer?
A pickup roller will grab it and a separation pad will make sure there is only one sheet that goes in.
What is the glass surface of a scanner called?
A platen.
What will you see if there are jobs in the print spooler waiting to go to the printer?
A printer icon in the notification area, when it disappears all the jobs have gone to the printer.
What is a transfer corona/transfer roller?
A transfer corona is an older style wire now replace by a transfer roller in newer machines that will give a page a positive charge, so that it will attract the toner particles.
What if a laser printed page is blotchy?
Blotches come from uneven dispersion of toner especially if it is low, shake the cartridge, make sure the paper is not wet, try cleaning the fusing rollers and the photosensitive drum
What is an issue with standard users installing printers?
By default a standard user can install a printer, but may not install new drivers from the internet or optical disks, this is particularly an issue when a company gives employees computers that they want to connect to their personal printers with, and the solution is usually to change group policies to allow standard users to install printer drivers.
Where can you find information on where to dispose of printer components?
Check with the local sanitation department and disposal services, and if all else fails check the MSDS
What if paper won't feed?
Check to make sure that the pick up rollers look okay, and then make sure that the paper is the right type and not being impeded by anything
What is an erase lamp?
Covers the entire surface of the imaging drum in light making the photosensitive components conductive allowing any charge they have to transfer to the drum, leaving the surface electrically neutral.
What does CMYK stand for?
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK
How are toner cartridges optimized for parts breakage?
Fragile parts that are likely to break are incorporated into the toner cartridge, so that every time the toner is replaced a new set of parts is put in the machine.
Why does a printer need an ozone filter?
Even small amounts of ozone can damage a printer, the filter will need to be cleaned periodically.
Should you vacuum out an ozone filter or replace it?
Follow the manufacturer's instructions.
If paper won't feed into a laser printer because the rollers are worn too smooth what can you do?
Get a nonmetallic scouring pad and some isopropyl alcohol and rub it on the rollers
How can you get around problems with a spooler?
Go into printers/devices and printers applet, right click the icon of the printer and select printer properties, then select the button to print directly to the printer on the advanced tab.
What should you do if Windows can't find your printer on the network?
Go to Settings > Printers > "the printer I want isn't listed" > Enter it's IP and hostname information
Where can you allow a new user to print on a machine?
Go to the host machine and check the security tab of the printer properties dialog box, and allow them access.
How do you find the printer's default paper tray and paper size options?
Go to the printer's properties dialog box and from the printers/devices and printers applet select the device settings tab
What is GDI?
Graphical Device Interface which is a Windows OS component that handles print functions, it uses the CPU to process all print jobs including text into an image that is then sent to the printer.
What is color depth?
How many bits of information the computer uses to describe the optical qualities of each picture. The most common are 24-bit with around 16.8M colors and 48-bit with around 2.81 quadrillion colors. These days 48-bit color depth scanners are very affordable.
What is an error code in a printing context?
Indicates a problem, they will appear on the LCD for the printer.
What maintenance is needed for an impact printer?
Keep the platen and printhead clean, lubricate gears and pulleys according to manufacturer specifications
How do you restart the spooler service?
Open the start menu > right click on computer > manage > double click services and applications > services > Find the spooler and click restart
If a laser printer has toner and pages are faded or blank what should you do?
Print out a test page, and if that is also blank check the drum, if it still has an image then the transfer corona or the high-voltage power supply has failed
What is a sign that color registration is out of order?
Sliver of unexpected color to either side of large elements
What is the advantage of cloud and remote printing?
The machine you use to create the document does not need to have the driver for the machine that prints the document.
What part of an inkjet printer should you manually clean?
The nozzles.
What is grayscale depth?
The number of shades of gray the scanner can capture.
How does a dye sublimation printer work?
The page vaporizes dye right above the page, where it then soaks in. It will have to pass over the page once for each color that it uses.
How does a printer produce a document?
There is a list of instructions that are written in various printer languages.
How are inkjets finely controlled?
There is a set of metal plats that sit in front of the nozzles and the plates are charged to direct the flow of droplets.
What ways other than manual cleaning can take care of inkjet nozzles?
There should be a cleaning program in the printer's management utility.
What can kill your inkjet printer if you don't clean it out?
There will be a tray that catches excess ink from the cleaning cycle, and if it overflows on to the electronics it can kill the printer. Twist up some paper towel to absorb it.
Why are printers a common starting point for attacks on a network?
They are often kept in a very open way to make it easier for people on the network to use.
What is the right way to conceptualize an MFD?
Think of it not as one device, but as however many separate device: install, maintain, troubleshoot and repair each function as if it were a independent machine
What if you are getting creased paper?
This is caused by the wrong type of paper for the printer, try sending to the face-up tray, and if that doesn't work switch the paper type
What if you get white vertical lines on the page of a laser printed page?
Toner may be clogged, shake the cartridge
How does a dot matrix printer break down a page?
Treats the page as a raster image
What are the five types of printers?
impact, inkjet, dye-sublimation, thermal, laser, 3-D, virtual
What is the term for printers that feed paper with tracks of holes on the sides?
tractor-feed paper which is used to continuously feed through the machine