Printer Service

Printer Service Tips

Here are some printer service tips to help you get the best from your printer.

Rock the toner. Before replacing the toner cartridge, rock it gently from side to side. This prolongs the life of the toner. It also redistributes the toner so that your printer prints evenly across the page.

Print a blank page. Run a clean page through your printer. This will pick up lint, dust, and stray toner. In some cases to perform a printer service you’ll have to take the printer offline and then press the Form Feed button. OR… open your word processor to a blank page and press the Print command. If it won’t print a blank page, type any character and then press Print.

There are several inkjet and laser cleaning products that claim to remove dust, dried ink, and paper debris from the feed rollers, toner drum, and thermal head.

Cover up. When not in use, protect your printer with a printer cover. They’re available at computer and office supply stores. A cover keeps your printer safe and clean when not in use and is good printer service.

Print a plain blank page. Run a fresh clean page through the  printer. This will collect dust, and loose toner. In some different makes of printers, you will have to take the printer offline and then press the Form Feed button. OR… open your word processor on a blank page and press the Print page command. If it does not want to print a blank page, type a full stop character and then press Print page.

Though it is always tempting to buy cheap toner and paper for a laser printer this is not always a good printer service. If using recycled toner cartridges make sure the cartridges are from a reliable source as cheap toner cartridges can leak  and cause damage. Lower quality paper and toner can greatly reduce the printers life and can cause printing and interior problems – it is a good idea to stay with the manufacturers recommendation for toner.