{"id":5405,"date":"2019-11-27T10:47:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T15:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=5405"},"modified":"2019-11-27T10:47:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T15:47:50","slug":"why-is-my-printer-printing-faded-text-troubleshooting-laser-printers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/why-is-my-printer-printing-faded-text-troubleshooting-laser-printers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is My Printer Printing Faded Text? Troubleshooting Laser Printers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You&#8217;d imagine a peripheral almost as old as personal computers would work flawlessly. And yet, it seems like we&#8217;re still running into the same printer problems since the early 1950s. It&#8217;s as if the tech isn&#8217;t quite there, ya know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s something you&#8217;re bound to ask during the life of printer ownership&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;why is my printer printing faded text?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, there are many causes of this frustration and several solutions. This article is a sort-of round-up covering the most common fixes. So, if you&#8217;ve got lots to print and currently held up because of the darn printer (again) then dig in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Is My Printer Printing Faded Text? Start&nbsp;with the Obvious<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes the solution to your problem is the most obvious. In this case, let&#8217;s start with a few things that could cause a printer malfunction <em>BEFORE<\/em> printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Check the Power<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Laugh all you want but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/why-does-turning-things-o_b_8638994\">check the power<\/a> to the printer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Check the connection to the wall<\/li><li>Check the connection to the printer<\/li><li>Check the cord and if it&#8217;s faulty<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Go through and verify the connections work. Look for the lights on the unit or power cycle it, ensuring it&#8217;s functional. It could be the power strip, too, if you have it hooked to on \u2014 so be sure to include that in the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Old, Damaged Supplies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ink has a relatively short shelf life so if you&#8217;re using ones that have been sitting then that may be the culprit. Toner lasts longer but can settle and compact, slowly degrading its print quality, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Old supplies can cause a few problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Dirty, damaged, or dried-up print heads or rollers<\/li><li>Defective cartridge components<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider ordering new print supplies for a quick and easy fix. You can skip the expensive OEM supplies, too, by using aftermarket cartridges. You can learn <a href=\"https:\/\/premiumtoners.com\/collections\/canon-toner-cartridges\">more here<\/a> and no it won&#8217;t void your warranty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Low Ink or Toner<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe you got ahead of yourself and didn&#8217;t realize the cartridge was low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will usually get an alert like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Window pop-up saying you&#8217;re low on ink when printing<\/li><li>A pop-up displaying cartridge ink or toner levels<\/li><li>An alert from print management&nbsp;saying you should order supplies<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Whichever way you managed to figure it out \u2014 it&#8217;s clear why the print is faded. Get new supplies, swap the cartridge, and&nbsp;start printing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fix the Print Mode<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Your faded prints may have resulted from either:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Changes to the print density<\/li><li>Being set to a &#8216;draft&#8217; or &#8216;save&#8217; mode<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can access these features in the print driver or options. Set the options back to default if they appear changed, and then do a test print. If this solved the issue then you&#8217;re good to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reset the Cartridge Positioning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a chance the cartridge became jostled and unseated. In this case, the print head\/roller isn&#8217;t connecting as it should with the page. This could cause degradation to the print, resulting in a faded appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This one is pretty easy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Turn off the printer<\/li><li>Access the print cartridge<\/li><li>Remove it from the printer<\/li><li>Reinsert it into the printer<\/li><li>Power the unit back on<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>As expected, print a test page to diagnose the problem. If everything looks good then there&#8217;s nothing else to worry about!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Does the Printer Prints Blurry Still? Try These Other, More Advanced Fixes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The obvious solutions should fix things when you&#8217;ve got a printer printing blurry. But, sometimes you need to get a little more involved. Check out the advanced fixes if you&#8217;re adamant about getting the printer working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clean the Print Head or Cartridge Drum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Touching and prodding the cartridge isn&#8217;t ideal as you could cause more damage. But, if you&#8217;ve got nothing to lose or it&#8217;s on its last legs then cleaning the print head or drum could fix the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For an ink cartridge:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Check if there is blockage where the ink comes out<\/li><li>If so, wipe away the ink blockage using a damp cloth<\/li><li>Dry the area and reinstall the cartridge into the machine<\/li><li>Run a color print test page to see if it fixed the problem<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For a toner cartridge:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Pull the cartridge out of the machine<\/li><li>Remove the cartridge from its larger unit if needed<\/li><li>Either:\n<ol><li>Clean the drum roller with a cloth and rubbing alcohol<\/li><li>Slide the cartridge&#8217;s tab back and forth a few times<\/li><\/ol><\/li><li>Reinsert the cartridge into its larger (drum) unit<\/li><li>Run a test print and see if things are working again<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Check for damages while doing these steps, too. If it looks like the unit is too damaged then you may need to bite the bullet and buy new supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reset the Cartridge Chip\/Sensor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Many modern ink and toner cartridges come with a print chip. This chip tells the printer when supplies are running low. Yet, you&#8217;ll notice a good 10 to 20% of supplies leftover in the cartridge if you were to open them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are printer chips a conspiracy to make you buy more supplies? <em>Some think so.<\/em> OEMs say it&#8217;s to protect your printer and have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2016\/09\/hp-printer-drm\/\">even put DRM on them<\/a> to control prints. Either way, low supplies could disrupt the print quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a few ways to reset ink\/toner levels:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Block the sensor with a piece of tape<\/li><li>Replace the chip with a third-party chip<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes you can shake the cartridge, too, and get a bit of extra life from it. Or, disabling the print management software can sometimes work, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get in touch with a third-party, aftermarket supplier for chips if you go this route. Their tech support should have the know-how to walk you through this. Plus, you could use the opportunity to order the chip for a few bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Solution for When You&#8217;ve Given Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Junk it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Just kidding!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This post gave solutions answering, &#8220;Why is my printer printing faded text&#8221;. But, if these haven&#8217;t solved the issue then it&#8217;s likely time to call the pros. Let them handle it while you get back to the important stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, that&#8217;s one problem solved for your business operations&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;what about all the others you&#8217;re bound to run into?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve got answers for those, too! Check out our business guides and tutorials here on the site. You&#8217;ll find tons of great info to help overcome anything that pops up when running a business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;d imagine a peripheral almost as old as personal computers would work flawlessly. And yet, it seems like we&#8217;re still running into the same printer problems since the early 1950s. It&#8217;s as if the tech isn&#8217;t quite there, ya know? Here&#8217;s something you&#8217;re bound to ask during the life of printer ownership&#8230; &#8230;why is my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5407,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405\/revisions\/5407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}