Troubleshooting Color Printing Issues

"It’s not suppose to look like THAT...."

Let's start with some basics - how exactly do you get all of those colors to print?

Most printers use just three colors - Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow - plus Black (also called CMYK) to reproduce all of the colors in your photos or charts. Higher end photo printers have additional ink tanks for "photo" colors - light magenta, light cyan, photo black, grey, green, white and clear (really). Regardless of the number of ink tanks, printers use a technique called "Subtractive Color". All of the colors you see on the printed page are a result of using one or more of the ink colors to create the desired output.

So why doesn’t the picture look the way you expected it to? There are a couple of possibilities.....First, not all of the jets in the print head could be spraying ink on the paper. A quick test is to print this page and see if the colors look similar to the screen view:

CYAN	MAGENTA	YELLOW
RED	GREEN	BLUE
BLACK	WHITE	GREY

Each of the colors should look as you expect them to, be solid, with no streaks or lines. Streaks or lines are usually caused by clogged nozzles in the print head(s). Your printer or print driver may have a maintenance option to "clean the print head" which may fix minor issues. But, if the printer has been unused for a period of time, ink may have dried thick over the nozzles or in the feed tubes enough that this will not work, and either require manual cleaning, a visit to the service repair shop, or replacement of the print head. On some printers, like many HP InkJets, the print head and ink reservoir are a single unit. High-end printers, with multiple cartridges, may have a separate print head module that you can replace.

The first three colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow), are used to make red, green, and blue. If there's a problem with the C, M, or Y ink tanks or print heads, your red, green, and/or blue will also be off.



The next possibility has to do with "chemistry" - manufacturers inks are designed to be used with their papers, which in turn are designed to absorb the inks at a specific rate to render the best color possible. You’ll see examples of this in Micro Center’s printer department where each of the printer manufacturers are have sample prints printed with their ink on their photo papers.

Are your printouts still not looking exactly right? It may be time for you to invest in a colorimeter and professional grade inkjet printer with hardware and software designed for precise color matching. Micro Center carries a wide range of inkjet printers, starting at under $50 and going over $1,000. Our Sales Associates can help you get the printer that's "picture perfect" for you.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Troubleshooting Printer Issues in Windows 7

1. Check your printer for paper jams, low toner or ink, loose cables, etc.
2. For general communication or print spooler issues, try running the Printer Troubleshooter Wizard. You can find the printer Troubleshooter by searching in "Help and Support", from the Troubleshooter tool in Control Panel, or by right clicking on the printer and selecting "Troubleshoot" from the context menu.

Option 1: From the Control Panel, double click on the troubleshooter icon. Click on "Use a printer" to start the print troubleshooter.


Option 2: Open Devices and Printers. Right click on the device and select "Troubleshoot"

3. If you had an error on the printer or while communicating to it, your printer may have entered an "off line" mode. The printer icon will appear grey in the Devices and Printers window. To fix this condition:
   1. Open Devices and Printers, and right click on the printer and select "See what's printing".
   2. Print jobs that have not been printed will appear in the list. You may want to delete any duplicates if you repeatedly tried to send something to the printer. (If the list is empty, then the problem could still be in the connection or the driver.)
   3. Click on the Printer menu and click "Use Printer Offline" option to remove an existing checkmark. (If you don't see a checkmark, there is some other problem.)
4. Another cause of printer problems can be an incorrect or damaged printer driver. When this happens, your printer may cease to function properly. If the driver is damaged, you should first remove the old version and then reinstall it from the list in Windows, or better yet, download a new copy from the manufacturer's web site.

• To Remove and reinstall your printer using Windows drivers, do the following:

1. Click on the Start orb in the lower left hand corner of your screen.
2. Click on Devices and Printers in the right-hand column.
3. Locate the icon for your printer. Right-click on the printer-icon & select "Remove device" or simply delete it. Note: Using the above method to delete or remove a device from your system will not harm your system in any way.
4. With a USB printer, make sure power is on to the printer. Disconnect the USB cable and reconnect it. Windows should report that it found new hardware, if not, try connecting the USB cable to a different port on your computer. It may reinstall your printer without prompting, or you may need to follow the prompts to confirm the device and configuration.

NOTE: If Windows 7 does not have your printer model in the current list, you may need to check the manufacturer's web site for an updated version. If your manufacturer does not have drivers for Windows 7, you may be able to use a 32 or 64-bit driver for Windows Vista. (Right click on Computer and select "properties" to see your basic system information. Under the "System" category, Windows 7 will identify the "System type:" as a 32-bit or a 64-bit Operating System. Your printer driver must be the same.)

• To Remove a printer and then manually install a driver from disk (flash drive, folder, etc.) do the following:
  1. Click on the Start orb in the lower left hand corner of your screen.
  2. Click on Devices and Printers in the right-hand column.
  3. Locate the icon for your printer. Right-click on the printer-icon & select "Remove device" or simply delete it.
  4. Click "Add a printer" from the top of the Devices and Printers window.
  5. Select Add a local printer.
  6. Select the port, this may be the Parallel printer port, USB, or even an existing TCP/IP port if you had this printer installed previously. Click Next.
  7. Click Have Disk and use Browse to point the installer to the files you downloaded. Click OK.
  8. Select the printer model from the list (If you don't have the correct model showing, go back to the manufacturer site and try again. If you download a 32-bit version and need 64-bit, Windows should tell you this. Click Next.
  9. Select the option to "Replace the current driver", this tells Windows to use the new copy you created. (If the driver was damaged somehow, selecting "Use the driver that is already installed..." Will NOT correct your problem.) Click Next.
  10. Change the name or leave it - your choice. Click Next.
  11. If you are not sharing the printer, leave the selection "Do not share this printer" and click Next
  12. If this is your only printer or the one you want to use most, click the box for "Set as the default printer". You can also click the button "Print a test page" to verify you have fixed the problem. Click Finish.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.