4 Common HP Printer Problems and How to Tackle Them?

Hewett Packard has been in business long enough to be a trusted brand but their computer peripheral still needs a helping hand time and again. I am talking about their range of printers. Although on monetary basis HPs printer range starts from being affordable to students and ranging to work efficient enough to cater to an office of 200 work hunger people, of course choosing according to specific needs.

From pop culture references towards the hatred for the office printer to exuberantly costly toners and cartridges; the printer has seen it all. It’s circa. 2015 and the household printer is still not a loved and cherished gadget. Hate them or like them, the actual printer is not going anywhere, I mean it’s here to stay for long, not that it is heavy, which it is.

Common HP Problems:

• Paper jams

Ok, in all honestly, this is not a HP specific problem, all the major brands have been accused of sourcing flimsy or cheap quality paper trays. Although circling down to a typical reason of paper jams is redundant, as it could be because of worn out roller on the inside of the printer or just a case of dust and dirt accumulation.

In my experience, HP printers are more susceptible to paper jams, along with any printer that hold the paper in a vertical direction and slide down the printer. Although some printer models have pickup rollers within reach, but here lays the trick, pulling the paper out backwards during a paper jam will actually damage the delicate mechanism of the printer as it is generally not made for rough handling. In case of a paper jam, your best bet is to try and slide the paper thru the rollers. Also, keep in mind using the wrong sized paper will also lead to a paper jam. One printer which I have come cross using a low quality paper tray is the HP Photosmart C4680.

? Printer says cartridge is empty, even though you barely used it.

If you think your printer is giving false alarm of empty cartridge, you might actually be correct. Printers have a notorious reputation of being unreliable when the subject in question is its cartridge. Fret not! There are tons of hacks to reset ink cartridges on HP printers. One interesting life hack is sticking masking tape or electric tape around the part on the cartridge which is read by the printer to check availability of ink using laser. This life hack convinces the printer that the cartridge is actually full which will give you half a dozen more pages worth of printed material that it wouldn’t otherwise, as it tried convincing you that the cartridge was over.

• Printer is displaying error 50.4 or 50.x

Error 50.4 is somewhat of newer and a precautionary method to stop printing before the printer malfunctions, similar to a paper jam, there is no one single reason for the error to popup.

Usually when the fuser experiences a spike in the temperature, the printer goes in a lock down to prevent printing. In rare cases it could happen when there is a fluctuation in the line voltage or a lose power circuit.

In even rarer cases, if there is something amiss in the Windows registry, such as outdated drivers for example could also be the reason of the error message. One way to tackle this is by using a registry cleaner for Windows. HP printers are controlled primarily by the Windows registry as it monitors smooth running of software and system components.

• The cost of the printer is inversely proportional to the cost of its consumables

Nothing can be said about the printer without mentioning the exponentially high cost of its toners and ink cartridges. Due to no consumer level awareness, most users don’t know which cartridges are suitable to their printing needs. If you are a regular printophile (coined it) like me, buying an ink cartridge which yields around 200 pages or even better the toner cartridge which would yield somewhere in the ball park of 2000 pages is a safe and sound bet.

Here one of the better HP printers is the HP Officejet Pro 8500, whereas the most incompetent and ink guzzling monsters are the HP Photosmart C4680 and the HP Color Laserjet CM2320NF.

These round-up few of the common, regular inconveniences caused by printer with a possible working solution, for any other problem, not covered in the article; contact your nearest HP Printer Service center in Mumbai. The best possible problem solving skill set in Printer Repair is always found in the hands of a trained professional.

This is article is written by Tiffany Morris who offers Hp laptop repair, including toner refilling in Mumbai.