Troubleshooting tips for wireless printers

Q: My wireless printer stopped working; what troubleshooting tips can you suggest?

A: Technology that communicates through a wireless network has become the de facto standard, but oftentimes, wired is better than wireless.

Wireless printing allows you to print from multiple computers without needing a physical connection, but it also introduces additional points of failure that can complicate the troubleshooting process.

First steps when your wireless printer stopped working

As trivial as the advice to restart your devices may seem, it’s always the first step in any troubleshooting process.

I’ve seen seasoned technicians skip this step thinking that it can’t be that simple and end up wasting time.

Start by restarting your printer and make sure that it has connected to your wireless network, then restart your computer and try again.

Resetting your devices can clear several issues, especially as it pertains to reconnecting to the wireless network. Your computer may have some temporary conflicts or may be low on resources, both of which can be resolved with a restart.

If you have another computer that can print, spend time troubleshooting the computer that can’t print as it indicates the printer is properly configured.

Go wired

Another quick test would be to connect your printer directly to your laptop via a USB cable. If it prints fine, you most likely have a configuration problem with your printer’s Wi-Fi connection.

Check network settings when wireless printer stopped working

Another simple thing to check is the Wi-Fi network that both devices are connecting to, as most modern routers offer both a 2.4 and 5 GHz connection.

If there are great distances between your printer and your wireless router, it may have a better chance of connecting to the 2.4 GHz connection as it provides better range and ability to penetrate through walls and other obstructions.

Indications of software corruption

There’s a possibility that it’s an indication of a much bigger problem with your computer as instability of your operating system can cause many issues.

If your computer is experiencing other glitches, long startup times, or overall sluggish performance, you may need to have a clean-up of your operating system performed.

This is an especially important part of the evaluation if it’s been years since any maintenance has been done,

Simple problems such as a hard drive that is near capacity can lead to corruption in your OS as it struggles to find space for temporary files.

The startup section of your computer can easily become overrun with software programs that insert themselves, even though it’s not necessary.

If this problem popped up after you installed a new program, there could be a conflict, or the new program may have caused corruption. If so, try uninstalling the recent program to see if the printer starts working again.

Driver challenges

Printers communicate with your computer via a small software program known as ‘drivers’ and this can be one of the most challenging areas to fix.

Depending on the brand of your printer, it may use a built-in driver or require that you download and install a package the manufacturer provides.

If removing the printer and reinstalling it doesn’t work, it may require an in-depth cleanup process by a tech-savvy person who knows how to look ‘under the hood’ of the computer’s operating system to manually remove the corrupted files.