What happens if your printer doesnt print

Now try running a print again on that HP printer to see if that was the issue. Usually when you send a print request Windows will send that print job to what is called the default printer.

If your printer is all hooked up but nothing is printing it could be that your HP Printer is not set to default in Windows. So all your printing requests are not going to your printer but into a blank void of no return. Find your HP Printer in the list of printing devices, make sure its the one you are having issues with. You should now see a nice little green check mark below the icon of your HP printer, this means its now the default printer for Windows.

Go give your printing a try to see if that helped you! There are some really easy troubleshooting items you can do to make sure you can print to your HP printer if it stops working or has never worked. First, check the connection cables from the wall power to the HP printer power connector. Then, check the cabling from your printer to the Windows PC it might be connected too, is the USB cable firmly in place on both ends?

If there is a network cable running to the HP printer for HP network printing make sure that Ethernet cable is snug and check your manual to see if there should be lights blinking to indicate a network connection.

Are there lights on at the front of your HP printer? Then make sure you press the power on button on the printer itself. Driver Support will scan your computer to detect any problem drivers on your computer.

Let the software run the free scan for you to detect all your driver problems and any other optimization opportunities. Once Registered and in Premium mode the software will walk you through the entire process, plus with your registration, you will receive unlimited tech support with our Driver Support Signature Service!

In some programs, like Google Chrome, you may even need to click See More for a full list of connected printers. When you plug a printer into your PC, Windows will usually grab the necessary drivers for you.

But in rare cases, you may need to head to the printer manufacturer's website, look up the support page for your model, and download the driver or software package manually—so if you haven't done so, try that now. If you're using your printer over Wi-Fi, you may need to add it to Windows' list of available printers before Windows will offer it as an option. Your PC should search for printers on the network, and when it finds the one you're looking for, click on it to add the printer to your list.

Now, you should be able to print a document. I'm going to guess you've already ensured paper is in the tray, but just in case: put paper in the tray. Sometimes, though, printers are finicky—there may be paper loaded, but if the printer can't grab hold, it's going to think it's empty. Try removing the paper tray, re-aligning the paper, and sliding it back in.

In other instances, there may be some paper jammed in the mechanism. Usually your printer will tell you so, and you just need to open the access panel and pull the crumpled paper out. Again, you may need to refer to your manual if you aren't sure where it opens up. In some cases, your printer can say there's a paper jam even if you don't see a sheet of paper stuck in the mechanism. When that happens, you may have smaller bits of paper or other residue stuck inside the rollers that you can't see.

This means you would have to remove some of those components to clear the problem. If you aren't comfortable doing so, bring it into a PC repair shop for help. If your printer tells you it's out of ink, but you know it isn't, there are a few things you can do.

First, the print head may be clogged or dirty, and you can clean it out through your printer's built-in cleaning routine which you'll find detailed in the manual. Alternatively, if your printer's heads lie on the ink cartridges themselves—the little copper strip where the ink comes out—you can blot it with a wet paper towel to clean it up.

Once ink starts to flow more freely onto the towel, give it a quick dab with a dry paper towel before re-inserting the cartridge. If you have a laser printer , you may be able to get a bit more toner out of the cartridge by shaking it from side to side, then re-inserting it.

As a last resort, you may want to reinstall the printer driver. Tech-Ease is your source for just-in-time answers for classroom technology questions. Funding for Tech-Ease content development has been provided by by various grants from the University of South Florida and the Florida Department of Education.

Tech Ease for all your classroom technology needs. Find the printer you want to use and make sure it says Ready underneath it. If it says Offline, right-click on it and select Use Printer Online.