1. “Sticky” Paper - There are several manufacturers that make paper, but not all paper is treated the same. If a printer can not separate a paper fast enough and a few sheets sneak in the printer, several problems can occur. The printer may think the the paper going through is longer than it really is (since the paper stuck together and formed 1 longer piece of paper). The paper could also be much thicker than the printer expected and the fusing (heating) element won’t properly seal the paper in or the stack of papers won’t fit through the exit.

2. A bad cartridge - Most cartridges for LaserJet printers contain both a drum (blue or green bar) and the toner. It’s very possible that the cover for the drum will get caught in the printer or askew. If this happens, you’ll notice that paper will stop right where the printer cartridge is. Usually taking out the cartridge and putting it back in will fix this. To be sure, try putting an old cartridge in (or a new one if you have it) to see if that fixes the problem.

3. Rollers - By far, the most common reason why printers jam is because of worn rollers. All laser printers have rollers that are responsible for picking up (and separating) paper. These rollers wear a little bit each time paper passes through the printer. After a set amount of paper through the printer, it’s time to change the rollers. If your jams are usually “ghost” jams (no paper is actually picked up, but the printer says the paper is jammed), it’s most likely due to worn rollers. Occasionally, you can hear that the rollers are worn when the printer tries to pick up the paper.

4. Label or other obstruction - Check the printer visually to see if there is a sticky mailing label or other obstruction. It’s possible that the leaf from a nearby indoor plant or a small paper clip can cause printer jams. If the item is found, try removing it very slowly to make sure that no other damage occurs to other things.

The key to finding the cause of printer jams is checking where the paper stopped and look around the area. Perhaps it’s an object that’s getting the way of the paper or it’s a bad cartridge drum door. Whatever the cause, laser printers are fairly simple machines that expect paper to feed in and out flawlessly, but sometimes that’s not always the case.

I’ve been reading some discussion forums about LaserJet printers (and other kinds of laser printers) making a beeping sound and what users can do to turn off the beeping.

The funny thing is that most stand alone printers do not have a speaker of any kind. There are a few printers that have speakers as well, but those typically are used for multi-functional purposes.

Here are some possible reasons why your printer is beeping:

1. Your printer is connected to a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). When the printer goes through the printing cycle it uses a massive amount of electricity. During those few seconds of power usage, the UPS will beep indicating that it will not be able to sustain that power output for any period of time.

How to fix: Move your printer to another outlet and don’t connect it to a UPS

2. You have an MFP (multi-function printer) that is attempting to fax again and again. When sending a fax, it’s typical that the printer makes noises (dialing, connecting, etc). One of these noises is a fax response beep.

How to fix: Check your printers menu and turn off/down the fax volume

3. Some printers with an LCD menu and keypad make noise when keys are pressed or the printer encounters an alarm of some type. This can become annoying when typing keys for a phone number or by changing a menu setting.

How to fix: Check the menu settings for the printer and turn off/down the sound that’s occuring. As an example, the HP LaserJet MFP series printers have the following sounds.

• The alarm sound that the printer makes when it requires attention, such as when the all-in-one
  door is open.
• The beeps that are emitted when you press the all-in-one control-panel buttons.
• The phone line sounds for outgoing faxes.
• The ring volume for incoming faxes.

As an example, change alarm volume by following these steps (using a 305X series printer)
1. Press Menu
2. Use the < or the > button to select System setup, and then press the green checkmark button
3. Use the < or the > button to select Volume settings, and then press green checkmark button
4. Press the green checkmark button to select Alarm volume
5. Use the < or the > button to select Off, Soft, Medium, or Loud
6. Press the green checkmark button to save your selection

What is the best AirPrint printer?
It’s nearly impossible to select the best AirPrint printer because different people have different needs. A business may need a fast, high capacity Laser printer. A home based business may need light color printing. With all the current models available today, finding a printer using the table below is easy and straightforward.

HP has released the following AirPrint compatible printers. This table shows each printer’s strengths and weaknesses to help you as a buyer decide which printer is the best option for your home or business. You can sort by feature, speed, or cost. We have included both inkjet-based and laser-based printers in this list. By clicking on any row, additional data including our thoughts about the printer is included.

See Incorrect Data?
If you see any data here that is not correct, please leave a comment so it can be changed right away which helps other people get accurate information. If you see a feature that’s missing from the sorting table, let us know and we’ll do our best to add it.

AirPrint Printers

	Model		Color	Duplex	Speed (ppm)	MSRP	Page Cost Black	Page Cost Color
	HP Color LaserJet CM1415fnw MFP				12 (Black) 8 (Color)	$449.99	0.03	0.15
	HP Color LaserJet Pro CM1415fn MFP				12 (Black) 8 (Color)	—	0.03	0.15
	HP Color LaserJet Pro CP1025nw				17 (Black) 4 (Color)	$229.99	0.05	0.18
	HP Color LaserJet Pro CP1525n				12 (Black) 8 (Color)	—	0.03	0.15
	HP Color LaserJet Pro CP1525nw				12 (Black) 8 (Color)	$299.99	0.03	0.15
	HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One D410A				27 (Black) 22 (Color)	$249.99	0.07	0.12
	HP LaserJet P1102w				19 (Black)	$149.99	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP				19 (Black)	$199.99	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1213nf MFP				18 (Black)	—	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1214nfh MFP				18 (Black)	—	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1216nfh MFP				18 (Black)	—	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw MFP				18 (Black)	$249.99	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro M1536dnf				26 (Black)	$299.99	0.04	—
	HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn				26 (Black)	$159.99	0.04	—
	HP Officejet 6500a e-All-in-One				10 (Black) 7 (Color)	$149.99	0.05	0.10
	HP Officejet 6500a Plus e-All-in-One				10 (Black) 7 (Color)	$199.99	0.05	0.10
	HP Officejet 7500a Wide Format e-All-in-One E910a				15 (Black) 11 (Color)	$249.99	0.05	0.10
	HP Officejet Pro 8500a e-All-in-One				15 (Black) 11 (Color)	$299.99	0.03	0.07
	HP Officejet Pro 8500a Plus e-All-in-One				15 (Black) 11 (Color)	$399.99	0.03	0.07
	HP Officejet Pro 8500a Premium e-All-in-One				15 (Black) 11 (Color)	$499.99	0.03	0.07
	HP Photosmart C310 Premium e-All-in-One				11 (Black) 8 (Color)	$199.99	0.06	0.10
	HP Photosmart C410a Premium Fax e-All-in-One				33 (Black) 32 (Color)	$299.99	0.06	0.10
	HP Photosmart D110a e-All-in-One				29 (Black) 23 (Color)	$129.99	0.06	0.10
	HP Photosmart D110a Plus e-All-in-One				8 (Black) 8 (Color)	$149.99	0.06	0.10
	HP Photosmart eStation C510a All-in-One				33 (Black) 32 (Color)	$399.99	0.06	0.10

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: My printer is on this list, but my iOS device does not see the printer, what do I need to do?

HP released firmware updates for a few different printers to enable AirPrint support.

Question: Will HP enable AirPrint support on my inkjet or LaserJet printer?

Unless your printer is less than a year old, it’s very doubtful. They have more incentive to sell you a new printer than support an old one (unless it’s within the year warranty period).

Question: Is there someway I could use my XYZ printer even though it does not support AirPrint?

There are several utilities available that will enable AirPrint on thousands of different printer models. The main downside to using these utilities is the fact that a computer will need to remain on at all times since it’s pretty much like printer “sharing”. If your computer is not on, you will not be able to AirPrint.

Question: Which routers support AirPrint?

Since the AirPrint protocol is like any other computer protocol (web, email, etc) any router will work with AirPrint printers.

Question: Will upcoming Epson printers be supported?

Epson has issued a statement that they do not have any plans this year to include their printers in the available AirPrint printer lineup.

*How We Calculate Cost Per Page
To calculate the cost of printing, we take the manufacture’s listed retail price and divide that number into the page yield. HP bases all their yield results on 5% coverage which we think is a little low since many printers are used for photos and graphics, not just text. Color prices are calculated by taking the total cost of all three colors (Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan) and dividing that total into the yield of one cartridge. We do this because if you’re printing color, it’s most likely a photo or graphic that is using an estimated 15% of the paper area. For those laser printers that include a drum, that cost is added to the base cost of black or color printing. All costs are estimated, so if you print more or less than the 5% for black or 15% for color, please adjust your expectations accordingly.

Although Windows 7 looks nicer than previous operating systems, there is still some bumps along the road when trying to connect a parallel-only printer to your usb-only computer. It’s even more difficult if you’ve got a “special” HP LaserJet printer with a mini-centronics connection along with a stubborn operating system that does not have drivers preloaded for your printer.

With all these issues with backwards compatibility, plug and play turns into plug and pray.  I hope you’ll find these steps helpful for connecting a printer with a mini-centronics connection to a computer with only USB ports.

To recap from my previous article, these steps should work with the following HP LaserJet printers (and nearly any printer that has a standard parallel connection):

• LaserJet 3100
• LaserJet 3150
• LaserJet 1100
• LaserJet 3200
• LaserJet 4000
• LaserJet 4500
• LaserJet 4550
• LaserJet 4600
• LaserJet 4650
• LaserJet 5500
• LaserJet 5550
• LaserJet 8100
• LaserJet 8150
• LaserJet 9000

I have personally tested this with an HP LaserJet 1100 printer using a USB to Parallel cable along with the appropriate mini-centronics to centronics adapter recommended below.

1. Connect your printer to your computer.

2. You should see Windows acknowledge the new cable.

3. Windows should install the USB to Parallel adapter drivers, then it will try installing the LaserJet drivers. If you don’t have the printer plugged in properly, or if Windows does not have built-in drivers for your printers (as was my case), you’ll receive an error.

4. Click on the bubble alert to bring up additional information about the failed installation.

5. At this point, some users end up clicking on “Change setting…” and go through the process of having Windows automatically check for drivers for their printer. This didn’t work for me, so instead I opted to use the troubleshooter tool instead. Click close on this box.

6. Go to the start button, click on “Devices and Printers”.

7. There should be a generic printer icon named “IEEE-1284 Controller” or something similar. Right click on this printer icon and select “Troubleshoot”.

8. Windows will attempt to gather information about your printer and see if it can find a suitable solution to this problem (which is that there is no driver already installed for the printer).

9. You will see many messages display across the status window as Windows attempts to find a fix.

10. If all goes well, you’ll see an new window asking to install drivers for your printer (which should also be written out in the dialog box). Select “Apply this fix”.

11. You will once again see messages updating you on the progress of installing the device drivers.

12. As if you have not confirmed enough times, Windows will again ask if you want to apply the fix it has found. Select “Apply this fix” again.

13. As the final confirmation, you should see a resolution to the troubleshooting process. The main issue here is that drivers were not installed for the printer. The troubleshooting tool seemed to fix the issue (you can tell by looking at the green checkmark in the “Problems found” area.  Select “Close the troubleshooter” to finish and see your list of printers.

14. If everything went as expected, you will see a generic printer icon with the correct (or semi correct) name of your printer. To test, open any document or webpage and print to this printer.

Didn’t work for you?

If these steps didn’t help or you received some strange problem, installing drivers manually is the next best option. If you would like to see a tutorial about how to install HP LaserJet drivers manually using Windows 7, please leave a comment, I read them all.

A word about drivers and Windows 7

For this tutorial, I was running Windows 7 32-bit. You may have Windows 7 64-bit installed which can cause some unexpected issues with drivers. If you’re not sure of the difference, it’s not important unless you are installing drivers for products that came out before Windows 7. Most reputable vendors will make drivers for their devices for both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.

Occasionally, hardware manufacturers will choose to not make new drivers for old hardware devices. This was the case with HP and some of their old printers. You may run into issues installing an old printer on Windows 32 or 64-bit, but most likely you will have more problems finding drivers for 64-bit machines.

This is because Windows has mainly been a 32-bit operating system and so there are many drivers available today written for the 32-bit platform which can be used in Windows 7 32-bit. If you find that a driver isn’t available for your printer, leave me a comment and I’ll do some digging if I have the time. Often, I find that a driver for a different model works just as well as the original.

USB to Mini-Centronics

I have compiled a few ways that you can save money by extending the life of your HP, Samsung, Brother, Lexmark, Dell or any other branded toner cartridge. Some are more fearless than others, but hopefully, you can use these tips to save a little cash.

1 – “Econo-mode”

Use this feature on your printer to help shave toner costs. HP is famous for introducing this toner-saving feature in many of their printers in the 90′s. Sure the printout is a little lighter, but it lasts from 10-30% longer depending on your coverage. Other companies have followed suit and provided similar features. If you don’t see a similar option for your printer, consult with your operator’s manual and see if they called it something similar. It may just be within the printer’s menu system and not on a screen show below.

2 – “Drill and fill”

Ever wonder what the big different is between the extended version and the standard version of a toner cartridge is? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s just the amount of toner in the cartridge. That’s it. All other components are exactly the same. So what’s stopping you from reusing that old cartridge and just buying a bottle of toner? Go right ahead and save some money by purchasing a “drill and fill” kit.

Here are some examples. I have an HP LaserJet 2300 printer at home. When I run out of toner, here’s what I look for.

Instead of buying one of these:

I pickup one of these (found by searching on amazon for “laserjet refill”):

You can perform similar searches and find what you need by looking at refill kits sold from various sellers across the United States.

Words of Caution

I know what you’re thinking. Why don’t I just buy one cartridge and then reuse it time and time and time again? Who needs to buy cartridges? Well, as good as purchasing refill kits sounds, they do have some limitations.

• The drum (usually the shiny blue or green “tube” in the cartridge) can only rotate so many times before things on the paper start going south. You should be able to squeeze out 2 full refills before replacing this piece.
• The PCR (small black tube attached to the top of the drum) can only maintain its charge for so long. You should be able to again, get 2 good refills out of your cartridge.
• There is a separate area of the cartridge that is called the “toner overflow” area. It catches unused toner. If you have ever handled a used cartridge and have had toner spill all over you, it’s came from this overflow area. It varies in how much toner it will hold before needing to be emptied, but usually 2-3 refills will max this area of the cartridge out.
• When handling toner, be very careful to not inhale any toner. If any spill, use cold water to wash it out of clothing. Toner is really fine plastic and can cause lot of health problems if accidentally inhaled. If I were you, I’d buy a few of those nifty coughing masks just to be safe.  Also, never use a household vacuum to clean toner. It will go right through the filter since the particles are smaller than dust.

3 – “Chip off the old block”

In most of the recent toner cartridges, you may have noticed this small chip on the cartridge somewhere. The printer uses the chip to verify that the cartridge is from its maker (HP, Brother, etc). It also uses it to tell how much printing you have left based on several mathematical algorithms. Is it right on target in terms of how much you use? Nope. Do you think that the manufacturer wants you to buy more toner? Absolutely! So what’s a customer to do?

You could do a few things to hack or extend the life of the cartridge depending on your printer. If the printer is reporting that the cartridge is out of toner based off of this chip you can remove or replace it. By removing the chip, the printer no longer knows that the cartridge is genuine (no biggie) and it lost all sense of how much printing it can do from this point on. So you can run the toner cartridge dry at this point with no chip.

Some printers require a chip for other reasons and so you’re forced to either replace the cartridge or not print. Well, these chips can be found easily on amazon (I did a search for “laserjet chip”).

By replacing the chip, the printer will think a new cartridge is installed. Most chips are secured using double-stick tape, so you’re safe in removing the chip and installing a new one using some tape (or glue).

Naturally, I wondered why a perfectly good printer would get to this state. I power cycled the printer which revealed the true error:

INFLATE FAILURE
DOWNLOAD FILE NOW
SEND RFU UPGRADE

I looked this error on Google, and found many other people in the same situation with no really good answers. This printer either needed a new formatter board or an RFU firmware update. I thought it would be simple enough to connect to the printer via FTP over the network and force the update, but I noticed that there was no activity displaying on the jetdirect port on the side of the printer. Sure enough, a ping to the printer resulted in lost packets.

At this point, I knew that I needed to directly connect to the printer using a USB cable since there were no other options (besides replacing the formatter board). Using Windows XP or Vista was unfortunately out of the question because I only had access to a Mac. Looking online, I couldn’t find a single resource in order to send a firmware file to the printer. I checked HP business forums, Google, and more with little to no results. After a little experimenting, I figured out what was needed to fix the printer using a Mac. These steps are similar to using a PC, but I found that a Mac was *much* easier after everything was said and done.

1. Get the firmware file from HP’s website. It’s usually in the “Cross operating system (BIOS, Firmware, Diagnostics, etc.)” category. When you visit that category, HP usually shows 3-4 links to firmware files (Mac, Windows, UNIX, etc). Secret here is that they are really all the same RFU firmware file, just compressed using different formats. Go ahead and down the one of choice and save it on your desktop or similar location.

2. Uncompress the files and remove the old compressed file since that will no longer be needed. Once again, I placed my file on the desktop, so I knew where it was.

3. Find a USB 2.0 cable (Type A to B) and plug that into your printer (while it’s on and displaying the error message). Then plug the other end to your computer. Nothing should happen on the computer side.

4. Next, go into the “Print and Fax” System Preferences control panel .

5. Click on the “plus” sign at the bottom left like you are installing a new printer.

6. In the add printer dialog box, make sure that the default icon is selected.

7. Then, you should see a printer in the list (only one in the list) called “HP LaserJet USB Upgrade”. If you do not see this printer (or any printer), you may have a bad cable, but most likely, you’re printer is toast. Click on HP LaserJet USB Upgrade, and your computer will try finding drivers for this type of printer (at this point, your computer has no idea what type of printer this is).

8. Go to “Print Using:” and select “Select Printer Software”.

9. When the list of printers come up, select an HP 4100 series printer driver. You may be wondering why you are choosing the HP 4100 series printer driver and your original printer driver. The answer is fairly simple, it really doesn’t matter what driver you choose except that it needs to the a certain kind that allows your computer to send a regular file to a printer for processing. Most of the HP drivers will do this, to be on the safe side, select the 4100.

10. Next, you’ll want to make sure it’s set as the default printer (you’ll see why in a minute). Although my picture shows that the printer is Offline, it should be Online if it’s still connected to the printer.

11. This next step involves using the terminal. Open the terminal by going to Applications>Utilities>Terminal. You can also perform a spotlight search for it.

12. Once the terminal window is up, type in “lpr” and then a space, and then type in the location of your firmware file, or drag and drop the firmware file (called “cp3505fw_03.020.3.rfu” in my case) on to the terminal window and the OS will do the rest. This command will print a file to the default printer which is why that was set earlier.

13. Press enter, and you should start to see a progress with the printer. Once the file is transferred over, the printer will power cycle and be ready for printing. All network settings should have remained intact. Enjoy! You can remove the printer we just created by clicking on the “-” sign in the print and fax system preference panel.

Extra: For you PC users (XP and Vista), the theory of sending the firmware is the same. The main differences is the dos console and how the printer is added to the system.

There are two main types of wireless printing used widely today. First (and most popular) is using a standard wireless network (802.11b/g). The second is by using a technology called bluetooth. Bluetooth is limited in range, which makes it difficult to share among multiple printers. This article is focused on personal wireless networks since they are more common, easier to configure, and cheaper on the budget (most of the time).

1. Sharing a Printer Connected to a Computer on Your Wireless Network

2. Internet Router with a Built-In USB port

3. Independent Wireless Print Server

4. Purchasing a Printer with Wireless Built-In

1. Sharing a Printer Connected to a Computer on Your Wireless Network

If you’d like to save some money and already have a computer connected to the printer you want to make wireless, this method is the easiest and cheapest. The basic principle is to connect the printer, install the drivers, and share the printer on the network. Other computers connected to your wireless network can print to this device after a proper driver installation. Following the pros and cons, I’ll show you how to setup a printer on a wireless network.

Pros: Sharing a printer on a network is nearly free because most people have all the necessary equipment. Setup is typically easier than other methods.

Cons: Since the printer relies on the computer to connect to the network, if the computer is off, no one can print to that printer using the wireless network.

Mac OS X (10.5) Leopard / (10.6) Snow Leopard Instructions

Setting up a the Printer

Sharing a printer using Mac OS X is a bit easier than windows.

To setup printer sharing on your computer, first go to the “Sharing” control panel.

Check the box next to “Printer Sharing”.

You should see a message indicating that printer sharing has been turned on.

Next, open the “Print and Fax” control panel.

Next to the printer icon, select “Share this printer”.

Installing the Printer on Another Computer

On on the other computer, add the printer by going back into the “Print and Fax” control panel and click on the “+” button.

Then, you should see the newly shared printer in the list of available printers to add to your computer. Click on the printer you wish to add and select, “Add”. You can also add shared printers from a Windows computer here, but that procedure is out of the scope of this article.

Windows XP Instructions

Setting up the Printer on a Computer

Setup on a Windows machine can be complex. The following instructions provide a basic understanding on how to quickly share a printer.

To begin, open the Control Panels and select”Printers and Faxes”

Select the printer that you want to share and right click on the icon. Then select “Properties”.

Go to the “Sharing” tab. You may or may not see this screen. If your sharing tab looks like the representation above, select the option that you understand the risks and you want to share you printer (bottom link on picture).

To keep this tutorial basic, select “Just enable printer sharing”, and press “OK”.

Now you should see the general sharing interface for Windows XP. Select “Share this printer” and give it a meaningful name and press OK. Ignore any MS-DOS naming error message you receive because few computers use MS-DOS anymore.

In the “Printers and Faxes” control panel, you should see your printer with a hand icon over the icon. This means that it is currently being shared over the network (within your workgroup).

Installing the Printer on Another Computer

To start, open the control panels again and click on “Printers and Faxes”. Then select “Add a printer” from the menu on the left.

Then select “A network printer…” to add the shared printer on the other computer, then click “Next”.

Next, select “Browse for a printer” so we can choose the correct printer to install, then click “Next”.

Now you’ll need to find the printer by first selecting the workgroup (in my example, it’s called “WORKGROUP”) and then select the name of the computer, and finally select the printer and click “Next”. You may have a strange named computer, but most networks are small and it should be fairly easy to find out which computer is which. If you don’t see your computer in the list, you may need to check and make sure that all computers within the network are on the same domain. Changing the domain of a computer is outside the scope of this article but many resources are available online.

Now, the computer will attempt to install the drivers from the other machine. If you’re running a different version of Windows, sometimes these drivers are incompatible (ie, Vista). Click on “Yes” to proceed.

Next, make the selection Yes or No if you’d like this new printer to be you default printer in the programs you use in your computer, then click “Next”.

On the last step of the wizard, verify the information is correct and select “Finish”.

You should now see a new icon displaying the printer you selected. It should look similar to the picture below.

Windows Vista Instructions

Coming soon

2. Internet Router with a Built-In USB port

There are many Internet routers available today that provide additional functionality such as connecting a usb printer or hard dive. With the increased demand of wireless printing, many electronics manufactures are entering into the market and including USB printing functionality with their routers. The following is a list of available devices out today that provide this functionality. Each one seems to have pros and cons, so there is no specific one that wins hands down.

Pros: Integrated devices, possible savings. Typically easier to setup and the router provides a higher range of service allowing you to move further away from your printer and still have the ability to print.

Cons: Printer must be attached to the router, not as mobile.

Wireless Routers

Below are some common wireless routers and what I think of them. I’ve provided a link directly to the router on Amazon should you want more technical specifications or to purchase it.

3. Independent Wireless Print Server

This is probably the most popular way of connecting a USB only printer to a wireless network. Many manufactures have come out with wireless connectivity devices. These small devices are called (or supposed to be called) a wireless print server or a wireless bridge for printers. The following devices can be used as a wireless print server.

Pros: Generally inexpensive compared to a wireless router or buying a printer with built-in wireless capabilities. Utilizes equipment that you already have. Most of the wireless print servers available today are cross platform (works for Mac and PC).

Cons: Can be hard to configure due to the wireless nature of the print server. May not be compatible with all printers that use USB. Some adapters don’t have the best wireless range which can cause problems getting everything setup.

More devices coming soon!

4. Purchasing a Printer with Wireless Built-In

Many consumers wonder how to setup a wireless printer. There are many different companies today that are offering printers with built-in wireless connectivity. When shopping for a new printer, be sure to look for “802.11″ or “WiFi Enabled”. There are many names when it comes to wireless printing. Here are some examples of some good recommend wireless printers. If requested, in a future update, I’ll talk about how to install a wireless printer.

Got a recommendation or a good solution on making a printer wireless? Please leave a comment and share it with others.

First, if you need auto duplexing features (print on both sides of the page) make sure that there is a “d” on the end of the model number. For example, the HP LaserJet P2015d includes this functionality. Does this mean that duplexing is not possible?  No, you can always print duplexing manually, but having the printer automatically print on both sides of the paper is a great way to save time and help the environment.

Next, check to see if you need this printer to be used on a network. If you see a “n” in the model name, that means that HP includes network capabilities built-in. Generally, this involves connecting an Ethernet cable to the printer and setting it up with an IP address so computers can communicate with it. You can connect a USB printer to a Windows computer and “share” it among your network which creates the same network printing capabilities. The downside to this setup is that you are not able to print to the printer if the computer is off.

After you’ve purchased your printer with the features you need, be sure to activate these features in the HP driver. Since settings vary amoung printers and operating systems, it is beyond the scope of this article.

I had an unusual problem with an HP LaserJet 3050 AIO that left me stumped. I received a 3050 back from a customer because it never worked. They mentioned that it would turn on, but they kept getting an unclearable message on the control panel. The error the customer was receiving was “No Paper Pickup”. Immediately I thought that there may be damage to the logic board or some sensor, but I had a hard time finding out where it was. After about 20 minutes of searching I happened across a spring that became “unsprung” and just needed to re-align it in place. Since there are many sensors and springs in the printer, I’ve included pictures of my fix. Please leave me a comment if you found it to be helpful.

The entire back of the 3050 with the sides and back plate removed.

The spring just above the separation pad unit

The ImageClass series from Canon are great all-in-one printers that are great office workhorses. The small footprint, energy star rating, and economic toner cartridges make this an ideal printer. The D300 series printers have external connectivity in the form of a USB port for printing from a computer.  We have found that there is a decently sized Macintosh audience out there that needs to print to this printer, but no drivers exist on Canon’s website. So we set out to try and find out what could work as a solution. Here are some possible solutions:

Connect the printer to a Mac and use generic postscript drivers. Result - Fail.

Try using GimpPrint generic postscript drivers. Result - Fail.

Try forcing the use of HP drivers using a similar printing engine. Result – Fail.

The only way we found that a Mac could print to an ImageClass D300, D320, D340 was to install Windows XP via BootCamp, parallels, VM Fusion, or if you’re on a PowerPC platform, virtual PC (although it was very slow).

Bottom line: If you need to print to a Canon ImageClass D300 series printer, you will have to use a Windows-based PC or install Windows software on your Mac.

Link to Canon Support Site