Guide · Windows
Print queue, driver, IP address, permissions: why network printers fail and in which order to look for the cause.
Before anything is reinstalled, clarify one thing: does it affect one workstation or all of them? This question separates two completely different fault patterns, and it takes thirty seconds.
If only one computer is affected, the cause is almost always the print queue, the driver or permissions. If everyone is affected, the cause is the device itself, its network address or the print server – and then anything you do at an individual workstation is wasted effort.
The second useful question: does printing a test page directly on the device, from its control panel, work? If so, the mechanics are fine and the problem lies with the network or the computer.
By frequency
Sorted by how often they actually occur.
The most common fault of all. The printer obtains its address automatically and gets a different one after a power cut or a router restart. The computers keep looking in the old place.
One failed job blocks all the ones after it. Often the job cannot be deleted because the file is still being processed.
After a Windows update the driver no longer fits, or two driver generations from the same manufacturer are installed side by side. With network printers shared via a server, there is the added point that client and server need the same driver type.
After changes to groups or a server move, users lack the right to print. Typical: it works for management but not in one department.
On devices with cost-centre accounting or a card reader, jobs are held until someone signs in at the device. To the user it looks as if nothing has happened.
Some devices drop their network connection in sleep mode and only come back after a few seconds – the first job goes nowhere, the second one works.
From quick and harmless to time-consuming. Try printing after each step.
Frequently asked questions
Because otherwise the address can change after every power cut and all the computers print into the void. There are two ways to get there: set a fixed address directly on the device, or create a reservation in the router or server so that the device is always assigned the same one.
The second way is cleaner, because management stays in one place. In a business with several devices this should be documented anyway.
With more than about ten workstations and several devices, there is a lot to be said for it: drivers are maintained centrally, permissions are assigned centrally, and a new device has to be set up once instead of twenty times.
The argument against it is that the server becomes a bottleneck – if it fails, nobody can print. For smaller businesses, printing directly to the network address is often more robust.
Printing to the office printer from home rarely makes sense – the page ends up where nobody is. The reverse makes sense: the private printer at the home workstation, set up via the local connection.
If something really has to be printed at the office, the route is via the VPN connection or a cloud print service. Both need to be set up properly and are not a side issue.
Almost always because of the driver type. Windows has two generations of printer drivers, and if the server and the workstation use different ones, you get shifted layouts, wrong fonts or missing graphics.
Also common: the application is set to a different paper size from the device. Check this before you start on the driver.
Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater
Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater founded INFONET Computer GmbH in Cologne in 1992. Printers are the most frequent reason for support calls – and the area where a clean basic setup saves the most follow-up work.
Free assessment
If the same fault comes back every month, what is usually missing is a clean basic setup – fixed addresses, consistent drivers, clear permissions. That can be done in a morning.
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