Troubleshoot common dot matrix printer problems
Brien M Posey
Published: 07 May 2003 09:46 BST
Printing gibberish
If the printer is printing gibberish, try printing some simple text. If you're able to print plain text but there's a blank line between each line of text, check the printer's dip switch, which controls the carriage return and line feed (CR/LF). By toggling this switch, you should be able to correct the problem.
If everything still comes out as gibberish, there are several possible causes -- the most likely being an incorrect print driver. For example, if someone tries to print to the printer using a print driver that was intended for a laser printer, the job will print as gibberish. All future jobs will most likely print as gibberish until you have turned the printer off and back on.
A loose, faulty, or overly lengthy printer cable can also cause data to print gibberish. Try switching to a known good printer cable and see if the problem goes away.
If these techniques fail to fix the problem, try generating a print test directly from the printer (not from the computer). If the printer's internal self-test also prints gibberish, there's a good chance that the printer's system board is bad.
Flashing lights
Another problem that you may encounter is that the lights on the printer are flashing. You'll have to check the printer's instruction manual for this one. Different flashing patterns mean different things, and the meanings vary among different makes and models of printers. Flashing lights could indicate anything from low ink to a paper jam, to a cooked system board.
No activity at all
If you print to the printer and nothing happens at all, make sure the printer is receiving power and is connected to the PC. If your users are on a network, you should also make sure the PC hasn't been redirected to a network printer. If nothing seems to work try running a self-test on the printer. If the self-test doesn't yield any activity, it could be that the motor has burned out or that the system board is fried.
Grinding noise
I've seen dot matrix printers make loud grinding noises during printing. More often than not the grinding noise was caused by foreign matter jammed in the printer. Once this foreign matter was removed, the printer returned to normal. However, I have also seen gears strip out on printers because they had worked their way out of alignment. You might try turning off the printer and moving the carriage by hand to make sure everything moves smoothly and that there is no resistance. You should also inspect the belts for excessive wear that would indicate that they have stretched or are about to break.
Finding dot matrix printer parts
If your local computer store doesn't even acknowledge that dot matrix printers still exist, what do you do when you need a new ink ribbon or spare part for your printer? While searching the Internet may be the obvious solution, I want to share some particularly effective strategies I've come across for handling dot matrix availability problems.
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