When I set out to write about WiFi printing, I never imagined how many differences between printer manufacturers, frustrating problems, complicated setup procedures and “just totally disconnected from the network for no reason” problems I would find! And if you think that sentence is disjointed and confused you should see my brain after reading about WiFi printers for the past few weeks…
But if you do have problems with your printer, here’s what I would try to get my WiFi printer* working, along with some helpful phone numbers for common printer brands.
First things to try
- Turn your printer off and on again.
- Is the printer queue empty or is something stuck waiting to print? Empty the queue if there is something stuck. Find out how to do this here.
- Is your printer connected to the same network (is it connected to the network at all) as the device you want to print from?
- Printing from a device like a tablet or phone, do you have the printer App installed (see list of apps below). Some devices need multiple Apps and even if you’ve been told you don’t have to install the app, there’s a good chance it’ll work better with it.
Printer brands and the apps you need
HPSoftware |
Epson
Software |
CanonSoftware |
These are the most common, but please do let us know if you have a different make of printer and we can track down the Apps and support pages for you.
Trying to print from your tablet / phone but it just won’t work?
Try transferring your document to a PC and print from there. When I was talking to Tim about printer issues he admitted he never even tries to print directly from a tablet or phone, instead copying whatever it is onto his PC.
Of course, this only works if you have a PC, many people now only have tablets / phones… And if you do have one, it’s best to connect your printer to the PC using a cable, otherwise you might have just as many problems as from your tablet or phone!
Got a question for us?
We will of course do our best to help you. If you do have any printer problems, then if you could let us know the following information about your setup that would help us help you quicker, thanks!
- Printer Make and Model
- How your printer is connected (via a cable to a computer or over a wireless WiFi connection or both)
- Computer Operating system (Windows Version) And/Or Tablet / phone make and model and Operating system version (e.g Apple iPad iOS 12 or Samsung Galaxy Tab Android 7.0) (Leaving a comment on here generally tells you this after you submit the question – but only if you’re leaving the comment using the same device you’re trying to print from!)
- A description of the problem and any error messages you are getting.
- Drop a question below / on The Clubroom and we will try to help.
Further reading
Happy Printing, as ever drop your thoughts or questions in the comment below.
Mike
* Happily I don’t own a printer 🙂
December 13, 2016 at 3:20 pm
this is really helpful–how do I save it for the inevitable moment–I think there was a quick way of doing so????
Secondly, I downloaded the winaero app for W7 solitaire (several times) but it won’t open on my PC (Lenovo Ideapad) have tired downloaded a second time (++++) and it just won’T!
December 14, 2016 at 9:30 am
Hi Pamela
Because the Apps are not supported by anyone if they don’t work there is not really anywehre to go for help.
You can play it in Google, just search for ‘play solitaire’ then click “Play Now” which appears under an image of solitaire. or click this Google Search link https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=play+solitaire
If that doesn’t work for you or you don’t like it let me know and I can try and find an alternative.
Mike
December 14, 2016 at 9:32 am
PS to save this page, you can either CTRL+P “print as PDF” select “Print” and then “Save as PDF” from the printer options.
OR you can bookmark it CTRL+B on your keyboard.
OR Press CTRL+S to save it save it as a “Full webpage”
Or just come back to this site and scroll back through previous Journal Posts.
Mike