Electronics

[gardenman]

The part where you say "it sounds like it's printing" tends to imply it's not a connectivity issue. It wouldn't sound like it's printing if it couldn't connect. This sounds more like a clogged or dried up printer head/ink cartidge to me. If you tell it to print, it pulls in a piece of paper, sounds like it's printing, spits out the paper, but there's nothing on the paper, it's most likely a cartridge/printhead issue. There will be instructions someplace on how to clean the printhead/cartridge, but that often fails and you end up needing to replace the cartridge. One final thing is make sure you're not telling the printer to print white text.

As long as you tell it to print, the printer springs to life, grabs a piece of paper, sounds like it's printing, then spits out the paper, then the computer and printer are talking to each other and it's not a connectivity issue. If a new cartridge doesn't fix the issue, then it could be something internal in the printer, but that's less likely.

[author]

I agree with @gardenman , sounds like a printer/ink issue, not connectivity.

See if you can print a test page from the screen on the printer, just explore a bit through the touchscreen options on the printer and you will find it.  If it doesn't print there, then it definitely is an ink (as in low or no ink) or clogged ink heads issue (you can run a cleaning from the printer or laptop.

HTH, give it a try before you do all the other tips.  

I've had this happen even with ink still in the cartridges; just dried up or clogged and a new one fixed the issue and everything immediately printed.

[gardenman]

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@author wrote:

I agree with @gardenman , sounds like a printer/ink issue, not connectivity.

See if you can print a test page from the screen on the printer, just explore a bit through the touchscreen options on the printer and you will find it.  If it doesn't print there, then it definitely is an ink (as in low or no ink) or clogged ink heads issue (you can run a cleaning from the printer or laptop.

HTH, give it a try before you do all the other tips.  

I've had this happen even with ink still in the cartridges; just dried up or clogged and a new one fixed the issue and everything immediately printed.

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That's why I gave up on inkjet printers and went to a laser printer. (The best money I've ever spent by the way.) I'd go weeks sometimes without printing something then find a nearly full inkjet cartridge had become clogged or dried up and was unusable. I've tried every solvent on the market to clean/reopen the clogged ports, but failed. My laser printer never fails. I can not use it for months and it'll just spring to life and print when I tell it to. 

[author]

@gardenman 

Thanks for the tip about laser printers; definitely will look into one when this one dies.

[Nuttmeg]

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@author wrote:

Thanks for the tip about laser printers; definitely will look into one when this one dies.

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@author

I started using laser printers in 1994.

HP sells a product that can last for years and the company tends to upgrade the drives. 

There printers use a toner in place of a drum plus toner. 

Please do your homework before buying. 

[author]

@Nuttmeg 

Thanks!

[gardenman]

Back in 2015, there was something of a price war going on in the laser printer market. I got my Samsung laser printer for $47.89 at that time. There were Canon, HP, and other laser printers at similar price points also. I used the cartridge that came with it for over four years and am now using a generic replacement cartridge that also works great. The money I've saved in ink over that time has easily paid for the printer and also the replacement cartridge. My only issue is that I can't print envelopes with it, but that's a very minor inconvenience. Laser printers these days start at around $100 but they're still a bargain compared to inkjet printers for those of us who only need black and white printing and don't print all that often.

I've had mine five years and have spent a total of $80.88 ($47.89 for the printer and $32.99 for two toner cartridges and I've barely used one of the two replacement cartridges at this point.) That's a little over $16 a year for the printer and toner combined and it's done all of my printing over those five years. With my inkjet printer, I was having to replace every cartridge every three months and it was over $50 each time, so I was spending about $200 a year on ink alone. And the laser printer even prints more quickly. Once you go to a laser printer you'll wonder why you never did it earlier.