Printer tickets are the helpdesk's most common. Most are solved with these steps in order.

1. Check the printer itself

Walk to the printer. Look at its screen or status LED.

  • Out of paper — refill the tray
  • Paper jam — open the indicated cover, clear the paper, close
  • Out of toner — replace the cartridge if you have a spare; ticket if not
  • Cover open — close it firmly until you hear the click
  • An error code — note it down (e.g. "Error 49.4C02") for the ticket

If the printer's screen is blank, power-cycle it: power off, wait 60 seconds, power back on.

2. Confirm there's a queue

On your laptop, search for Printers & scanners in Start. Click your printer → Open print queue. Is your job there?

  • Job present but "Paused" — right-click → Resume
  • Job present but "Error" — right-click → Cancel, then try again
  • No jobs at all — the print didn't make it to the printer; usually means you're printing to the wrong printer, or printer drivers are broken

3. Right printer selected?

Open the print dialog (Ctrl + P). Look at the printer name. If it's "Microsoft Print to PDF" or an old printer that doesn't exist anymore, change it to the correct one and try again.

Office floors often have multiple printers; printing to the wrong one means your document is sitting in a tray on a different floor.

4. Reset the print spooler

This fixes most "queue stuck" problems on Windows:

  1. Search for Services in Start
  2. Find Print Spooler
  3. Right-click → Restart

Try printing again.

5. Remove and re-add the printer

In Printers & scanners:

  • Click the problematic printer → Remove
  • Click Add device → wait for it to appear → install

If the printer doesn't appear automatically, ticket — IT will add it from a print server or share.

6. Network printer specifically

If it's a network printer (most office printers are):

  • Can you ping it? Open Command Prompt, type ping <printer-IP>. The IP is usually on the printer's status page.
  • Are you on the right network? VPN sometimes blocks the office subnet.
  • Same site as you? You can't print to a printer in a different office.

7. Print quality issues

These are usually consumables, not faults:

  • Streaks or lines — toner is low, or the drum is dirty (vendor will replace)
  • Faded prints — toner low, or "draft mode" enabled in print settings
  • Wrong colors — color cartridge empty; check the supplies page

When to ticket

If the printer error code persists after a power cycle, the queue keeps erroring out, or print quality is degrading, raise a ticket with:

  • The printer's asset tag
  • The error code if any
  • A photo of the printer's display if it shows an error