Not being able to print the documents you need on time can be frustrating, and sometimes the people who should be assisting you to fix it can’t help your right away.
The good news is this guide should help anyone who is asking the question, “why is my Epson printer not printing properly?“
Before we go ahead with our step-by-step fix, let’s identify first what could cause your Epson printer to not print at all suddenly.
Why Is My Epson Printer Not Printing?
Epson printers are known to be good home printers for those on a tight budget when it comes to their printing needs. Epson printers are capable of printing hundreds of documents along with your treasured photos for a single set of ink cartridges.
But what might cause your budget-friendly printer to stop printing all of a sudden?
There are various factors that may cause your Epson printer to stop printing. The one thing we’re sure of is as long as it’s not caused by irreparable damage to your printer system, then we can help you fix your Epson printer. Since most of the common causes of this issue can be solved by doing our recommended troubleshooting steps.
Common Reasons Why Epson Printer Is Not Working
Low ink levels. All printers need sufficient inks similar to how a car needs sufficient gas to operate properly. If you haven’t replaced your ink cartridges for several months now, you should check for your ink levels right away. Most Epson printer issues are solved by simply replacing your old cartridges.
Jammed paper. Paper jams can messy and tedious to solve. If you recently printed a document and nothing came out of your Epson printer, then you should check if the paper got stuck inside the printer. As much as we hate paper jams, it can still be resolved by simply knowing where the paper got jammed and carefully removing it whether in one go or piece by piece.
Ink cartridge issue. Some ink cartridges may work and stop working after only a few days or weeks. This can be caused by your ink cartridges expiring. Yes. Similar to edible items, ink cartridges also have an expiration date. It’s usually indicated on one side of your ink cartridge, so it would be best to check on it.
No paper installed. It is common for printers to show you an error message that it’s already out of paper, either through your printer display screen if it has one, or on your computer screen. If you’re uncertain of what’s causing your Epson printer to not work, there’s no harm in checking your printer’s paper tray and add more paper if needed.
Network connection problem. “Printer offline” or “printer not connected to the network” can cause your Epson printer to stop printing from your computer or mobile device. This one is the easiest to fix since all you have to do is connect your printer back to your wireless network. However, if the problem requires you to go into your router’s web interface, then you should check out our detailed printer offline fix.
Corrupted printer driver. Your Epson printer driver acts as a bridge between your computer and your printer. If the file gets corrupted for some reason, then it can prevent you from printing documents to your Epson printer. You either have to update the installed printer driver on your computer or completely remove it and reinstall it again to fix your Epson printer that is not printing.
Epson Printer Not Printing Fix
Having an Epson printer, one of the most popular printer brands worldwide, has some advantages. It gives you access to hundreds of online resources you can use to fix your Epson printer.
Whether your Epson printer is not printing black ink or a printer paper jam error occurred inside your Epson machine, you can rely on the good folks online, who are printer experts themselves or have already encountered the same problem as yours, to help you.
With our complete guide on how to fix Epson printer that’s not printing, you don’t have to waste time waiting in the line for Epson’s technical support team to assist you. We believe anyone can fix their printer with patience and by simply knowing what to do to fix every Epson printer issue.
Now to start our Epson printer fix, let’s perform a basic printer checkup.
Basic Epson Printer Checkup
We highly recommend that before you start fixing your printer that you do a basic printer checkup first.
Here’s our step-by-step guide on how you can check your Epson Printer:
- Turn on your Epson printer.
- Check your printer’s display screen for any error messages, and make sure your buttons are all working properly.
- Place any type of document on your printer’s scanner glass.
- Select the copy button to make a copy of your document.
If can copy a document, then you can proceed to the basic troubleshooting steps for Epson printers below.
If not, then you have a much complex problem here and you should go ahead and proceed to the next section about the advanced troubleshooting steps for Epson printers that are not responding.
Advanced Troubleshooting Steps To Fix Your Epson Printer
Our advanced troubleshooting steps will now look into your printer software to make sure that your Epson printer issue is not because of a corrupted printer driver or a network connection issue.
Epson Printer Driver Problem
f your Epson printer is not printing properly, it can be caused by a corrupted printer driver.
Printer drivers should be updated to their latest version for security reasons. Also, out-of-date printer drivers often cause various printer issues, so it’s best to enable automatic updates on your printer driver, so you don’t have to do it manually.
One way you’ll know if there’s a problem with your printer driver is if you can’t print any documents from your computer or laptop to your printer.
The most obvious sign is the option to choose between a black-only print or one with color inks is not showing.
To fix your Epson printer driver, you have to remove your old printer driver first.
Go to your computer’s Control Panel, and uninstall your printer driver.
Once uninstalled, you must download and reinstall the printer driver from Epson’s website.
You can download your printer driver by going to this link that will lead you to your Epson printer’s driver page.
Enter your printer name or product name, and click on search. Once you’ve downloaded your printer driver, you just have to install it on your computer.
Verify if the printer issue has been resolved by printing any type of document and check if your Epson printer will let you print it.
Epson Printer Wireless Issue
If you have a wireless Epson printer, and it’s not letting your print anything, then you may have to check your wireless connection between your Epson printer and your WiFi router.
Go to your printer’s display screen, and look for the wireless icon. It looks like a radio antenna or a wireless signal.
Once you’ve clicked on that icon, proceed to set up your wireless connection again.
You just have to select your WiFi network name and enter your WiFi password. Once the connection is successful, you should be able to print again.
If not, check out our in-depth guide on how to fix any wireless printer connection issue.
If the above printer troubleshooting steps still did not fix your Epson printer issue, then you may have to do a semi-full reset to your machine as our last attempt to make it work again.
A semi-full reset or reset to factory defaults is going to reset your printer back to its original settings or what some might refer to as factory settings.
Once properly executed, it would be like you have a brand new printer again, except you know that it’s really not.
By resetting your Epson printer to its factory settings, you have to set it up all over again from scratch. This means you have to connect it back to your wireless network and add it to your computer or mobile device.
Since there are dozens of Epson printers, you may have to refer to your product manual for the instructions on how to do a semi-full reset or factory reset on your Epson printer.
If you don’t have your printer manual with you, you may download it directly from Epson’s Support page.
If the above printer troubleshooting steps still did not fix your Epson printer issue, then you may have to do a semi-full reset to your machine as our last attempt to make it work again.
Epson Printer Maintenance Tips
Hopefully, those steps were able to fix your Epson printer not printing problem. Now that we’re able to resolve that.
Here are some basic printer maintenance tips in keeping your Epson printer in good working condition and to prevent further printer issues in the future.
- Utilize only genuine ink cartridges that are supported by your Epson printer.
- Ensure you are using compatible papers on your Epson printer.
- Buy a printer cover to prevent dust, debris, and other small particles from entering your machine.
- Use your Epson printer at least once a week. Avoid not using it for an extended time to prevent your inks from drying.
- Change empty ink cartridges right away to prevent damage to your printhead.
- Make sure that you connect your printer directly to a wall outlet for it to get enough power.
my printer is driving me nuts. It splodges black ink in two places on each print – once over any cartoon clip art I’ve inserted and once again at the end of the page (short side A4) I’ve wasted so much ink, I’ve changed layouts and I’ve changed ink cartridges – all to no avail! Suggestions please!!
I have an Epson X225 and it prints further down the page than on my laptop screen. Because of this any documents that should be on one page uses two pieces of paper. What can I do to stop this happening? I do not have the internet and only use my laptop and printer for documents like I used to use a typewriter for.
Hello Irene,
have you checked the Layout tab?
Go to Control Panel – Devices and Printers, right click on the printer and select Printing Preferences.