The marketing department has just received their new printer and plugged in into a Windows XP system with a USB cable. However, when they try to print for the first time they don’t see the new printer in their list of available output devices. What is the most likely cause of this problem?
A) The printer driver hasn’t been installed
B) The printer is not powered on
C) The printer is out of paper
D) The printer is out of ink
The answer: A) The printer driver hasn’t been installed
Before you can print to a new printer, you must be sure that the printer driver has been successfully installed in the operating system of the computer.
The incorrect answers:
B) The printer is not powered on
Even if a printer is powered off, you’ll still see the printer in the list of available output devices. The printer may show that it is disconnected, but it will still be an available option.
C) The printer is out of paper
A printer that is missing paper doesn’t disappear from the list of available printers, but it may show an icon with an error message.
D) The printer is out of ink
The printer ink, toner, or other media levels are independent of the operating system icons. Once a printer is installed properly, it will always appear as an output device, regardless of its state.
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Want to know more? Watch “Working with Device Drivers.”If you’re going to troubleshoot hardware, you’ll certainly be working with device drivers in Windows’ Device Manager. In this video, we’ll discuss the importance of device drivers and interactively walk you through the installation, troubleshooting, and uninstall of device drivers in Windows XP. |
I’m not disputing the answer but I allways check the very simple things like “is it plugged it” first. And I’m sure that the Prof would agree. Sometimes it only takes a a second or two to verify if power is applied. Back in the mid 80’s me and some other techs were troubleshooting a radar simulator. We were running diagnostics and swapping out circuit cards all night. Then one of the lead techs stopped by to see what we were doing. He did a quick check of the power supply circuit breakers and found that one of the breakers for a card rack had tripped. Lesson learned.