Printers are electronic devices for printing documents that cannot be separated from everyday life. Especially for those of you who work in the education and administration fields and often print various documents.
Error problems with the printer often occur during the printing process. One of them is a printer that is slow/slows down when printing documents. This certainly disrupts your work process.
But before rushing to take it to a service center, try to handle it yourself. Here are several ways you can try to overcome a printer that slows down during the printing process.
1. Connectivity issues
Currently there are various types of the latest printers. One of them is a wireless printer which is often used by some users. Wireless printers are usually chosen because they have the advantage of being more practical and easily accessible to many devices.
However, connectivity problems can be a problem that users often experience. Wireless printers certainly use the internet network to operate.
If you use WiFi as an internet network, try to move the printer closer to the WiFi router to increase connectivity speed. After you bring the printer closer to the router, try printing again.
2. Change print quality settings
If it is not a connectivity problem, it could be that the printer is slow when printing documents due to the print quality. You can make printing settings as follows.
- Go to your printer's system settings and look for the "Printers & Scanners" option (for Windows or Mac systems)
- Select the printer you are using from the list and click "Manage"
- Find the print quality settings option within your printer settings.
- If your printer is set to print at the best quality available, this may cause slow print speeds.
- For text documents or materials that do not require the best print quality, you can change this selection to "Standard", "Better", "Normal", or another option provided. This might be able to overcome a slow printer device
3. The printer driver is outdated and needs updating
Laptops and printers require updated drivers for both devices to connect and print properly. The printer driver serves as an intermediary between the printer and the computer's operating system, making it possible to transfer the data and files necessary to capture digital documents and print them to paper.
However, it is not uncommon for the driver used to experience errors or become outdated, affecting the printer's performance when printing. Therefore, you can check the printer driver and update it regularly. Here's how:
- Go to the Windows search bar
- Type “Device Manager”
- Select “Print queues”
- Select the printer for which you want to update its driver
- Right click and select "Update driver"
- Select “Search automatically for drivers”
- Select “Update Driver” If Windows doesn't find a new driver, you can try searching for it on the device manufacturer's website then follow the complete instructions.
4. Switch to laser printers
Printer type can affect document printing performance. If you use an inkjet printer, this could make the printing process a little slow. As is known, inkjet printers use a reciprocating mechanism to print ink on paper.
This process requires several steps, especially for printing text or image documents. Therefore, this type of printer tends to have slower printing speeds. If you need a faster printing process, you can consider using a laser printer.
Laser printers use electrically charged drums to deliver toner onto the page. This process allows laser printers to print at higher speeds.
This type of printer is usually more efficient in the long term because its operational costs are lower even though it has a more expensive price when initially purchased. So you can switch to a laser printer to increase printing speed and save costs in the long term.
These are some of the causes and ways to overcome slow printers when printing documents. Apart from speed problems, users often experience errors in the form of "Operation Failed with Error 0x00011b".