December 9, 2025 • 32 mins
Printers and multifunction devices are more than just simple office tools—they're intricate systems combining optical, thermal, mechanical, and networked computing components. In this episode, we decode printer technology and its critical role in business operations, highlighting how these devices impact IT skills development and technology education. From unboxing to output, we explore the key decisions that keep your pages moving smoothly while safeguarding your data. Whether you're preparing for CompTIA exams or seeking practical IT certification tips, this episode offers valuable insights into managing printer technology within your IT infrastructure.
Instructional Downloadable Resource Guide
https://www.professorjrod.com/downloads
We start with fit-for-purpose buying—matching speed, DPI, trays, duplexing, and duty cycle to real workloads—then move to placement and environment, where airflow, humidity, and power quality determine whether a fleet runs smoothly or jams at 4:58 p.m. Firmware strategy matters more than most shops admit: back up configs, schedule updates, and never interrupt a flash. On connectivity, we compare USB simplicity against Ethernet and Wi‑Fi flexibility, then layer in drivers and PDLs—PCL for speed, PostScript for precision, XPS for Windows pipelines—plus the color logic of CMYK. You’ll hear clean exam clues for the A+ and practical tells for real-world triage, like when a single user’s issue is just a preference and not a driver.
Inside the box, we translate the seven-step laser process into actionable troubleshooting: charging, exposing, developing, transferring, fusing, and cleaning each leave fingerprints—smears, ghosting, or blank pages—that point straight to the failing part. We round out the print tech tour with inkjet (thermal vs piezo), thermal printers (direct vs transfer), and impact units for multipart forms. Then we head to the network, where DHCP reassignments, wrong ports, and spooler crashes derail entire floors. Print servers centralize power and risk, and mobile/cloud printing adds discovery quirks and new attack surfaces.
Security is the blind spot: printers hold disks, address books, and cached jobs. We lay out the must-haves—PIN or badge release, secure erase, firmware signing, role-based access, and segmentation—so confidential pages don’t land in the wrong tray and default passwords don’t become open doors. We finish with ethics, because technicians handle sensitive data and trust is the real SLA. If you want sharper troubleshooting, stronger security, and higher A+ exam confidence, this one’s a field guide you’ll use tomorrow.
Enjoyed the deep dive? Follow @ProfessorJRod, share this episode with your IT team, and leave a review so more techs can find it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
Welcome to Technology Tap.
I'm Professor J.
Rod.
For those of you who don't knowme, I'm a college professor that
likes to help students pass theComptea A Plus, Network Plus,
and Security Plus, and historybuff.
So I like to throw in history ofcomputing in different parts,
different companies that shapethe way computers are done now
in the 21st century.
(01:30):
If you want to follow me, I'm onInstagram at Professor J Rod.
I'm at TikTok at Professor JRod.
I'm on Twitter at Professor JRod.
And if you want to email me, youcan email me at professorjrod at
gmail.com.
And everybody who knows me knowsthat I love coffee.
So if you want to buy me acoffee, you can go to
buymeacoffee.com forward slashprofessor J Rod.
(01:56):
Alright, let's start.
There are very few machines inmodern life that everyone
depends on, but almost no onetruly understands.
They stay quietly in offices, inclassrooms, in hospitals, in
police stations, in shoppingcenters, in homes.
And yet, when they stop working,entire organizations grind to a
(02:18):
halt.
Today on Technology Tap, we'lltell you the hidden story of
printers and multifunctiondevices, not just as machines,
but as mission criticalinfrastructures.
From unboxing to configurationto firmware to laser imaging to
troubleshooting jams at 4.58p.m.
for a 5 p.m.
deadline, this chapter might bethe most underestimated
(02:43):
technology on earth.
Every technician remembers theirfirst printing ticket.
It just says offline.
No ericals, no smoke, no lightsflashing, just offline.
And suddenly, payroll stops,students can't submit exams,
medical records freezes,shipping labels halted, court
(03:04):
documents delay.
Printers are the silent backboneof physical information.
And Camtea understands that.
Before boxes even open,technicians act as technology
architects.
The four core decision factorswhen you take into consideration
when you're buying a printerone, speed, pages per minute,
(03:26):
two resolution, dots per inch orDPI, paper handling, trays,
size, media types, and options.
Duplex, scanning, faxing,stapling, networking.
Real world scenario.
A school buys a home jet printerfor 40 class student classroom.
Two weeks later, ink is empty,paper jams non-stop.
(03:49):
Overheating errors andmaintenance nightmare.
The wrong tool for the rightfailure.
Location.
Before you power on, you got tomake sure where you're going to
put the printer matters themost, right?
Where you're going to get theelectrical supply, all right?
The electricity, the networkaccess, airflow, physical
(04:12):
accessibility, heat andhumidity, floor layout for those
large multifunctional devices.
And is it ADA accessible?
Cold printers moving to warmrooms cause concentrations
inside electronics.
One of the fastest ways todestroy the new device.
Unboxing.
Every printer ships withpackaging tape, drum locks,
(04:35):
transport braces, protectivefoam, seal toner.
If any of that remains insidethe boxes, it will damage it, so
you gotta remove it.
If a brand new printer groundsloudly on the first setup,
packaging material that wasstuck inside was not removed.
Firmware, the software thatcontrols machine.
(04:55):
Even new printer may requirefirmware updates.
Why?
Because how long has it beensitting in the shelf?
Right?
It could be a year.
Right?
Just because you bought it todaydoesn't mean that it's new
today.
Right?
How long has it been sitting inBest Buy?
Firmware controls paper feedtiming, toner voltage level,
network processing, print cuelogic, scanner calibrations, and
(05:19):
duplex operation.
Critical technician rules.
Backup printer configurationbefore firmware updates.
Never interrupt firmwareflashing and reset reflash
corrupt firmware.
Interrupted firmware, right?
If you decide to shut it offwhile it's updating, you could
you may end up with a brickedprinter.
(05:42):
Printer connectivity, one of themost heavily tested topics.
One USB direct connection,one-to-one connection, no
network access, used for localPCs.
Exam tips USB printers cannot beaccessed remotely unless shared
by a computer.
2.
Ethernet network printer has itsown IP address, appears on the
(06:03):
network like a server, usingoffice and labs.
Exam tip.
If many users can access thesame printer, it's either
Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
3.
Wireless Wi-Fi Bluetooth.
Connected through infrastructurethrough the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
pairing.
Use for mobile printing, bringyour own devices or guest
(06:25):
printing.
Troubleshooting normally is thewrong SSID, the wrong Wi-Fi
password, or 2.4 versus 5 GHzmismatch.
Next, we talk about printerdrivers and page description
language or PDLs.
Every printer speaks a language.
The big three are the PCLprinter control language, fast
(06:48):
universal, PostScript, high-endgraphics design and publishing,
and XPS is Microsoft XML basedformat.
What is PDLs control?
Font rendering, scalable type,vector graphics, and color
processing.
Color printing runs on CMYK,Cyan, Magenta, Yellow.
(07:10):
Well, the K is black, but theycall it key black, not RGB.
Right?
Exam tip trap.
If a printer output is distortedor unread or unreadable, then
it's the wrong PDL is selected.
Next, we move printerproperties.
The system level is print cue,paper tray, installed memory,
(07:32):
fonts, and ports.
For printing preferences, youhave DPI quality, either economy
or draft mode.
You can have duplex that'sprinting on both sides,
multi-page per sheet,orientation, landscape or
portrait, and paper size andtype.
Exam clue.
If one user prints wrong but theothers are fine, it's a
preference, not a driver issue.
(07:55):
Printer sharing, who can use themachine?
Three sharing models (07:57):
public printer, no access control,
anybody can print.
Print server, centralizedcontrol, driver distribution,
and access permission.
And direct share printer, one PCshares to others.
If host goes online, then theprinter disappears.
Printer security, the forgottencyber risk.
(08:18):
Modern printers contain harddrives, RAM, network cards,
address books, user credentials,stored documents.
You should have these securitycontrols in place.
Pin release print jobs, badgeauthentication, job audit logs,
secure erase functions.
Unsecure printers equals databreach engine.
(08:38):
So what happens here is on thesenetwork printers, they have
admin username and password.
Most of the time, people don'teven change that.
They leave it at with eitheradmin admin or admin password.
That is one way for the bad guysto get in, is through the
printer.
That's number one.
Two, you know, they have harddrives.
(08:59):
So if they steal the hard drive,right, they they can have access
to the data.
Because sometimes you're able toprint like at the last five
things that was on the printer.
So make sure that you don't,you're not printing personal
stuff on it.
That's another way that they canget you.
And then you gotta be carefulbecause even the the maintenance
(09:19):
guy, the guy who comes in to fixyour printer, they have their
special code.
That's it's the same as admin.
So you gotta be careful withthat.
Alright, next, scannerconfiguration and OCR.
The scanners can be flatbedscanners, moving scan head, or
ADF automated document feeder.
Fix head, this is for highvolume scanning.
(09:43):
OCR's optical characterrecognition converts scan images
into edible.
Text network scanning targets,email, SMB, that's server
message block, file shares, andcloud storage.
Next, we'll talk about now.
(10:06):
We move inside the machine.
This is where technicians eitherbecome confident or completely
confused because printers don'tjust print, they perform
controlled physics experimentsthousands of times a day using
heat, static electricity,pressure, light, pigment, and
motion.
The laser printing process.
This is the most tested topic onCamptia.
(10:30):
Well, on as far as printers areconcerned, right?
If there's one process you mustmemorize in the A exam, it is
the seven-layer, seven-steplaser printing process.
One, processing, two, charging,three, exposing, four,
developing, five, transferring,six, fusing, seven, cleaning.
(10:51):
Every question you see about thelaser printer maps to one of
these steps.
Let's walk through it.
Processing the printer thinks.
Your computer sends text, image,graphics, layouts.
The printer interprets thedriver, converts the page into a
bitmap image, stores it intomemory.
If processing fails, nothingprints, corrupt output appears,
(11:15):
or the printer freezes.
A plus exam clue If a job failsbefore it physically begins,
it's a processing or driverproblem.
2.
Charging.
The drum gets a static coat.
The imaging drum is coated withphotosensitive material.
A primary coronavire or chargeroller gives the drum a uniform
(11:36):
negative static charge.
This prepares the drum to acceptan image.
Common failure, dirty chargeroller, streaking, repeating
deficits.
3.
Exposing.
The laser drills the image.
A laser fires onto a drum,discharging specific areas.
Those charges areas now are nowrepresents text, shapes, and
(12:01):
graphics.
The printer has not created aninvisible electric static image.
Exam tip If the output is blank,think laser or exposure failure.
4.
Developing.
(12:21):
Since opposite a track, thetoner sticks to the discharged
areas, not the chargedbackground.
This reveals the image inpowdered form.
Failure symptoms, faint prints,uneven shading, gray background,
and blotchiness.
5.
Transferring.
(12:42):
Paper steals the image.
The paper receives a positivecharge.
Discharge pulls the toter offthe drum onto the paper.
Now the image exists on paperbut is still just powdered.
Failure symptoms, missingsections, ghosting, and
incomplete images.
Next is fusing.
(13:02):
Heat and pressure make itpermanent.
The fuser assembly heats up to350 degrees Fahrenheit, presses
toner onto the paper, meltstoner permanently into fibers.
Failure symptoms, smudging,toner rubbing off, wrinkled
paper, melted output, burningsmell.
If the toner wipes off easy,it's a fuser failure.
(13:27):
Cleaning resets the next page.
The printer scraps leftovertoner, sends waste toner to the
waste hopper, neutralizedstatics, and recharges the drum.
Repeating the deficit at thesame interval on every page.
That means the drum needsreplacement.
Now we move to inkjet printers,precision liquid, and
(13:50):
engineering.
Inkjet printers were completelydifferent.
Instead of static electricity,they use liquid ink sprayed by
microscopic nozzles onto pagesin dots.
Two types dominate.
Thermal inkjet uses tiny heatingelements to boil ink and force
droplets on paper used by HP andCanon.
(14:12):
Failure symptoms, missing lines,clogged nozzles, air bubbles,
and weak colors.
The other use is Pizoelectricinkjet, uses electrical pulses
to flex crystal elements,pushing ink without heat, used
by Epson.
Advantage, better ink control,longer print head, and less
(14:34):
clogging.
Inkjet ink types you must knowdye-based ink with vibrate but
smear and pigment base ink,which are durable and resistant.
Next we move to thermalprinters.
Heat creates the page.
Thermal printers appear in cashregisters, shipping labels,
hospital, wristbands, ATMs.
(14:57):
They use heat sensitive paper,no ink or toner.
Two thermal types they havedirect thermal, thermal, paper
darkest with heat, phase overtime, sensitive to sunlight, and
thermal transfer.
Uses ribbon, long-lasting printusing barcodes.
If the output fades in thesunlight, that is direct
(15:20):
thermal.
That's an exam tip.
Next, impact printers,mechanical striking.
Impact printers are old schoolbut still alive.
Used for multi-part forms,carbon copies, shipping,
industrial environments.
They use print heads, pins, inkribbon.
Advantages, durable,inexpensive, works on
(15:43):
multi-paper, multi-part paper,disadvantage, slow, loud, low
resolution.
Now, it used to be inexpensive.
If you try to get impact printernowadays, it's gonna cost you
three to four hundred dollars.
Next, maintenance kits, theparts that we're out.
High volume laser printersrequire scheduled maintenance
(16:05):
kits, fuser, rollers, separationpads, pickup rollers, waste
holer containers, manufacturersspecify replacement intervals
and page count.
Exam fact.
If a laser printer prints butwon't feed paper reliably, it's
the pickup roller.
Common print failures and thehidden cause.
(16:27):
1.
Vertical lines on printout causedirty imaging drum, scratched
drum, or a damaged roller.
Fix, replace the drum unit.
Second, blank pages.
Following could be the causestoner empty, sealed cartridge,
failed laser or corrupt driver.
3.
Repeating spots cause drumcircumference defect or the
(16:49):
fuser roller defect.
The spacing tells you which partis failing.
Paper jam causes worn rollers,humidity, incorrect paper
weight, or the breeze in thefeed path.
Printer continues, say offline,causes wrong port, change IP
address, DNS issues, printerspooler stopped, or USB cable
(17:09):
failure.
Color collaboration and qualitycontrol.
Quarter printers requiredcalibration, test pages,
alignment, drum conditioning.
CMYK imbalance causes incorrectcolor, wash image, color shift.
Exam clue.
If red prints as brown, themagenta toner has a problem.
(17:34):
Now that you know what happensinside the machines, you
understand why toner sticks, whyheat matters, why rollers fail,
why colors shift, and whyprinters jam.
Now we face the battlefieldbecause in the real world,
printers rarely fail in clean,predictable ways.
(17:56):
They fail on networks, they failunder load, they fail when users
panic, they fail when attackersfind them first.
Now we're gonna talk aboutpeople who know printers from
technicians who controlenvironments.
Let's finish this the right way.
Network printing where printers'nightmares begin.
Once the printer leaves USB andjoins the network, everything
(18:17):
changes.
A network printer now requiresan IP address, a subnet, a
gateway, DNS, ports, driversacross multiple machines,
authentication, firewallallowance, print cues, booling
services.
And every one of thesecomponents can break.
Static versus dynamic IPaddress.
(18:38):
Many printers use DHCP bydefault.
Here's the problem the printergets one IP today, a different
IP tomorrow, but users still tryto print to the old IP.
Result the printer shows up butwon't print.
Best practice, set networkprinters to static IPs or DHCP
(18:59):
reservation.
Yeah, I have that issue with myprinter.
I used to have it.
When I had it with DHCP, itwould, you know, the DHCP router
will give the IP address, butthen you shut it off for a
couple of days, you turn it on,it's a different IP address, and
then you can't print.
Alright, next, print servers,central control at a cost.
Large organizations use printservers for centralized driver
(19:23):
management, access control,spool balancing, accounting, and
auditing.
When a print server fails, noone can print, even if the
printers themselves are fine.
Cues back up, documents vanish,office freezes.
Exam tip if multiple printers godown at once, suspect the print
server, not the printers.
(19:44):
Next, the print server spooler,the hidden single point of
failure.
The Windows print spoolerservice controls job buffering,
queue processing, driverinteraction, and network
handoff.
If the spooler crashes,deadlocks or corrupt.
You'll get stuck jobs, ghostprint, vanished documents, and
(20:05):
printers stuck in printingforever.
Basic fix, stop the printspooler, clear the spool feet
folder, and restart the service.
Nine out of ten printers,mysteries in here.
Next, mobile printing and cloudprinting.
Modern printers are no longerisolated machines.
(20:26):
They integrate with smartphones,tablets, cloud storage, email
gateways, and remote printingservice.
Mobile printing technologies.
You have Apple, AirPrint,Android Mopria, Manufacturers
App HB Smart, Epson Connect, andCanon Print.
These depend on local Wi-Fidiscovery, multicast traffic,
(20:49):
correct ports, and updatedfirmware.
If mobile printing fails, checksame network, disable client
isolation, update printerfirmware, and re-enable
discovery services.
Next, cloud printing.
Documents can't be sent fromanywhere, stored in the cloud,
released locally.
(21:09):
Risks include exposed printcues, unsecure release jobs,
data interruption, andunauthorized access.
Exam focus.
It's sensitive documents printwithout authentication, secure
print with a pin or secure printslash pin release is missing.
The thing is about cloudprinting, and I'm saying it with
(21:31):
air quotes, is that eventuallyit's gonna have to go to a real
printer to print because there'sno such thing as cloud printing,
right?
It's just you uploading it tothe cloud, and then somebody at
the other end is gonna actuallygo to a physical printer and
print it out.
Printer security, the attackservice nobody watches.
Modern printers are fullcomputers with CPUs, RAM,
(21:55):
operating systems, hard drives,network cards, web servers.
Hackers target printers becausethey are readily patched,
administrators forget them,default credentials remain, and
that is absolutely true.
Logs are ignored, and firmwareisn't monitored.
Common printer attacks,unauthorized job injection,
stored document theft, addressbook harvesting, network
(22:19):
pivoting, malware hosting, DDoSparticipation, printer breach
are silent breaches.
Enterprise printer securitycontrols, pin-based job release,
badge authentication, encryptprint streams, role-based
access, secure erase, firmwaresigning, and network
segmentation.
(22:40):
ComT exam logic.
If confidential prints appear intrace, secure print is not
enforced.
Environmental failure andprinter sabotage without anyone
realizing it.
Printers fail fail silent orfall silent due to humidity,
dust, temperature swings, staticelectricity, tea paper, warp
(23:04):
paper, low grain toner.
The hidden killers.
Humidity curves paper, feedsinto jabs.
Cheap toner melts wrong,destroys diffuser.
Dust coats, rollers, slippage,and cold rooms, condensation
inside optics.
Technicians don't just repairprinters, they repair
(23:26):
environments.
Next, where everything fails atonce, disaster scenarios.
Scenario number one, no one inthe timekeeping office can print
paychecks.
Multi printers offline, samesubnet, same VLAN.
Root cause, print server failureor network outage.
Scenario two, print jobs vanishafter sending.
(23:47):
No error message, users thinknothing printed, cues cleared
instantly.
Root cause, incorrect port or IPreassigned.
Scenario three, sensitive HRdocuments found in the wrong
tray.
Root cause, lack of secure printauthentication.
Scenario four, printer warms up,fees paper, but pages are blank.
(24:08):
Root cause options, sealed tonernot removed, empty toner, failed
laser.
The technician's ethicalresponsibility.
Printers process medicalrecords, court documents,
financial statements, governmentforms, student data, research
identities.
Every technician who touches aprinter touches people's lives.
(24:32):
Your responsibility includeprotecting confidentiality,
clearing memory securely,removing drives before disposal,
documenting access, not copyingstored data, enforcing
authentication, reportingvulnerabilities.
Being a technician means beingtrusted.
That trust is everything.
And that's one of the biggestthings that I tell my students.
(24:56):
If they can't trust you, theydon't need you.
Right?
If they think you that person,they don't need you.
They need to have completeconfidence in you that you're
going to do your job and do yourjob ethically.
If they find out that you can't,you're out.
(25:18):
Quick example.
You work in IT, you're in chargeof all the users' creation.
The head of marketing quits,right?
So now the assistant head ofmarketing, right?
The assistant marketing VP wantshis job, right?
Wants that job.
Interviews for it, right?
Other people interview for it.
(25:38):
You in the cafeteria, you knowhe didn't get the job because
that morning they sent out arequest for you to create a new
head of marketing, and it's notthat person.
If you're in the cafeteria withthat person and a bunch of other
people, and they ask thatperson, hey, did you hear back?
Did they are they are you gonnaget the job?
You know he didn't get the job,but you can't say anything.
(26:00):
You have to be responsible.
Alright.
Questions.
Question one.
So how do we do the questions?
I read the questions, I give youthe choices, then I read it a
second time, right?
And then I'll give you fiveseconds.
Let's see if you can get it.
Alright, question one.
(26:22):
A laser printer produces outputwith the toner smears easily
when touched.
Which component is most likelyfailing?
A drum, B transfer roller, Cfuser, D pickup roller.
I'll read it again.
A laser printer produces outputwith the toner smears easily
when touched.
Which component is most likelyfailing?
(26:43):
A drum, B transfer roller, Cfuser, or D pickup roller.
I'll give you five seconds toanswer.
Five, four, three, two, one.
The correct answer is C fuser.
The fuser applies heat andpressure to permanently bond
toner to the paper.
If the toner smears, it willnever properly melt into the
(27:03):
page.
That means you gotta change it.
Alright, question two.
Several users report allprinters on the same floor stop
printing at the same time.
Individual printers show noerror.
What is the most likely cause?
A fail toner cartridge, B.
Print server outage, C Clogpickup rollers, or D incorrect
paper size in tray.
(27:25):
I read it again.
Several users report that allprinters on the same floor stop
printing at the same time.
Individual printers show noerrors.
What is the most likely cause?
A failed toner cartridge, Bprint server outage, C Clog
pickup rollers, or D incorrectpaper size in tray.
I'll give you five seconds tothink about it.
Five, four, three, two, one.
(27:47):
Correct answer is B print serveroutage.
If multiple printers fallsimultaneously, the common
control point, the print server,is most likely the root cause.
Alright, question three.
A confidential document printsimmediately instead of waiting
for the user to authenticate atthe printer.
Which security feature ismissing?
(28:08):
A network segmentation, B Secureprint slash pin release.
C antivirus or D static IPaddressing.
A confidential, I'll read itagain, a confidential document
prints immediately instead ofwaiting for the user to
authenticate at the printer.
What security feature ismissing?
A network segmentation, BSecurePrint slash pin release.
(28:28):
C Antivirus or D static IPaddressing.
I'll give you five seconds.
And the correct answer is Bsecure print pin release.
Secure print requires users toauthenticate at the device
before documents are releasedinto the output tray, and you
usually have to have a PIN.
(28:50):
Sometimes they ask for a PIN.
Last question.
A user reports that a networkprinter worked yesterday but is
unreachable today.
The print screen shows adifferent IP address than what
was installed on workstations.
What most likely occurred?
A printer spooler crash, Bdriver corruption, C D D H C P
(29:14):
IP reassignment, or D tonerfailure.
I'll read it again.
A user reports that a networkprinter worked yesterday but is
unreachable today.
The printer screen shows adifferent IP address than what
was installed on workstations.
What most likely occurred.
A prints booter crash, D drivercorruption, C DHCP IP
(29:36):
reassignment or D toner failure.
Give me five seconds to thinkabout it.
The answer is C DHCP IPreassignment.
Dynamic IP printers may changeIP address after reboots.
Work stations still point to theold addresses causing connection
(29:57):
failures.
Printers are not simplemachines.
They are electrical systems,optical systems, thermal
systems, mechanical systems,network systems, and security
systems all in one box.
And every time a page printsfall asleep from chaos, it's
(30:17):
because a technician understoodevery layer.
This concludes our podcast onthe printer for the Comp T A
Plus exam.
Professor J.
Rod, and as always, staygrounded, stay precise, and keep
tapping into technology.
(31:05):
We're now part of the Pod MatchNetwork.
You can follow me at TikTok atProfessor J Rod at J R O D, or
you can email me at Professor JRod, J R O D at Gmail dot com.
Welcome to Technology Tap.
I'm Professor J.
Rod.
For those of you who don't knowme, I'm a college professor that
likes to help students pass theComptea A Plus, Network Plus,
and Security Plus, and historybuff.
So I like to throw in history ofcomputing in different parts,
different companies that shapethe way computers are done now
in the 21st century.
(01:30):
If you want to follow me, I'm onInstagram at Professor J Rod.
I'm at TikTok at Professor JRod.
I'm on Twitter at Professor JRod.
And if you want to email me, youcan email me at professorjrod at
gmail.com.
And everybody who knows me knowsthat I love coffee.
So if you want to buy me acoffee, you can go to
buymeacoffee.com forward slashprofessor J Rod.
(01:56):
Alright, let's start.
There are very few machines inmodern life that everyone
depends on, but almost no onetruly understands.
They stay quietly in offices, inclassrooms, in hospitals, in
police stations, in shoppingcenters, in homes.
And yet, when they stop working,entire organizations grind to a
(02:18):
halt.
Today on Technology Tap, we'lltell you the hidden story of
printers and multifunctiondevices, not just as machines,
but as mission criticalinfrastructures.
From unboxing to configurationto firmware to laser imaging to
troubleshooting jams at 4.58p.m.
for a 5 p.m.
deadline, this chapter might bethe most underestimated
(02:43):
technology on earth.
Every technician remembers theirfirst printing ticket.
It just says offline.
No ericals, no smoke, no lightsflashing, just offline.
And suddenly, payroll stops,students can't submit exams,
medical records freezes,shipping labels halted, court
(03:04):
documents delay.
Printers are the silent backboneof physical information.
And Camtea understands that.
Before boxes even open,technicians act as technology
architects.
The four core decision factorswhen you take into consideration
when you're buying a printerone, speed, pages per minute,
(03:26):
two resolution, dots per inch orDPI, paper handling, trays,
size, media types, and options.
Duplex, scanning, faxing,stapling, networking.
Real world scenario.
A school buys a home jet printerfor 40 class student classroom.
Two weeks later, ink is empty,paper jams non-stop.
(03:49):
Overheating errors andmaintenance nightmare.
The wrong tool for the rightfailure.
Location.
Before you power on, you got tomake sure where you're going to
put the printer matters themost, right?
Where you're going to get theelectrical supply, all right?
The electricity, the networkaccess, airflow, physical
(04:12):
accessibility, heat andhumidity, floor layout for those
large multifunctional devices.
And is it ADA accessible?
Cold printers moving to warmrooms cause concentrations
inside electronics.
One of the fastest ways todestroy the new device.
Unboxing.
Every printer ships withpackaging tape, drum locks,
(04:35):
transport braces, protectivefoam, seal toner.
If any of that remains insidethe boxes, it will damage it, so
you gotta remove it.
If a brand new printer groundsloudly on the first setup,
packaging material that wasstuck inside was not removed.
Firmware, the software thatcontrols machine.
(04:55):
Even new printer may requirefirmware updates.
Why?
Because how long has it beensitting in the shelf?
Right?
It could be a year.
Right?
Just because you bought it todaydoesn't mean that it's new
today.
Right?
How long has it been sitting inBest Buy?
Firmware controls paper feedtiming, toner voltage level,
network processing, print cuelogic, scanner calibrations, and
(05:19):
duplex operation.
Critical technician rules.
Backup printer configurationbefore firmware updates.
Never interrupt firmwareflashing and reset reflash
corrupt firmware.
Interrupted firmware, right?
If you decide to shut it offwhile it's updating, you could
you may end up with a brickedprinter.
(05:42):
Printer connectivity, one of themost heavily tested topics.
One USB direct connection,one-to-one connection, no
network access, used for localPCs.
Exam tips USB printers cannot beaccessed remotely unless shared
by a computer.
2.
Ethernet network printer has itsown IP address, appears on the
(06:03):
network like a server, usingoffice and labs.
Exam tip.
If many users can access thesame printer, it's either
Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
3.
Wireless Wi-Fi Bluetooth.
Connected through infrastructurethrough the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
pairing.
Use for mobile printing, bringyour own devices or guest
(06:25):
printing.
Troubleshooting normally is thewrong SSID, the wrong Wi-Fi
password, or 2.4 versus 5 GHzmismatch.
Next, we talk about printerdrivers and page description
language or PDLs.
Every printer speaks a language.
The big three are the PCLprinter control language, fast
(06:48):
universal, PostScript, high-endgraphics design and publishing,
and XPS is Microsoft XML basedformat.
What is PDLs control?
Font rendering, scalable type,vector graphics, and color
processing.
Color printing runs on CMYK,Cyan, Magenta, Yellow.
(07:10):
Well, the K is black, but theycall it key black, not RGB.
Right?
Exam tip trap.
If a printer output is distortedor unread or unreadable, then
it's the wrong PDL is selected.
Next, we move printerproperties.
The system level is print cue,paper tray, installed memory,
(07:32):
fonts, and ports.
For printing preferences, youhave DPI quality, either economy
or draft mode.
You can have duplex that'sprinting on both sides,
multi-page per sheet,orientation, landscape or
portrait, and paper size andtype.
Exam clue.
If one user prints wrong but theothers are fine, it's a
preference, not a driver issue.
(07:55):
Printer sharing, who can use themachine?
Three sharing models (07:57):
public printer, no access control,
anybody can print.
Print server, centralizedcontrol, driver distribution,
and access permission.
And direct share printer, one PCshares to others.
If host goes online, then theprinter disappears.
Printer security, the forgottencyber risk.
(08:18):
Modern printers contain harddrives, RAM, network cards,
address books, user credentials,stored documents.
You should have these securitycontrols in place.
Pin release print jobs, badgeauthentication, job audit logs,
secure erase functions.
Unsecure printers equals databreach engine.
(08:38):
So what happens here is on thesenetwork printers, they have
admin username and password.
Most of the time, people don'teven change that.
They leave it at with eitheradmin admin or admin password.
That is one way for the bad guysto get in, is through the
printer.
That's number one.
Two, you know, they have harddrives.
(08:59):
So if they steal the hard drive,right, they they can have access
to the data.
Because sometimes you're able toprint like at the last five
things that was on the printer.
So make sure that you don't,you're not printing personal
stuff on it.
That's another way that they canget you.
And then you gotta be carefulbecause even the the maintenance
(09:19):
guy, the guy who comes in to fixyour printer, they have their
special code.
That's it's the same as admin.
So you gotta be careful withthat.
Alright, next, scannerconfiguration and OCR.
The scanners can be flatbedscanners, moving scan head, or
ADF automated document feeder.
Fix head, this is for highvolume scanning.
(09:43):
OCR's optical characterrecognition converts scan images
into edible.
Text network scanning targets,email, SMB, that's server
message block, file shares, andcloud storage.
Next, we'll talk about now.
(10:06):
We move inside the machine.
This is where technicians eitherbecome confident or completely
confused because printers don'tjust print, they perform
controlled physics experimentsthousands of times a day using
heat, static electricity,pressure, light, pigment, and
motion.
The laser printing process.
This is the most tested topic onCamptia.
(10:30):
Well, on as far as printers areconcerned, right?
If there's one process you mustmemorize in the A exam, it is
the seven-layer, seven-steplaser printing process.
One, processing, two, charging,three, exposing, four,
developing, five, transferring,six, fusing, seven, cleaning.
(10:51):
Every question you see about thelaser printer maps to one of
these steps.
Let's walk through it.
Processing the printer thinks.
Your computer sends text, image,graphics, layouts.
The printer interprets thedriver, converts the page into a
bitmap image, stores it intomemory.
If processing fails, nothingprints, corrupt output appears,
(11:15):
or the printer freezes.
A plus exam clue If a job failsbefore it physically begins,
it's a processing or driverproblem.
2.
Charging.
The drum gets a static coat.
The imaging drum is coated withphotosensitive material.
A primary coronavire or chargeroller gives the drum a uniform
(11:36):
negative static charge.
This prepares the drum to acceptan image.
Common failure, dirty chargeroller, streaking, repeating
deficits.
3.
Exposing.
The laser drills the image.
A laser fires onto a drum,discharging specific areas.
Those charges areas now are nowrepresents text, shapes, and
(12:01):
graphics.
The printer has not created aninvisible electric static image.
Exam tip If the output is blank,think laser or exposure failure.
4.
Developing.
(12:21):
Since opposite a track, thetoner sticks to the discharged
areas, not the chargedbackground.
This reveals the image inpowdered form.
Failure symptoms, faint prints,uneven shading, gray background,
and blotchiness.
5.
Transferring.
(12:42):
Paper steals the image.
The paper receives a positivecharge.
Discharge pulls the toter offthe drum onto the paper.
Now the image exists on paperbut is still just powdered.
Failure symptoms, missingsections, ghosting, and
incomplete images.
Next is fusing.
(13:02):
Heat and pressure make itpermanent.
The fuser assembly heats up to350 degrees Fahrenheit, presses
toner onto the paper, meltstoner permanently into fibers.
Failure symptoms, smudging,toner rubbing off, wrinkled
paper, melted output, burningsmell.
If the toner wipes off easy,it's a fuser failure.
(13:27):
Cleaning resets the next page.
The printer scraps leftovertoner, sends waste toner to the
waste hopper, neutralizedstatics, and recharges the drum.
Repeating the deficit at thesame interval on every page.
That means the drum needsreplacement.
Now we move to inkjet printers,precision liquid, and
(13:50):
engineering.
Inkjet printers were completelydifferent.
Instead of static electricity,they use liquid ink sprayed by
microscopic nozzles onto pagesin dots.
Two types dominate.
Thermal inkjet uses tiny heatingelements to boil ink and force
droplets on paper used by HP andCanon.
(14:12):
Failure symptoms, missing lines,clogged nozzles, air bubbles,
and weak colors.
The other use is Pizoelectricinkjet, uses electrical pulses
to flex crystal elements,pushing ink without heat, used
by Epson.
Advantage, better ink control,longer print head, and less
(14:34):
clogging.
Inkjet ink types you must knowdye-based ink with vibrate but
smear and pigment base ink,which are durable and resistant.
Next we move to thermalprinters.
Heat creates the page.
Thermal printers appear in cashregisters, shipping labels,
hospital, wristbands, ATMs.
(14:57):
They use heat sensitive paper,no ink or toner.
Two thermal types they havedirect thermal, thermal, paper
darkest with heat, phase overtime, sensitive to sunlight, and
thermal transfer.
Uses ribbon, long-lasting printusing barcodes.
If the output fades in thesunlight, that is direct
(15:20):
thermal.
That's an exam tip.
Next, impact printers,mechanical striking.
Impact printers are old schoolbut still alive.
Used for multi-part forms,carbon copies, shipping,
industrial environments.
They use print heads, pins, inkribbon.
Advantages, durable,inexpensive, works on
(15:43):
multi-paper, multi-part paper,disadvantage, slow, loud, low
resolution.
Now, it used to be inexpensive.
If you try to get impact printernowadays, it's gonna cost you
three to four hundred dollars.
Next, maintenance kits, theparts that we're out.
High volume laser printersrequire scheduled maintenance
(16:05):
kits, fuser, rollers, separationpads, pickup rollers, waste
holer containers, manufacturersspecify replacement intervals
and page count.
Exam fact.
If a laser printer prints butwon't feed paper reliably, it's
the pickup roller.
Common print failures and thehidden cause.
(16:27):
1.
Vertical lines on printout causedirty imaging drum, scratched
drum, or a damaged roller.
Fix, replace the drum unit.
Second, blank pages.
Following could be the causestoner empty, sealed cartridge,
failed laser or corrupt driver.
3.
Repeating spots cause drumcircumference defect or the
(16:49):
fuser roller defect.
The spacing tells you which partis failing.
Paper jam causes worn rollers,humidity, incorrect paper
weight, or the breeze in thefeed path.
Printer continues, say offline,causes wrong port, change IP
address, DNS issues, printerspooler stopped, or USB cable
(17:09):
failure.
Color collaboration and qualitycontrol.
Quarter printers requiredcalibration, test pages,
alignment, drum conditioning.
CMYK imbalance causes incorrectcolor, wash image, color shift.
Exam clue.
If red prints as brown, themagenta toner has a problem.
(17:34):
Now that you know what happensinside the machines, you
understand why toner sticks, whyheat matters, why rollers fail,
why colors shift, and whyprinters jam.
Now we face the battlefieldbecause in the real world,
printers rarely fail in clean,predictable ways.
(17:56):
They fail on networks, they failunder load, they fail when users
panic, they fail when attackersfind them first.
Now we're gonna talk aboutpeople who know printers from
technicians who controlenvironments.
Let's finish this the right way.
Network printing where printers'nightmares begin.
Once the printer leaves USB andjoins the network, everything
(18:17):
changes.
A network printer now requiresan IP address, a subnet, a
gateway, DNS, ports, driversacross multiple machines,
authentication, firewallallowance, print cues, booling
services.
And every one of thesecomponents can break.
Static versus dynamic IPaddress.
(18:38):
Many printers use DHCP bydefault.
Here's the problem the printergets one IP today, a different
IP tomorrow, but users still tryto print to the old IP.
Result the printer shows up butwon't print.
Best practice, set networkprinters to static IPs or DHCP
(18:59):
reservation.
Yeah, I have that issue with myprinter.
I used to have it.
When I had it with DHCP, itwould, you know, the DHCP router
will give the IP address, butthen you shut it off for a
couple of days, you turn it on,it's a different IP address, and
then you can't print.
Alright, next, print servers,central control at a cost.
Large organizations use printservers for centralized driver
(19:23):
management, access control,spool balancing, accounting, and
auditing.
When a print server fails, noone can print, even if the
printers themselves are fine.
Cues back up, documents vanish,office freezes.
Exam tip if multiple printers godown at once, suspect the print
server, not the printers.
(19:44):
Next, the print server spooler,the hidden single point of
failure.
The Windows print spoolerservice controls job buffering,
queue processing, driverinteraction, and network
handoff.
If the spooler crashes,deadlocks or corrupt.
You'll get stuck jobs, ghostprint, vanished documents, and
(20:05):
printers stuck in printingforever.
Basic fix, stop the printspooler, clear the spool feet
folder, and restart the service.
Nine out of ten printers,mysteries in here.
Next, mobile printing and cloudprinting.
Modern printers are no longerisolated machines.
(20:26):
They integrate with smartphones,tablets, cloud storage, email
gateways, and remote printingservice.
Mobile printing technologies.
You have Apple, AirPrint,Android Mopria, Manufacturers
App HB Smart, Epson Connect, andCanon Print.
These depend on local Wi-Fidiscovery, multicast traffic,
(20:49):
correct ports, and updatedfirmware.
If mobile printing fails, checksame network, disable client
isolation, update printerfirmware, and re-enable
discovery services.
Next, cloud printing.
Documents can't be sent fromanywhere, stored in the cloud,
released locally.
(21:09):
Risks include exposed printcues, unsecure release jobs,
data interruption, andunauthorized access.
Exam focus.
It's sensitive documents printwithout authentication, secure
print with a pin or secure printslash pin release is missing.
The thing is about cloudprinting, and I'm saying it with
(21:31):
air quotes, is that eventuallyit's gonna have to go to a real
printer to print because there'sno such thing as cloud printing,
right?
It's just you uploading it tothe cloud, and then somebody at
the other end is gonna actuallygo to a physical printer and
print it out.
Printer security, the attackservice nobody watches.
Modern printers are fullcomputers with CPUs, RAM,
(21:55):
operating systems, hard drives,network cards, web servers.
Hackers target printers becausethey are readily patched,
administrators forget them,default credentials remain, and
that is absolutely true.
Logs are ignored, and firmwareisn't monitored.
Common printer attacks,unauthorized job injection,
stored document theft, addressbook harvesting, network
(22:19):
pivoting, malware hosting, DDoSparticipation, printer breach
are silent breaches.
Enterprise printer securitycontrols, pin-based job release,
badge authentication, encryptprint streams, role-based
access, secure erase, firmwaresigning, and network
segmentation.
(22:40):
ComT exam logic.
If confidential prints appear intrace, secure print is not
enforced.
Environmental failure andprinter sabotage without anyone
realizing it.
Printers fail fail silent orfall silent due to humidity,
dust, temperature swings, staticelectricity, tea paper, warp
(23:04):
paper, low grain toner.
The hidden killers.
Humidity curves paper, feedsinto jabs.
Cheap toner melts wrong,destroys diffuser.
Dust coats, rollers, slippage,and cold rooms, condensation
inside optics.
Technicians don't just repairprinters, they repair
(23:26):
environments.
Next, where everything fails atonce, disaster scenarios.
Scenario number one, no one inthe timekeeping office can print
paychecks.
Multi printers offline, samesubnet, same VLAN.
Root cause, print server failureor network outage.
Scenario two, print jobs vanishafter sending.
(23:47):
No error message, users thinknothing printed, cues cleared
instantly.
Root cause, incorrect port or IPreassigned.
Scenario three, sensitive HRdocuments found in the wrong
tray.
Root cause, lack of secure printauthentication.
Scenario four, printer warms up,fees paper, but pages are blank.
(24:08):
Root cause options, sealed tonernot removed, empty toner, failed
laser.
The technician's ethicalresponsibility.
Printers process medicalrecords, court documents,
financial statements, governmentforms, student data, research
identities.
Every technician who touches aprinter touches people's lives.
(24:32):
Your responsibility includeprotecting confidentiality,
clearing memory securely,removing drives before disposal,
documenting access, not copyingstored data, enforcing
authentication, reportingvulnerabilities.
Being a technician means beingtrusted.
That trust is everything.
And that's one of the biggestthings that I tell my students.
(24:56):
If they can't trust you, theydon't need you.
Right?
If they think you that person,they don't need you.
They need to have completeconfidence in you that you're
going to do your job and do yourjob ethically.
If they find out that you can't,you're out.
(25:18):
Quick example.
You work in IT, you're in chargeof all the users' creation.
The head of marketing quits,right?
So now the assistant head ofmarketing, right?
The assistant marketing VP wantshis job, right?
Wants that job.
Interviews for it, right?
Other people interview for it.
(25:38):
You in the cafeteria, you knowhe didn't get the job because
that morning they sent out arequest for you to create a new
head of marketing, and it's notthat person.
If you're in the cafeteria withthat person and a bunch of other
people, and they ask thatperson, hey, did you hear back?
Did they are they are you gonnaget the job?
You know he didn't get the job,but you can't say anything.
(26:00):
You have to be responsible.
Alright.
Questions.
Question one.
So how do we do the questions?
I read the questions, I give youthe choices, then I read it a
second time, right?
And then I'll give you fiveseconds.
Let's see if you can get it.
Alright, question one.
(26:22):
A laser printer produces outputwith the toner smears easily
when touched.
Which component is most likelyfailing?
A drum, B transfer roller, Cfuser, D pickup roller.
I'll read it again.
A laser printer produces outputwith the toner smears easily
when touched.
Which component is most likelyfailing?
(26:43):
A drum, B transfer roller, Cfuser, or D pickup roller.
I'll give you five seconds toanswer.
Five, four, three, two, one.
The correct answer is C fuser.
The fuser applies heat andpressure to permanently bond
toner to the paper.
If the toner smears, it willnever properly melt into the
(27:03):
page.
That means you gotta change it.
Alright, question two.
Several users report allprinters on the same floor stop
printing at the same time.
Individual printers show noerror.
What is the most likely cause?
A fail toner cartridge, B.
Print server outage, C Clogpickup rollers, or D incorrect
paper size in tray.
(27:25):
I read it again.
Several users report that allprinters on the same floor stop
printing at the same time.
Individual printers show noerrors.
What is the most likely cause?
A failed toner cartridge, Bprint server outage, C Clog
pickup rollers, or D incorrectpaper size in tray.
I'll give you five seconds tothink about it.
Five, four, three, two, one.
(27:47):
Correct answer is B print serveroutage.
If multiple printers fallsimultaneously, the common
control point, the print server,is most likely the root cause.
Alright, question three.
A confidential document printsimmediately instead of waiting
for the user to authenticate atthe printer.
Which security feature ismissing?
(28:08):
A network segmentation, B Secureprint slash pin release.
C antivirus or D static IPaddressing.
A confidential, I'll read itagain, a confidential document
prints immediately instead ofwaiting for the user to
authenticate at the printer.
What security feature ismissing?
A network segmentation, BSecurePrint slash pin release.
(28:28):
C Antivirus or D static IPaddressing.
I'll give you five seconds.
And the correct answer is Bsecure print pin release.
Secure print requires users toauthenticate at the device
before documents are releasedinto the output tray, and you
usually have to have a PIN.
(28:50):
Sometimes they ask for a PIN.
Last question.
A user reports that a networkprinter worked yesterday but is
unreachable today.
The print screen shows adifferent IP address than what
was installed on workstations.
What most likely occurred?
A printer spooler crash, Bdriver corruption, C D D H C P
(29:14):
IP reassignment, or D tonerfailure.
I'll read it again.
A user reports that a networkprinter worked yesterday but is
unreachable today.
The printer screen shows adifferent IP address than what
was installed on workstations.
What most likely occurred.
A prints booter crash, D drivercorruption, C DHCP IP
(29:36):
reassignment or D toner failure.
Give me five seconds to thinkabout it.
The answer is C DHCP IPreassignment.
Dynamic IP printers may changeIP address after reboots.
Work stations still point to theold addresses causing connection
(29:57):
failures.
Printers are not simplemachines.
They are electrical systems,optical systems, thermal
systems, mechanical systems,network systems, and security
systems all in one box.
And every time a page printsfall asleep from chaos, it's
(30:17):
because a technician understoodevery layer.
This concludes our podcast onthe printer for the Comp T A
Plus exam.
Professor J.
Rod, and as always, staygrounded, stay precise, and keep
tapping into technology.
(31:05):
We're now part of the Pod MatchNetwork.
You can follow me at TikTok atProfessor J Rod at J R O D, or
you can email me at Professor JRod, J R O D at Gmail dot com.
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