What to do if your printer prints blank pages – Troubleshooting

One of the most common problems that you’ll come across with a printer is that it starts to print blank pages. No matter what you do, you still get the same blank pages printing out again and again. But what causes this, and what are the resolutions?

Well, there can be a few different reasons for your printer printing out blank pages. But luckily, there’s usually always a fix for this. So, let’s take a look at a couple of the reasons why your printer might be printing out blank pages, and how you can fix it.

What to do if your printer prints blank pages

First, we need to diagnose what the cause what might be causing your printer to print blanks. Depending on the brand there are various different things that you can do to try and resolve this. But, there are a few issues that you’ll want to check beforehand which are applicable to all printers, so it’s worth checking these out beforehand.

You’re printing something and all of a sudden your printer starts printing blank pages. What could be causing this problem? There are 3 main causes for this problem:

The print head has become clogged with ink. The nozzles on the print head aren’t firing correctly because they are dirty or clogged. The logic board (the part of the printer that controls everything) needs cleaning or replacing as it contains old data. If any of these apply to you then read on…

Ink build up is one of the most common reasons why printers decide to stop working, and actually, it’s quite easy to fix. What happens is that the ink builds up inside of the tiny nozzle holes and eventually blocks them off so that they don’t fire correctly which causes blank prints, or in extreme cases, no prints at all.

When this happens you can usually live with it for a bit but if you carry on printing then eventually the blockage will be much worse and your printer won’t work at all. So it’s best to solve this problem straight away. The first thing to do is try running an “auto clean” cycle from your printers software (i’ll put links at the bottom).

What this does is cleans out any clogs by firing ink through every single one of the little holes in the print head dozens of times over until they’re completely clean. It’s not an instant fix but it should definitely clear the problem straight away.

Ink and Toner Issues

The catalyst for many issues with your printer will often stem from its ink or toner. This is undoubtedly your first port of call if you’re printing blank pages, as more often than not, this is going to be the issue.

The thing is that if you have a printer printing blank pages, there are a couple of different reasons why this could be the case. Of course, the simplest one of them all is always going to be an empty ink cartridge.

1. Run out of Ink/Toner

One of the main causes of blank page printing is undoubtedly running low or empty on ink. If you don’t have sufficient ink in your printer, then it’s just not going to print. So, it’s worth checking the amount of ink that you have left before doing anything else. There’s also the possibility that if you use the printer infrequently, there might be a blockage in the nozzle of the print nozzle.

Although this is correct for inkjet printers, this is also the case for monochrome laser printers too – running low in toner is one of the main causes of blank page printing in laser printers.

2. 3rd Party/ Cheap Ink Cartridges

Another one of the causes you’re going to find behind blank pages getting printed is cheap ink cartridges. Although they’re a good idea, you need to ensure that you’re getting your cartridges from a decent reseller, or just pick up a printer that uses cheap ink. But, you’ll want to ensure that you’re using good ink cartridges to avoid blank page printing.

3. Printing in Cold Environments

One of the main issues that you’re going to find with printing in cold environments is that the ink can coagulate and solidify. This makes it impossible for the ink to work properly, which is another main cause of blank pages being printed.

Paper Issues – Wrong Paper Sizes

Along with ink issues, there’s also the possibility that you’re going to have problems with the paper in your printer too. After you’ve checked your ink cartridges, the next thing you’ll want to check is your paper.

Although it might sound a bit ridiculous, one of the most common issues that people have with their printer is that they’re using the wrong paper. Not only can this be the wrong size paper, but also certain printers will struggle dealing with different styles of paper as well. You should also check your printer settings too to ensure that you have the right paper size selected.

HP, Epson and Canon Blank Page Printing – Clean Printhead

If you’re using any one of these brands (and most others), then you should easily be able to find the clean printhead option in the settings.

In HP Printers, you can tend to do this on the printer itself by heading into Setup > Tools > Clean Printhead. Depending on your printer, you might not be able to do this on the printer itself.

If this is the case for you, then you’ll want to do it manually through your computer. Head to the Control Panel > My Devices on your computer, and you should be able to find your printer there if it’s connected. Right click and go onto the Printer Properties section, then click on Preferences. There, you’ll find Clean Printhead.

If you are not using a HP Printer, then the process may be a little different for you. However, even if you’re using an Epson or Canon Printer, or even another brand, the steps are generally the same as each other.

And of course, it may vary depending on whether you’re using old ink cartridges or toner supplies. However, when your ink levels or toner supply is low, cleaning the printhead is usually a good idea.

Conclusion

If you try all of this and still have no lucky, then you might want to look at getting your printer serviced. This will allow you to get someone to have a full checkover your printer to ensure that there’s nothing mechanically wrong with it. Hopefully however, by checking the ink and the paper in your printer, you’ll be able to get your printer working properly again.