Without using the baseball bat

In the cult classic Office Space, there's an iconic scene where a group of office workers take their deplorable printer/copier into a field and vengefully destroy it, while an explicit rap song plays in the background.

For many people, that scene is a form of wish fulfillment. If only we could take the printers that are making our lives miserable and send them to a field for a quick execution. Unfortunately, that’s not really an option in real life, so your best bet is to find and fix printer problems as they arise.

While printer problems can feel like frustrating mysteries, most of that pent-up anger should dissipate once you know where to look and how to identify the root causes of your problems. Unfortunately, we can’t help you with any other deep-seated issues that remain. Let’s start with the quick and easy troubleshooting checks.