Hello, and happy Tuesday once again! We know you just LOVE these posts! You probably heard much ado about using the “right print drivers” for your printer or copier, but…………what does this mean??
Well, here I am going to explain what this means!
First off, what are print drivers? Drivers are software that allows your PC to work properly with a given piece of hardware, such as your printer. Everything from your video card, sound card, network adapters, etc, all require drivers to work with an operating system.
Having the RIGHT drivers is majorly important, as using the wrong ones can cause a whole host of malfunctions to happen, with some even causing system crashes! In the case of your printer, having the wrong drivers can cause a lot of issues, such as:
* JAMMING: Having the wrong drivers installed can cause print jobs to send bad information to your printer, such as paper size and type. Your machine may try to process this, and encounter a jam when it winds up feeding the wrong size and type of paper.
* ERROR MESSAGES: This is one of the biggest things wrong drivers can cause: From asking for paper that doesn’t exist in the machine (or your print job), to critical errors that can stop a machine cold. Critical errors usually necessitate a restart of the printer to properly clear. Printing with the wrong driver really can crash your printer!
* POOR QUALITY: Wrong drivers can seriously impact the quality of your prints as well! From poor color reproduction, to sloppy or off-center prints, wrong drivers can really wreak havoc here! In fact, a REALLY wrong driver can cause your machine to simply spew page after page after page of nothing but gibberish, which can not only blow through a ton of paper, but can also run up your print costs!
* LACK OF FEATURES: Wrong drivers (such as the generic Microsoft ones), can cause you to miss out on really cool features your printer has, such as collating, finishing (stapling, etc), and even things like enhanced color reproduction!
* ABSOLUTELY NOTHING: Yes, this is a thing too. Wrong drivers can even cause your printer to flat out ignore your attempts to print! It’ll just sit there, all quiet, doing nothing at all, even if you spam the print button.
Imagine what would happen if you were to, oh say, force your GPU to use the wrong drivers. That can really wreak some havoc, from garbled video output, to outright system instability. The same can happen to your printer or copier, completely upending your productivity.
Moral of the story: Only use the proper, manufacturer specified print drivers for your printer or copier! You would be absolutely foolish to use anything else!