Services

Printer setup and troubleshooting

Printers that say offline when they are plainly switched on, that stopped working after a new router, or that print from one device and not another. Usually a network problem wearing a printer costume.

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What we fix

The printer is usually fine.

Most printer problems are connection problems. The hardware sitting in front of you is rarely the thing that has failed.

✓ Shows as offline when it is switched on

✓ Stopped working after a new router

✓ Prints from one device but not another

✓ Will not print from a phone or tablet

✓ Scanning has stopped working

✓ A new printer that needs setting up

The usual culprits

What "offline" actually means.

It is the least helpful error message in home technology, because it describes a symptom and gives no hint at all about the cause.

The printer's address changed

Your router hands out addresses on the network, and it does not always give the printer the same one back after a power cut. Your computer keeps looking at the old address and reports the printer as offline. Giving the printer a fixed address stops it recurring.

A new router means a new network

Replace the router and every wireless device has to be reconnected, including the printer. Phones and laptops make this obvious by asking for the password. Printers just quietly stop working.

Drivers after a Windows update

A major Windows update can replace a working printer driver with a generic one, which often prints but loses scanning, duplex or tray selection. The fix is getting the right driver back rather than reinstalling the printer over and over.

Printing from phones and tablets

Phones find printers differently from computers, and a printer can be perfectly visible to a laptop while being invisible to a phone on the same Wi-Fi. Guest networks and split 2.4/5GHz bands are the usual reason.

How it works

Usually done at your house.

A printer problem is almost always tied to your network, so it has to be fixed where your network is. Some of it can be done remotely.

Tell us the make and model

And what changed recently — a new router, a Windows update, a new phone. That usually names the cause on its own.

We connect it properly

On a fixed address so a power cut does not undo it, with the right drivers rather than the generic ones.

We test every device

Laptop, desktop, phone and tablet — and scanning as well as printing, because they fail independently.

What it costs

One price, new or broken.

Nothing is done and nothing is charged until you have seen the price and agreed to it.

Printer work is a flat $99.99 — the same price whether we are setting up a new printer or fixing one that has stopped working. Not “starting at”: that is the price.

Setting up covers unboxing, getting it onto your Wi-Fi properly, and connecting every device in the house to it — computers, phones and tablets alike. Troubleshooting covers finding out why it stopped and putting it right.

A flat $19.99 call-out fee covers the trip, the same anywhere in our service area. It is held on a card before we travel rather than charged: if the work goes ahead it comes off the price, so a job that proceeds costs $99.99 and nothing more. If no work goes ahead, the $19.99 is all you pay.

Parts, licenses, and third-party services are priced separately when applicable.

No fix, no fee.

If we cannot get it printing, you do not pay for the attempt.

Straight answers

When a printer is not worth fixing.

Some printers reach a point where the honest advice is to stop. A set of cartridges costing more than the printer did, a model old enough that the manufacturer no longer publishes drivers for current Windows, or a mechanical fault in a budget machine — all of these are cases where you would be spending good money badly.

We will tell you when that is the situation, and what we would buy instead. We do not sell printers, so that advice costs you nothing either way.

Related help

If you already know roughly what you are dealing with, these pages go into more detail.

Home network setup New computer setup Computer repair

Tell us what it's doing.

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