Printing Issues – Questions to Ask

This document will provide some insight into what questions to ask users to help determine what the root cause is for the printing issue or if another team needs to be involved in troubleshooting the issue.

If EVERYONE at the branch is Unable to print to any printers from CSD and from other applications outside of CSD, like Outlook or Adobe, assign ticket to the Network team.

Password Changes/Expired Passwords/Locked Accounts

The most common individual printer issues are related to their password.

• Did the user change their password today or do they have an expired password or Locked account?   All of these situations can cause printing problems from outside of CSD, however, users can still print from within CSD.
• We will typically see an error “Access Denied” or “Printer offline” on the user’s printer status.
• User will not be able to print to any network printers and cannot access any network drives, like the Public L drive.  However, locked accounts do not seem to effect network drive access.

Printer Specific Issues

• If password/locked account is not the issue and the user still cannot print outside of CSD, ask for the specific printer number they are trying to print to (Pxxx-xx).
  • Review the printer web interface on Support-01 RDP for any errors.
    • Go to page 4 for more information on how to find printer host names and IP Addresses by branch.
• Is anyone else at the branch unable to print to this printer?  Power cycle printer and if they are still unable to print, open the Printer Installer Spreadsheet on your computer and install the printer, then open the print queue to check for any stuck print jobs.
• If the user is the only one unable to print to this specific printer, clear all documents from the user’s printer queue. If the issue persists, remove the printer and reinstall it using the Printer Installer Spreadsheet.
• If no one at the branch can print to this printer and you cannot access the printer web interface after a power cycle of the printer, then you may need to send ticket to the Network team to review.
• If printer has significant delays in printing from all applications, including CSD, send to System Admins team to review first.  May need to also have Network team review.  

CSD specific printing issues

• User cannot print from within CSD.
• What are they trying to print?   Acknowledgements, Pick Tickets, Warehouse Transfers or Invoices or all of the above?
• If they are only trying to print a pick ticket or warehouse transfer, it could be an issue with the order number not having any quantity shipped.  Ask for the order/transfer number and if you do not have access to CSD, ask another FBM Support team member to check the order.
• If user or entire branch is experiencing significant delays in printing only from CSD, assign to the CSD Apps team to review. 

Brand New Printer Setups

If the user or branch location is asking to set up a new printer they just received out of the box for the location, then we should ask them to make sure the printer is plugged into a live network port with an ethernet cable.  We will need them to get us the ip address of the printer then assign the ticket to the System Admin team so they can set up the printer on the network and print servers so it can be installed and used to print from CSD and Non-CSD printing.  If they cannot hook up the printer on the network at the branch, then we will need to get the Network team involved to open up the port on the switch to make it live for network connectivity.