Printers are essential for generating receipts, order tickets, and reports in your restaurant environment. When a printer stops working correctly, it can disrupt operations at the point of sale or in the kitchen. This article provides general troubleshooting steps to help you quickly identify and resolve common printer issues, including offline status, paper jams, print quality problems, and connection errors.
Use this guide as a first step before reaching out to technical support. Many issues can be resolved with simple checks and resets.
Printer Not Powering On
- Most printers have a power indicator light located on the top of the printer that will illuminate in blue or green when the printer is receiving power and turned on.
- Find the power switch for the printer and make sure it is turned on. The power switch is typically located on the front bottom right-hand corner of the printer.
- Check the power cables. Some printers have a single standard power cord and others have a power cord with a power pack.
- If your printer only has a single power cord, unplug it from the printer and the wall then reconnect.
- If your printer has a standard power cord and power pack, disconnect the cable from the printer, power pack and wall then reconnect.
- Verify the outlet, power strip or battery backup where the printer is plugged in does have live power. Try plugging in a different device to the same outlet or switching the printer to a different outlet.
- If the printer still does not power on contact your NX Restaurant Support Partner for assistance.
Printer Has an Error Light
- Power cycle the printer by turning the printer off and back on again. The power switch is typically located on the front bottom right-hand corner of the printer.
- If the error light is still on after the power cycle, unplug the printer for 20 seconds to drain all power from the device. Power back on once the cable is reattached.
- If there is still an error light on, open the paper door and pull out the paper roll to make sure there are no foreign objects in the printer. Replace the paper and close the lid.
- Attempt a self-test by going through the following steps.
- Turn off the printer.
- Hold down the feed button.
- With the feed button held down, turn the power back on.
- Continue holding the feed button until the printer starts printing.
- If the test print job does not come out after several attempts there is a mechanical issue with the printer.
Printer Does Not Feed
- Is the printer turned on? Find the power switch for the printer and make sure it is turned on. The power switch is typically located on the front bottom right-hand corner of the printer.
- Open the top door of the printer and verify there is paper.
- Remove the roll of paper and verify there is not a spent paper roll still in the printer.
- Verify the paper roll is feeding in the correct direction. Most printers will feed paper from the bottom so the roll must sit in the printer with paper feeding from underneath the roll. If you are not sure which way the paper should be loaded, your printer should display a diagram inside the top door.
- Turn the power for the printer off for 10 seconds and then turn it back on again.
- Sometimes the cutter can jam causing the paper to not feed. View instructions below on how to clear a cutter jam.
Printer Does Not Cut or Jams When Cutting
- Turn off the printer and leave it off for 20 seconds.
- Turn the printer back on.
- Open the top door of the printer and reseat the paper. (If you are unable to open the door, DO NOT force it open.)
- Verify you can feed paper on the printer.
- If you are unable to open the top door or feed paper after power cycling a few times, attempt a self-test.
- Perform a self-test by going through the following steps.
- Turn off the printer.
- Hold down the feed button.
- With the feed button held down, turn the power back on.
- Continue holding the feed button until the printer starts printing.
- If the test print job does not come out after several attempts there is a mechanical issue with the printer.
- Perform a self-test by going through the following steps.
If you encounter any issues or have further questions, please contact your NX Support Partner for assistance.