Are You Taking Good Care of Your Office Equipment?

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The old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The reasoning behind this axiom is that putting in a little bit of work to mitigate risk before a crisis strikes is preferable to the great deal of effort required to clean up the mess afterwards. This applies to your office technology, as well. You’ll be better served engaging in preventative maintenance and measures for your printers, copiers, fax machines, document shredders, and computers, rather than keeping your fingers crossed, hoping for the best, and reacting to a problem after the fact.

Why?

Companies rely heavily on their office technology to keep their workflows moving along smoothly. Regular preventative maintenance will help keep your office equipment in peak condition, ensuring it operates at maximum efficiency and that you get the highest return on your investment. By taking care of your equipment it will function as it was intended to and last longer. Preventative maintenance will save money compared to service calls to fix an ad hoc repair every time you have a device go down. In addition, you’ll save time and productivity lost due to downtime resulting from unexpected malfunctions or breakdowns that bring your workflow to a halt.

How?

What are some of the preventative measures you can take to keep your office equipment in top-notch condition? Regular maintenance, of course, is a no-brainer. You change your oil, rotate your tires, replace hoses and filters on your vehicles to help keep them running, why should your office technology be any different? Another way to take care of your devices is by frequently cleaning them. Dust your equipment regularly, using a fine brush on internal pieces such as paper trays and ink cartridge bays. Finally, position your devices properly. Place them away from high-traffic areas and extreme heat or cold.

Taking care of your office equipment will keep it in optimal condition, and more importantly, up and running. Infomax Office Systems’ ConnectPlus program can help keep your devices operating as efficiently as possible. Contact us today to learn more.

5 Quick Fixes for Common Printing Problems

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We’re moving to a digital world, but business still run on paper. So what do you do when printing problems appear? Sometimes it’s best to call in the pros, but a few common print issues can be fixed with a little know-how and a simple tweak here or there.

Don’t let minor printer troubles get you down. Try these quick tips before calling for backup.

1. Paper jams. Open the printer, check for anything jamming the paper’s route, and remove any obstruction before gently (but firmly) removing the stuck paper. Try to pull straight and smooth, making note of where the pressure has it trapped. If the paper does tear, just collect all the pieces before closing the printer cover.

2. Slow printing. Complex images and huge files can send your printer—and you—over the edge. Check your file sizes and image resolutions, eliminate unneeded pictures, or take advantage of features to flatten layers or reduce file sizes. If those tricks don’t help, your wireless connection speed may need a boost or your printer might need a memory upgrade.

3. Using too much paper. If a simple project comes out in a stack the size of War and Peace, it may be time to rethink your defaults. Choose automatic duplex (double-sided) printing or 2-up printing (two document pages per sheet of paper), and reduce your margins to fit more content on a page.

4. Nothing is printing. You’ve hit print and are expecting the happy whirr of the printer coming to life. Instead—nothing. So, what happened? First, make sure the printer is powered on, then check your print settings—maybe your document went to another device. If your job is still in your print queue, try restarting your computer and then, if needed, the printer.

5. Low-quality images. Does your printout look like you forgot to put on your glasses this morning? Blurry, over-pixelated images indicate that you need a higher print resolution. Look for images that are 300 dpi (dots per inch) at a minimum. If something is still off, consider switching to paper designed for printing color images.

If these simple solutions don’t solve your printing problems, call Infomax Office Systems today for service, or to learn about alternate business printing options.