Lexmark Printer Not Printing? Here's How I Diagnose It Now (Before I Break Something Else)

I've managed printers and scanners for a small office since 2017. That mostly means I'm the person who gets called when something stops working. I've personally made and documented 11 avoidable mistakes, totaling roughly $3,400 in wasted budget, replacement parts, and service visits. Now I keep a checklist so the rest of the team doesn't repeat them.

First, know this: there is no single fix for a Lexmark printer that isn't printing. The right step depends on which failure pattern you're looking at. Let's sort your situation before touching any buttons.

Find your scenario first

Here are the four patterns I see most often:

• You send a job and the printer does not react at all.
• The job appears in the queue, then gets stuck or disappears.
• The printer prints, but the output has streaks, faded text, or strange lines.
• The scanner side is the issue, usually scan quality or a dirty scanner glass.

Once you know which one you're in, you can do the right check and avoid the wrong 'fix.'

Scenario 1: You send a print job and nothing happens

The printer screen says 'Ready.' The computer says the job was sent. The paper stays blank in the tray. I've been there.

My first avoidable mistake happened in 2018. I assumed the Lexmark printer was dead. It wasn't. Someone had set 'Microsoft Print to PDF' as the default printer on the shared PC. My document wasn't printed—it was saved to the desktop as a PDF. That cost me a wasted hour, plus a service visit that was not needed.

So check this first: in the print dialog, look at the printer name. It should include 'Lexmark,' not 'PDF' or 'Fax.' This sounds too simple to matter. That's exactly why it matters.

Next, check the connection. A Lexmark printer and scanner combo is usually on the network, not plugged into a single computer. If the connection icon is missing, the machine isn't reachable. In my experience, restarting the printer first, then the computer, clears a surprising number of network issues. One tip: give the printer a full minute to finish booting before you open the print dialog.

What most people don't realize is that a 'Ready' message only means the front panel isn't showing an error. It does not mean the printer can receive jobs. Those are different things.

Scenario 2: The job gets stuck in the queue

This one makes people angry because the machine might print the next job while their file sits there blocked. In September 2022, our shared Lexmark printed the same two-page invoice over and over, and nothing else. I checked the printer first. It wasn't the printer. It was the spooler.

The print spooler is a behind-the-scenes service that holds print jobs until the printer can take them. When it crashes or a corrupt job gets stuck, everything behind it waits. I closed the print queue, stopped the spooler service, cleared the spool folder, and restarted the service. The queue has worked properly ever since.

People think a slow printer means an old printer. Often the printer is fine; the spooler is the problem.

If you are not comfortable poking around Windows services, check the Lexmark support page for your model's driver and firmware updates before ordering a replacement part.

Scenario 3: It prints, but the quality is bad

If the pages come out with streaks, gray bands, or toner smudges, the toner cartridge is the first suspect. But don't replace it before you ask one question: has the cartridge been refilled or handled recently?

In Q1 2024, a printer we manage had lines across every page. I assumed the imaging unit needed replacement—about $210. Then someone mentioned they had used a refill kit. The refill had caused a small leak. The real fix was a new toner cartridge at $95. That was a $115 lesson in asking about recent changes before opening my wallet.

For print quality checks, I keep a graph paper printable template in our shared drive. A grid makes pattern issues obvious. If horizontal lines are broken but vertical lines are fine, that points in one direction. Random specks point somewhere else. Not every defect is the same, even when the page looks uniformly bad.

Also check the paper type setting. When I started, I ignored this. But running ordinary paper on the 'cardstock' setting can make toner sit on top instead of fusing into the fibers. The page looks okay for a minute, then smudges as soon as you touch it. That one condition cost me a whole batch of labels in 2021, and the label stock wasn't cheap.

Scenario 4: The scanner glass is dirty or stained

If you own a Lexmark printer and scanner, the scanner side has its own failure patterns. The one I caused was marker ink on the glass.

In 2021 I tried to remove permanent marker from the scanner lid using acetone. That was a mistake. The acetone lifted the ink from the glass, but it also damaged the plastic housing. I learned the hard way how to get rid of permanent marker from a scanner without ruining the finish. Here's the method that works for me:

1. Draw over the permanent marker stain with a dry erase marker. The solvent in the marker helps loosen the permanent ink.
2. Wipe the area with a soft cloth and isopropyl alcohol. Use 70% or higher, and don't saturate the edges of the glass.
3. Wait until the glass is completely dry before scanning or copying.

This also works for a leaking office highlighter. I don't know why the office highlighter and highlighter makeup have the same name. One is for documents; the other is a cosmetics product. If the office kind leaks onto your printer, alcohol handles it. If a makeup highlighter spills, that's a different kind of cleanup and I'm not the right person for it.

One more scanner thing: if the scan comes out with a dark line in the same spot every time, clean the glass and check the white strip under the lid. A speck of dust on the sensor area can cause a line that looks like a hardware failure. Between you and me, I swapped a scanner because of a dust speck. The old scanner probably worked fine after a wipe.

How to tell which scenario you're in

Here's the short version, the way I explain it to our office:

• Nothing happens at all? Start at the print dialog, then check the network connection.
• Jobs get stuck? Suspect the spooler before suspecting the printer.
• Quality looks wrong? Use a graph paper printable test page and look at the pattern.
• Scan has the same line or dirty output? Clean the glass before calling anyone.

This is not a perfect decision tree. To be fair, sometimes a printer is genuinely broken and no amount of restarting will help. But the four categories cover the majority of calls I've handled, and they've saved us from unnecessary repairs.

One last thought on small offices. I started this job when our company was small enough that a $200 repair was a serious decision. The resellers who treated our little printer problem seriously back then are the vendors I still trust now. If you run a small business, don't let a support person make you feel like your single Lexmark isn't worth a straight answer. A printer that stops working is an urgent problem, no matter how many desks are in your office.