Impact Printer Problems

Consistently faded or light characters

Worn-out printer ribbon

Print lines that fade from dark to light as the printhead moves across the page

Issue with printer ribbon-advance gear slipping

A small black line running through a line of print (consistently)

Printhead pin stuck inside the printhead

A small, blank line running through a line of print (intermittently)

A broken, loose, or shorting printhead cable

A small dark line running through a line of print

Printhead pin stuck in the out position

Printer making a printing noise, but no print appears on page

Worn, missing, or improperly installed ribbon cartridge

Printer printing garbled characters

Cable partially unhooked, wrong driver selected, or bad printer control board (PCB)