Study About Printers: The Ubiquitous PeripheralOne of the most important computer peripherals is the printer. Considering the enormous use of the printer, it is necessary that a good computer hardware course covers printers in detail. The major concepts covered by courses when it comes to printers are the types of printers, installation of printers and their troubleshooting. The first and foremost thing that a computer hardware course covers about printers are the types of printers. There are three common types of printers: the dot matrix printer, the inkjet printer and the laser printer. Dot matrix printers are the most economical printers but they are a bit slow. Compared to an inkjet printer, the dot matrix printer is also much more expensive. They are covered because a number of educational institutions still use these printers to allow cheap prints for the students. Most of the home users use inkjet printers because they offer the best compromise in speed and quality of printing. Moreover these are also the cheapest type of printers available. In order to make it possible for the hardware engineer to be able to support the home user, the course should include these printers in most detail. The laser printers are meant for use in corporates where speed and quality take the front seat and the cost is not an important factor to be considered. These printers are expensive but they deliver good quality prints at high speeds. They are used by corporates because the prints have a professional quality. This is the reason that laser printers are also covered in detail in computer hardware courses. Apart from this there are a number of other printers like thermal printer and printer with fax. A new breed of printers which are known as multi function devices is being covered in all up to date hardware courses. These devices also have copier, scanner, and fax along with the printer., Installation of printers Printers have two types of installation. They can be installed on a network or they can be attached to a desktop. The computer hardware course teaches all about installation of printer drivers, configuration of printer over network, deployment of print server and deployment of print queue. Installation of a printer can be very tricky because there may be driver incompatibility issues, unsupported operating system lockouts etc. Maintenance of printers Printers need regular maintenance because the ink cartridge gets empty and needs to be replaced, the drivers need to be regularly updated and the printer also needs to be setup in such a manner that all new programs installed thereafter can use it. The course shouod cover these aspects in full. Troubleshooting of printers There are a number of problems which can make a printer malfunction. The computer hardware course should contain detailed study of all the common problems that plague a printer. Take time to do some research and ensure that printer issues are fully considered in any hardware course you are considering enrolling on. |