Cable
One very important thing I have learned that not all printer cable are created equal. Printer cable are used to send a signal from your computer to your printer so the printer can act upon it. I use to think these cables really weren’t that important and you could hook and USB cable to it and it would work just fine. Boy, was I ever in for a rude awakening. When you buy a new printer they come with printer cable for a reason. They are for that model for a reason and if you are going to change them get the exactly the same kind to give you the best performance possible.
Another important thing that the newer printer cable that you can buy actually omit a light so you know it’s working. This is very nice as at least you know the printer cable is working and there must be some other reason if it’s not printing. Printer cable now come in colors. Yes, you read that right you can actually get colored coded USB printer cable so you know exactly what each cable is for and where it goes. This makes troubleshooting a lot easier to if you need to check something.
USB printer cables come in various lengths and the shorter is generally better than long ones. People have asked me why that is and I tell them it takes less time for the transfer of data. My main reason why I hate longer cables as you can always accidently cut them as you have more out in the open than if you have a shorter cable that you really never see. If you have older USB printer cables replacing them ever so often is always a good idea. After a certain about of time they tend to break down so replacing them so often is a good idea. The cables could be in good working order but it never hurts to get knew ones. One other thing I do periodically is check for cracks in my USB cables as sometimes they do crack and fray and you may not realize it. These can become fire hazards and us never want that to happen.
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