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Difficulty: MediumTroubleshooting Methodology

A field technician is troubleshooting a network printer that prints garbled text and random characters following a recent print server migration. The technician has already confirmed the physical hardware is operational by printing a clean self-test page directly from the printer's built-in control panel. Which of the following actions should the technician take next to establish a theory of probable cause? (Select TWO.)

  1. Verify whether an incompatible printer driver (such as a generic PCL driver instead of a dedicated PostScript driver) is installed on the print server.Answer
  2. Send a raw test print file directly from a local workstation to the printer's IP address to isolate print server spooler rendering.Answer
  3. C
    Replace the laser printer's fuser unit and transfer roller to resolve image alignment and text rendering.
  4. D
    Document the incident resolution in the ticketing system and schedule user awareness training on print job submission.

Answer

The technician should verify if an incompatible printer driver is installed on the print server and send a test print job directly to the printer's IP address to bypass the print server.
Since the physical hardware self-test printed clearly, the printer mechanism is healthy. Garbled text indicates a data interpretation error caused by incorrect printer drivers or corrupted spooling processing. Verifying the server driver installation and bypassing the print server by printing directly via IP are correct actions to establish and test the probable cause.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the reported symptoms and initial test results.
Garbled printing occurs only when jobs flow through the system, while the hardware self-test prints clearly, ruling out physical mechanical hardware failure.
Isolating hardware vs. software/network components narrows the scope of investigation.
2
Formulate a theory of probable cause related to data stream translation.
The probable causes are either an incorrect/corrupted driver on the print server or data corruption occurring within the server's spooling service.
Driver misconfigurations (e.g., sending PCL data to a PostScript interpreter) directly cause garbled text output.
3
Select appropriate testing actions for the theory stage.
Verifying server driver configurations and sending a direct IP print job test the theory by isolating driver and server processing variables.
These steps directly evaluate the potential software and data translation root causes.

Key Concept

CompTIA Troubleshooting Methodology - Establishing and Testing a Theory of Probable Cause
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Topics

Troubleshooting Methodology

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