Public Printing Troubleshooting

Login Failed Error

There are several reasons that you might get a Login Failed error when you tap your PennCard at the printer:

• High Traffic Times: If many people are printing at the same time, the system may experience a delay. Wait 15 minutes, and try again. 
• PennCash Account: You haven't activated your PennCash account, or there is an error with your account. You must have a PennCash account set up in order to use the printers, even if you don't have any money in it. If this is the problem, try going to the PennCash website and setting up an account. There are machines on campus where you can add funds to your PennCash -- one is in Lippincott Library.
• Penn ID / PennCard: Your Penn ID may have changed or been deactivated, or your card has been damaged.  Go to the Penn Card Center in the Franklin Building to have your ID card checked.
• Print Account: You do not have a print account created.  Submit a ticket to Student Computing Team on the Support Tab in MyWharton to report this error.
• Not Logged Out: If you just printed from a different printer and forgot to log out of that printer, you may get a Login Failed error.  Try logging out of the other printer, or wait a few minutes and try again.

Internal Billing Error

There are several possible issues that could cause this error:

1. Insufficient funds: if you try to release a print job when you don’t have enough funds to cover it, you may receive this error. Check your balance in MyWharton or in PennCash. If appropriate, add more funds to PennCash.
2.  Printer disconnected: Check that the ethernet cable is connected to the printer.
3. System-wide issue: If the billing system run by Penn is unavailable, you may get this error and not be able to print. Contact Wharton Student Support to report the issue and request a printout of your document.
4. Invalid or Inactive PennCard: If your card is currently inactive (just recently created) or you have a second PennCard issued in your name, you may receive this error. Please contact the PennCard Center (2nd floor of the bookstore).
5. Card Hold: If the error displayed on the printer mentions that your card may not be used until the hold expires, reach out to the PennCard center (2nd floor of the bookstore). They can assist you.

Error in printer charge

If your document did not print or there was a problem with the printout, but you were charged anyway, please contact the Student Computing Office with the following information:

1. Name of the file
2. Number of pages
3. Date and time of the print job in question
4. Printer

Requests for refunds should be made within 2 business days of the error.  Please be sure to include your reason for requesting a refund (i.e.: the problem you experienced) so that the proper support team can follow up. 

Partial Print Jobs

If your print job is large or complex, the printer's memory may be taxed, and you may get the following error part way through the print job:

This job requires more memory than is available in this printer.
Try one or more of the following….[and then a list of options]

Here are some steps to try to fix the issue:

• If you are trying to print multiple pages per sheet, try reducing that amount (eg. instead of 4 pages or slides per sheet, choose 2).
• If you are printing a .pdf file from Adobe Reader, try opening the file with Chrome instead and sending it to print.
• If you are printing many documents at a time and choosing "Print All", try printing the documents individually.

Documents are not available at the printer

If you have sent a document to one of the Huntsman Printers, swiped your card, and the document queue is empty, here are some things to try:

• Sent from Laptop: make sure you entered your Wharton username in the Wharton ID field. (If you do not get a login box, you may need to uninstall and reinstall the print drivers for your laptop.  
• Sent from Email:
  • Make sure you received the confirming email that your job is ready to print.
  • Confirm that you retrieved it from a printer that accepts documents through email. (Printers in 2401 Walnut do not currently accept documents sent via email.)
• .PDF? If it's a .pdf, save the file to your MyWhartonDrive (Y:).  Then open the copy on your (Y:) drive and print that copy.
  OR
  Use Adobe Reader to open the .pdf document, and print to the printer from that.

Documents are not printing

Here are solutions for the most common printing problems we see. If yours is not listed here, please contact us with information on how you sent the document to the printer and what happened.

Document Visible at Printer, but Doesn't Print

1. If you used Print All, try printing the documents one at a time (problems with one document can affect all documents when using Print All).
2. Doublecheck the document formatting to make sure that you have selected the right size paper (letter sized).
3. Try sending it to a different printer.
4. Try using MyPrintCenter to Print.
5. If the problem continues, report this to the Student Computing Team (support@wharton.upenn.edu). To request a refund, see Error in printer charge, above.

Job Sent to Print, but is not at the Printer

1. Doublecheck that you authenticated your job correctly
   • Public Computers: Logged in with your student login?
   • Laptop: Did you get the prompt for your username after selecting "Print"?
   • Email to Print: Did you get the email saying your job is ready to print?
2. See additional steps in Documents Not Available at Printer, above.
   

Printer Out of Paper

If a printer is out of paper, please let us know by sending an e-mail  to labs@wharton.upenn.edu or notifying the Student Computing team. For Lippincott Library printers, contact the Lippincott Information Desk to have the paper refilled.

Paper Size Mis-Match Error

Users who are coming from different regions may have different defaults set for printing, such as A4 paper size. In other situations, the PDF file being printed may have been formatted for a different size of paper. 

1. Try printing it again, and specify Letter or 8 1/2 x 11 size paper in the Print Dialog box.
2. Contact the Student Computing team for help.

Paper Jam

Sometimes the printer will jam.  If your document doesn't print out correctly, you can try sending it to print again and choose another printer.  If there is still a problem with the printout, contact the Student Computing Team for help and request a refund.

Toner Low or Out

If there is low toner or you see a toner error message on the printer, you will have to choose another printer.  Contact the Student Computing Team for help or to report toner issues. For Lippincott Library printers, contact the Lippincott Information Desk to have the toner replaced. 

MacOS

Pharos Popup:  If you get Pharos popups appearing on your screen, it likely means that you had an old version of the printing software installed, which wasn't removed properly.  To fix this:

1. Go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items
2. Select the item listed for Popup and delete it.
3. Restart your computer. (It's a good idea to try a test print at this point)
4. Reinstall the Printer drivers for your Mac.

Windows

Pharos Popup Client:  Cannot Start User Interface 

On Windows 8 machines, you may get an error when you try to print to our printers from some of the "Metro Apps".  This can include the Adobe Reader version that comes with Windows 8. 

To fix this, make sure you install an updated version of the software you are using to print (for instance, if you are printing a .pdf, update your Adobe Reader software from Adobe's site), and then print from that application. Here are some operating systems that may be affected by this issue:

• Windows 8
• Windows 8.1
• Surface Pro

Note: Surface RT will not work with laptop printing software. Use MyPrintCenter to print from these devices.

MacOS: Print in B&W / Grayscale*

*screenshots taken from Microsoft Word 2016

Windows: Print in B&W / Grayscale*

*screenshots taken from Microsoft Word 2016