CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

5.7. Understanding Safety and Preventative Maintenance

In this section, I show you some common safety and preventative maintenance practices for printers.

NOTE

For the exam, be sure to review the safety points in Book I, Chapter 3, along with the safety and preventative maintenance points presented here.

5.7.1. Safety precautions

The first point to make about working with printers is to be sure you turn off the printer and unplug it before doing any maintenance on it. Also be sure to give the printer time to cool down because there are many parts in the printer that can get very hot — especially with laser printers.

If you are servicing a laser printer, be sure to give the printer time to cool down because the fuser rollers get very hot. These rollers are hot enough to melt toner to the paper, so they can cause severe burns to your skin. Be careful!

You also want to be cautious when working around toner because it can get very messy. Be sure not to get toner in your eyes or on your skin. If you have spilled toner, get a vendor-approved vacuum to suck it all up. If you have toner on your skin and want to wash it off use cold water instead of hot water — you wouldn't want to fuse it to yourself!

5.7.2. Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance for your printer will help reduce downtime. Think of your relationship with your printer like any other relationship — if you treat ...