hardMultiple Choice
220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is deploying a new laser printer in…
A technician is deploying a new laser printer in a medical office. After installation, the printer prints a test page correctly, but when users print from their workstations, the output is garbled with random characters. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates might choose the network cable or memory issue, but garbled output specifically points to a driver or PDL mismatch, not hardware.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The printer driver is incorrect or corrupt
Garbled output with random characters typically indicates a printer driver mismatch or corruption. The test page prints correctly because it uses the printer's internal fonts and settings, bypassing the driver. When printing from workstations, the driver translates the document into a language the printer understands; if the driver is incorrect, the printer misinterprets the data, resulting in garbled text.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The printer's network cable is faulty
Why it's wrong here
A faulty network cable primarily impacts the physical layer of communication, leading to intermittent connectivity, dropped print jobs, or a complete inability for the printer to receive data. It would typically result in network errors or jobs failing to print at all, rather than consistently corrupting the data stream in a way that produces garbled characters on the printed page. Network protocols are designed to detect and often discard corrupted packets, preventing them from being processed by the printer's rendering engine.
- ✓
The printer driver is incorrect or corrupt
Why this is correct
The printer driver acts as an interpreter, translating the operating system's print commands and document data into a specific Page Description Language (PDL) that the target printer model understands. If the installed driver is incorrect for the printer model or has become corrupt, it will generate a malformed or incompatible PDL data stream. The printer, unable to properly interpret these instructions, will then print seemingly random symbols, characters, or control codes, resulting in garbled output.
- ✗
The printer's memory is full
Why it's wrong here
A full printer memory (RAM) typically indicates that the printer lacks sufficient buffer space to hold the entire print job or complex graphics data. This condition usually manifests as 'out of memory' errors, incomplete pages being printed, or the printer pausing and waiting for more memory to become available. It does not generally cause the printer to misinterpret the data it *does* process and print, meaning any output produced would be correct up to the point where memory was exhausted, not consistently garbled.
- ✗
The printer is set to PostScript emulation but the driver uses PCL
Why it's wrong here
This scenario describes a specific and common type of driver mismatch where the printer's internal settings expect one Page Description Language (PostScript) while the driver is sending another (PCL). Since these languages are fundamentally different in how they describe a page, the printer cannot correctly parse the incoming data stream. This incompatibility leads to the printer interpreting the PCL commands as random characters or control codes, resulting in pages filled with unintelligible text and symbols, which is a classic form of garbled output.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Troubleshoot: Printer Problems
Key term
Printer driver
A printer driver is software that translates data from a computer into a language a printer can understand so it can produce the correct output.
Key term
Laser printer
A laser printer is a high-speed, high-volume output device that uses a laser beam and toner to produce precise text and graphics on paper.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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