If a user’s printouts consist of random characters while others print correctly, what is the most likely cause?

The most likely cause of printouts consisting of random characters, while other documents print correctly, is that the user is using an incorrect printer driver. Printer drivers serve as the communication link between the computer and the printer, translating the data from the computer into a format that the printer can understand. If the driver is incorrect or mismatched with the printer model, it can result in garbled text or random characters appearing on the page.

In situations where the printer is out of ink, it would lead to faded prints or blank pages rather than random characters. A downed network typically affects the ability to send documents to the printer at all and wouldn’t cause issues with documents that are already being printed correctly. Misconfiguration of the printer can cause various issues as well, but it would not typically result in random characters if other print jobs succeed. Therefore, the most consistent explanation for the observed issue is the use of an incorrect printer driver.