Ricoh P C300W: Setup, Drivers, Ink and Common Problems

Is the Ricoh P C300W right for you?

The P C300W is a small, quiet 25 ppm colour laser designed for home workers and one- or two-person offices, and it is one of the few Ricoh printers sold with Wi-Fi Direct as standard. Duplex is automatic and the toner yields are respectable for the class, but the single-sheet bypass makes envelopes and letterhead a chore. It has no display beyond two text lines, so keep the printer's web page bookmarked for meter readings and alerts.

Best for: Home offices and small teams needing compact colour laser printing

Setting up the Ricoh P C300W

For wireless, use the panel's Wi-Fi setup wizard or hold the Wi-Fi button for WPS; for phone-only printing, enable Wi-Fi Direct and join the printer's own SSID from the phone. Install the Ricoh PCL6 driver on Windows to get duplex and colour mode options that AirPrint does not expose. If the printer disappears after a router reboot, reserve its IP address by MAC in the router's DHCP settings.

1. Unbox and prepare. Remove every piece of shipping tape and packing material, install the toner cartridge and drum unit, and load paper in the tray.
2. Join your Wi-Fi. Keep the printer close to the router for setup. Most printers only connect to the 2.4GHz band, so if your router broadcasts one merged network name you may need to split the bands temporarily. See our Wi-Fi guide if it will not join.
3. Install the setup app. Use Ricoh's official app rather than a driver you found on a search result — third-party driver sites are the most common source of printer malware.
4. Add the printer. On Windows 11: Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Printers & scanners › Add device. On macOS: System Settings › Printers & Scanners › Add Printer.
5. Print a test page and run a scan if this is an all-in-one, so you find any problem now rather than when you are in a hurry.

Ink, toner and supplies

The Ricoh P C300W uses the following consumables. Match the number exactly when you buy: the same printer family often uses several different cartridge numbers by region.

• Ricoh P C300 black toner (4,500 pages)
• P C300 colour toners (2,300 pages each)
• P C300 waste toner bottle

High-yield (XL) versions almost always cost less per page if you print regularly. On third-party ink and toner, read our honest assessment first, and note that some manufacturers push firmware that rejects non-original chips.

Full specifications