Frozen printer queue

Question

Using microsoft word on a PC - my printer cue is stuck on one document.  I tried cancel the document and cancelling all documents and it is still in the queue with "deleting" after it for over 10 minutes.  How do I delete that document and clear the queue???

Answer 1

To empty the print queue, stop the Print Spooler service and remove all pending print files.  

You cannot delete any queued print jobs while the Print Spooler Service is running.

To stop the Print Spooler Service, click Start, Run and in the box enter:

services.msc

Click OK to open the Services Applet.  

Locate the Print Spooler Service, right click it and choose "Properties" and then click the "Stop" button to Stop the Print Spooler Service if it is running.

The Print Spooler Service Properties "Startup type" option is usually set to "Automatic" (now is a good time to check it).

If the "Startup type" is not set to "Automatic", set the "startup type" to "Automatic" if that is your desire (now is the time to check it).

Do not try to Start or restart the Print Spooler Service yet...

Next, delete all the spooled up and pending print jobs from XP.  If they did not print before, you will have to send the to the printer again.

Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the following folder (assuming Windows is installed on your C drive):

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS

Delete all the queued print jobs (select and delete all the files) in the folder so the folder is devoid of pending print jobs.  The folder should be empty when you are done.

Restart your system and check the Print Spooler Service again to be sure the Print Spooler Service restarts automatically on reboot (since the Startup type is set to Automatic).

After rebooting, check the Print Spooler service again and the "Status" column for the Print Spooler should read "Started".

Resubmit any failed print jobs.