my printer isn't printing jobs sent to it

Question

Print jobs are not completing, showing any and all in "error" in the print queue.

I've stopped and restarted the printer spool, but that does not appear to help.

I've shut down my laptop and printer, detached the usb cable and power cables, and reattached them, but that does not appear to help.

Answer 1

Hi,

You have already tried some good basics like restarting the spooler and rebooting everything. You reconnected the cables too. Thing is, lets take a more organized way to figure this out and fix the printer problem.

First off, you need to spot where the error is coming from. Check how the print queue looks right now. Head over to the Control Panel. Then go to Devices and Printers. Right click on your printer there. Pick the option to see what's printing. If every job shows up in error, just right click them all and cancel each one. Get that queue cleared out. Now try printing something simple, like a page from Notepad. See if any error pops up on the screen.

Next, look at the printers status. Is it showing online. Right click it again. Make sure its set as the default printer. It should say ready there. Or does it look offline or have some error message. If that's the case, take it out of the list in Devices and Printers. Then add it back in. Right click the printer. Choose remove device. Hit the add a printer button. Follow along with the wizard to set it up fresh.

Sometimes the driver gets messed up, even when Windows acts like its fine. Go into Device Manager. Find the printers section or the print queues part. Expand that. Right click your printer. Uninstall it. Unplug the USB cable now. Grab the newest drivers from the makers website. Don't just use what Windows has. Run that installer file. Plug the printer back in when it tells you to. If you tell me the make and model, I can track down the right driver for you.

Try printing from a different program or even switch to another user account on the computer. That way you can tell if the problem sticks to one app or your profile.

Last thing, run the built in troubleshooter for printers. Open Settings. Go to Update and Security. Click on Troubleshoot. Pick the printer option. Let it do its thing.