Power user trick: restart the Printer Spooler service.

2011-09-13 00:04  i2981    [permalink]

Sometimes, there's still one or more jobs in the printer queue, none are deleting or cancelled or in an error state, the printer is powered on, connected, doesn't report any error also, but doesn't start printing. It's a strange situation, but just happens to happen from time to time. This power user trick comes in handy: (No guarantees: this may still not work if something else actually is causing the disruption)

• Open the start menu
• Right-click the Computer icon or item.
• Select 'Manage'
• Open or double click 'Services and Applications'
• Open or double click 'Services'
• Locate 'Print Spooler' in the list.
• Right-click and do 'Stop' and then 'Start', or 'Restart' if that option is present.

This breathes new live into the print job sub-system and may sometimes cause the 'hanging' jobs to resume printing.

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