What to do if the printer stops printing

With the help of a printer, you can save any picture, text, document, website or photo you like from your computer to your paper. After prolonged use of the device, problems may arise that will require elimination if the further operation of the printer is important. Let’s take a look at the potential causes and solutions to document printing problems.

Why the printer does not work, possible causes

You need to figure out why the printer does not print, for what reasons it stopped functioning normally, if before it performed all operations without failures. A list of potential causes, as well as explanations to them:

• The cable from the printer to the laptop or computer is not compatible. This is because most new printers do not come with a cable. The cable that was purchased separately may have a smaller cross-section than is necessary for normal operation of the printer. Buy one that is branded from your printer, or one that will have a thick section and a length of no more than one and a half meters (if it is longer, the signal may not reach well).
  
• Paper jam or missing. Check that there is enough paper in the input tray for printing, and if necessary adjust the pickup roller to remove obstructions. If the paper is jammed, open the printer and remove it.
  
• The toner or ink has run out. You can check the amount of ink remaining by opening Print Properties.
  
• No default printer specified.
  
• A software error has occurred.
• The printer does not print after updating the driver. It is worth trying to roll back to the previous version, or reinstall it.
• Failure due to a large number of commands being sent to the printer. To fix this problem, you need to clear the print queue list.

Software problems and solutions

The problem might be a software crash while trying to print. Accordingly, you need to figure out why this can occur, as well as how to fix the error if the printer does not print after refilling the cartridge.

Before following the instructions, make sure your printer is connected to your computer and is set by default. You can verify the latter as follows:

• Open the Start menu, then go to Settings (Windows 10) or Control Panel.
  
• Navigate to the “Devices” -> “Printers and Scanners” section. In the window that opens, select your printer (the device model will be displayed in the list), after which the “Control” button will become active, click on it.
  
• Select “Use as default” and save your changes. You may need to clear the “Let Windows manage my default printer” check box to be able to specify the printer yourself.
  

Resetting the print queue

First, try using the procedure to clear the print queue of the printer. Perhaps the failure lies precisely in the moment that a file has appeared in the queue, which the printer cannot print for some unknown reason. This can be done in different ways, we offer you 3 simple algorithms for actions. Via printer properties:

1. Open the Start menu, then go to Control Panel, then to Devices and Printers.
2. In the list of detected devices, you need to find and select your printer in the category of printing devices.
3. Right-click on it and select View Print Queue from the context menu.
   
4. In the window that appears, a list of documents that are being prepared for sending on paper will be listed. On the top menu bar, go to the Printer section and select Clear Print Queue.
   

If the queue does not disappear and the documents are still displayed, try deleting them manually, selecting each item separately from the list, then canceling from the queue.

An alternative method is to create a batch file containing a sequence of commands:

• Create a text document with any name on your desktop. Go to it.
  We enter the following script commands:
  

  net stop spooler
  DEL% systemroot% system32 spool printers * .spl
  DEL% systemroot% system32 spool printers * .shd
  net start spooler

• Now the created script must be saved with a special file extension. To do this, select “File”, then “Save As”.
• Change the “File name” parameter so that after the name there is a period and the .bat extension, that is, in the final result, so that it looks like “PrintJobsCleaning.bat”.
  
• Click “Save”. Now the created document must be run as administrator, otherwise the console commands may work incorrectly.

The third method is used if the queue is not deleted by any of the proposed algorithms. This situation is corrected by forcibly stopping the printer’s print manager service, and is done as follows:

• Open the task manager window by executing the key combination Ctrl + Shift + Esc (pressing three buttons at the same time), or Ctrl + Alt + Delete (here in the options of the Windows interface, you must select the point to start the manager).
  
• Go to the “Services” section by opening the appropriate tab with this name. Now, in the highlighted list, you need to find and select an element with the name “Spooler”, the state should be in the “Running” mode (otherwise it will indicate that a failure occurred during operation, in any case, follow the instructions below).
• Right-click to bring up the pop-up context menu, and in it find the “Stop service” item.
  
• Now you need to open Explorer (any folder on your computer), and then go to the directory “C: Windows System32 Spool PRINTERS”. This can be done either manually, by opening folder by folder, or by pasting that address into the search bar (after clearing it).
• Delete all files from this folder that have the SPL and SHD extensions. Then return to the service manager window and restore the previous mode of operation of the service (Spooler) by selecting it from the list, then right-clicking and selecting “Start”.

If clearing the print queue and restarting the print manager does not help, use the methods described later in the article.

Troubleshoot the problem using Windows tools

If you have verified that the printer is plugged in, no power or paper has to be supplied, and the printer does not want to print, although there is ink, and you have considered the probable causes, try using the standard Windows troubleshooter.

To run it, you need:

• Open the “Start” menu, go to the control panel. In the list of items, find the section “Devices and Printers” (or “Printers and Scanners”).
• Select your printer from the list, then right-click and use Troubleshoot.
• Automatic diagnostics of problems associated with your device will begin. If it detects any problems, the system will announce a list of potential problems and solutions, such as “check device availability”, which means that the printer cannot be found connected to the computer. And also a list of actions if a software error is found.
  
• Follow the instructions provided by the system to troubleshoot.

What to do if Word documents won’t print

In order to make sure that absolutely any texts are not printed, use the official instructions for testing the print function:

1. Create a new document in Word. Type = rand (10) and hit the Enter key, then 10 paragraphs of sample text will appear on the current sheet.
2. Try to print this sheet, and if you can, add some image and try different fonts, as well as insert a table or object “Shapes”.
3. Try to start printing again. If everything is working fine, then you do not need to reinstall the drivers or Microsoft Office.

If, after a test, it turns out that the print function works, then the document that you tried to print earlier is damaged. It contains damaged images or fonts. Therefore, try to get rid of them, save the document, and then start printing again.

If the printer does not print Word documents, try to find the cause first and then use some solutions to resolve the problem. Use the methods in the article to deal with this problem.

Hardware Problem Solvers

The system may not even see the connected printer. Make sure that the printer and computer are properly connected, and that you are using a compatible cable (about which cable to use was described at the beginning of the article).

The printer might be broken or out of order. This can be determined by defects that have arisen recently: the device began to chew frequently or wrinkle the paper, stopped printing pages with text (instead of them, blank sheets come out without traces of ink), toner does not attach, and similar malfunctions. If so, it is worth contacting the appropriate description of the problems found for repair, or even purchasing a new printer.

Also check that the inkjet print cartridges are installed in their correct color in the carriage. Even a slight backlash should not be allowed, but should be located as tightly as possible with contacts. You can help achieve this with cardboard inserts to help you get a quality installation.

We hope you found the article helpful and the printer has been restored to its original functionality. Leave your comment or wish for the project using the form below.