Printer Spooler Problem

You didn't say which Windows version, but they're all equally bad, so I'll take a shot. Go into Printers and Faxes (should be on startup - if not, go to control panel). Right click on your printer and then click on "See what's printing", then delete. If that doesn't work, and I had one hung up for weeks, delete the printer and reinstall. Oh, and make sure you don't have 2 copies of the printer - Windows loves to do that.

I once threw my whole frigging computer out of the window on to my concrete patio just for this sort of thing.

I have tried the deleting thing several times and the damn document stayed in there hogging the spooler and nothing prints. Every time I wanted to print something else it would start this document and half way down it would hang up on it self. Really annoying.

This morning I started windhose again and now the damn document is gone. After all that effort yesterday and several restarts I was going to uninstal the printer today but now I don't need to anymore.

I HATE WINDOWS.

Thanks for all who tried to help, maybe Del can send me some semtex for next time so I don't have to post a new thread here.

Buy something made by Apple. Could be better. I have XP and get the same problem. Usually a hard boot after a rest cure will solve the problem, but the "system error" tends to recur. Help says to try to print from the spooler too, but I can't find the spooler. Help also is no help in even telling me what a system error is, much less how to fix it. Wish I could afford to follow my own advice.

Don't go blind by apple as it is not all that good when you start looking at it. Yes better but not completely as they portray it.

Search for apple hacked in under 2 minutes and you will find some interesting articles.

If you went in and deleted the page in the printer file and that did not seem to get rid of it consider; on this laptop, which is running Vista I sometimes have the same problem which I have not had before in W2K or W98.

The reason I high lighted the word "seem" is that if one waited long enough, twenty minutes or so, it would finally go.

What seemed to solve that problem more than once was to unload all the crap (Cookies) this machine with 1.5 gigs of ram seems to pick up and slows down machine functions.

I have just today switched this machine to the FireFox browser which experience tells me does not pick up as much crap.

That seemed to work for me but you all know what works for me may not work for anybody else.

j.

I feel for your plight. Have you tried bypassing the spooler entirely?

In XP SP2 you can set to print directly to the printer. Let me know if your interested and I'll show you how step by step, menu by menu (sounds like a cyber version of "Niagara Falls", eh?)

I know that I've spent a lot of time on various sites so I hate to loose 'My Favorites' (Bookmarks in Firefox). That file should be in the first 2 folders in "My Computer". If you have multiple disk drives, save your 'Favorites' to that drive as part of your backup.

If it works when you bypass the spooler then I would backup my stuff and reinstall Windows. Pick the <repair> option. If that still doesn't work I would do a <format c:> and reload windows.

And then reload everything else. Programs, data etc.

Good Luck,

I've hated Windows since it was MSDOS and then Win 3.1. I'm especially fond of NT4.0, the only server that crashed whenever you looked at it funny. And which came on something like 25 or more 3.5 inch diskettes. i was running Win 98 SE all of my PC's up until last year.

So far XP SP2-3 Pro is the most stable platform I've found.

WARNING: Do not install VISTA yet. I'd like to see Windows 7, and bypass the Vista experience entirely.

Orpheuse

Yes you can send direct to printer but what are you going to do when you over feed the buffer in the printer with let's say a pdf file of 100's of pages? Does it still work ok?

What if you give several print commands from different pages, does it still work?

I am not asking with the intention to proove you wrong, I really don't know the answer myself so if you have tried it please tell us.

hope i can "uncomplicate things,a bit?. if you get the "spool message window" up, in the top, upperleft corner is word "printer". clik on it and a nice stack of choices pops down. one says "clear all messages" and to be able to make any changes, in the real fun button,"priorities", you must do this first. and if you save items to favorites, you can bring them back up and print them later!; the clear all may take a bit of doing too, seems to be a stubborn lil'window. once cleared get back to printer list,and go to priorities where you can "go straight to printer", and "print immediately"!!. oh, what a joy, not having the printer using a stack of paper printing a ton of crape i did not put in the "spool memory" in the first place!!.. ever since i shut that damned spool off, i have been able to print what i wanted, when i wanted it printed!!!... hope you can enjoy as good results(like me, you may need to check now and then, to keep settings right after power failures etc.) again, happy printing, chuck

May I respectfully suggest:

1) Set up another PC just to practice editing the Registry. Sometimes it's the only way, but if you don't know your way around in it, you can make things much worse.

2) Bookmark this: http://www.annoyances.org/

Good luck. My preferred operating system is OS X, but of necessity I use Windows as well. Windows is not a bad OS if you understand how it works, and if you also know where the potholes are.

Symantec sells a suite of utilities called "System Works" which contains "WinDoctor", an extremely useful tool. Its sole function is to scan the Registry and identify (and optionally, correct) errors and inconsistencies. These usually happen when the Registry has to change, as when the user installs or removes an application. Most applications these days come with both an installer and an uninstaller, but not all uninstallers are equally good, so beware.

Symantec was considered the worst for registry "fall out" a few years back for several years running. Why would you use a program like that if you know how things work?

The other "not so good" predicate they got was for misleading performance of their products. Their list of antivirus stopped files was a pure lie. Why would you ever go back to a manufacturer like that once they are exposed.

The only utilities they provide you with are for windows ignorant dummies and in the long run it solves nothing. Peter Norton is in it for the money and don't let his slimmey smile on the front of the box fool you.

Since none of these suggestions seems to be acceptable, why not just give the job to Kinko's?

Regards

You need to learn to read. Problem got sorted by post 4.

Hi,

When this happens to me, I usually resign myself to 20 to 30 mins without the printer, switch the printer off, delete the file from the printer feed files in the PC, and then wait for 30 mins.

This normally is enough time for the file to disappear.

Hope that this might help.

Bon chance

Brian

this happens to me sometimes and I have an hpsc 1300. I simply turn off the computer and reboot. the locked up print job will finish printing and the rest will clear

hey; i agree, windowa help isa lotta yack about the marvels of windows,only!. if you have a printer icon,on your start menu, clik in it. or go to control panel and diub clik on printers. select the one you are using, a doub clik on it should bring up a small window saying "spool memory" etc.. in upperleft you see word :printer". a clik on it will give you a short list of choices, pick "clear all messages, first." then clik the bottom item"prioritys", cliking advanced here will allow you to eliminate that damned "spool memory" altogether. for faster, direct printing, in the future!.. happy printing, i hope, chuck

That was excellent. Well thought out, easy to follow and correct. It will stop the printing and clear the spooler as you stated.

I'm quite gratified to learn that you are working in renewable energy. Your company chose well.

Orpheuse

Hi case 491:

I had similar problems when I switched to XP and kept an older (2 years old) printer. I occasionally would get a file stuck in the spooler, none of the usual fixes worked; even rebooting the computer did not resolve the issue as the printer has a memory in it.

Here is my solution to the problem.

First disconnect the power to the printer.

Then shut down the computer, if you get any messages telling you there are print jobs waiting and asking if you want to save them choose no. These two steps should clear and ram memory in the printer and computer.

Now reconnect the printer power and boot up the computer.

This resolved my problems with the spooler ever time, but it is time consuming.

I contacted HP help regarding the problem and they stated that XP supposedly has all the drivers you need for plug and play equipment such as printers, but that the "team was working hard to write updated drivers for XP" TRANSLATION "We don't care, there is no money in making your old printer work with a new operating system, buy a new printer from us"

I hope this helps you

mechtech

I used to have the spooler problem, but when I switched from HP printers to Canon printers, the problem all but disappeared. I don't know why...

That was basically my experience too, before my Canon I used both HP and some other cheap make that I have since forgotten........

You might be able to set the printer by adjusting the "print properties".

Open <Control Center> and select <Printers and Faxes>. Highlight your printer and <left click> . This will open a drop down menu.

The last item on this menu is <Properties>. Click on <Properties>, then click on the "Advanced" tab. At the bottom of<Advanced> click on <Print Processor> - the first column should read "WinPrint", the second column should read "Raw". If it doesn't change it; if it does say that, let me know and I'll keep looking.

Orpheuse