You’ve printed a number of documents and presentations to your printer, but none of the print jobs have started to print. You don’t see any error messages on the printer, and Windows isn’t complaining of any issues. What is the most likely reason for this glut of non-printing documents?
A) The cable to the printer is not connected
B) The printer is out of ink
C) The printer’s paper tray is empty
D) The print spooler is faulty
E) The printer is very, very tired.
The answer: D) The print spooler is faulty
The print spooler is a software service that runs in the background, and its primary responsibility is sending print jobs from the queue to the printer. If the print spooler isn’t working properly, the print jobs will sit quietly in the queue and the printer will never know there’s something to be printed. To resolve the issue, you can usually restart the Spooler service in Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services.
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Want to know more? Watch “Troubleshooting Printing.”Troubleshooting a printing problem can be one of the most frustrating tasks you’ll encounter. There are a lot of “moving parts” associated with the printing process, but understanding the fundamentals can greatly improve your chances for success. In this video, you’ll learn how to manage print jobs, reset the print spooler, print test pages, and adjust printer properties and settings. |