You’ve been using your Windows XP Professional-connected printer normally for six months, but today you’ve sent two documents to the printer and nothing ever prints. You notice in the system tray that the printer icon has appeared and the print jobs are in the queue. No error messages are seen and the print jobs status never shows “printing.” What is the most likely cause of this printing problem?
A) The printer driver is faulty
B) The printer spooler is not working properly
C) The printer is out of ink
D) The printer is out of paper
The answer: B) The printer spooler is not working properly
Since the printer has worked previously, it’s unlikely that the print driver is the problem. If the printer is out of ink or paper, an error message will be sent from the printer and will appear in the print queue. If the jobs are “stuck,” restarting the print spooler process may get the printing process started again.
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Want to know more? Watch “Troubleshooting Printers and Scanners.” When the printer or scanner is down, where do you start the troubleshooting process? What tools will you need to solve the problem? In this video, we’ll show you where to start troubleshooting, what tools to bring to the job, and what common problems you can expect to see with printers and scanners. |