One of the more annoying things you will encounter as a computer user is needing to print a document only to find out that your printer just won't print. Or you can get the printer to print, but it won't print anything correctly. In a previous Be Your Own IT article, we covered the most common causes for printer problems – loose connections or outdated drivers – and how to fix them. But what if you have checked all of your connections and they are fine, and you have updated all of your drivers or uninstalled and then reinstalled them, but your printer STILL refuses to do what it is supposed to do?
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Don't despair. There are still options. There are some common printer issues that people encounter that are a little more in depth than a simple loose connection or driver problem, but they are still easily fixed once you can suss out what the issue is. Don't run off to the repair shop and spend a bundle to have someone else fix it, and don't throw the printer away and buy a new one automatically – be your own IT and do some more in depth troubleshooting to fix the problem yourself!
If you are using Windows Vista and you try to print a document, you might get an error message. If your error message says something about a “spooler” problem, you are not alone – this is a common issue that printers have. And luckily, there is an easy fix for it! A printer's spooler is a little piece of software that stores your print jobs on the hard drive or in the memory until the printer is ready to print them. If you have more than one document to print, the spooler will keep them in queue for you until it is their turn to go and be printed.
If you have been waiting longer than normal for a document to print, then you may have a spooler issue. If you see an error message about the print spooler, the spooler resources, or the spooler subsystem, then – you guessed it – you may have a spooler issue. You can fix a spooler issue by getting your print spooler to restart. The simplest way to force that to happen is to save your work and just reboot. But if you can't reboot for some reason, then you can do it another way – by going into Administrative Tools.
Click on the Start button, then open the Control Panel. Click on System and Maintenance and then click on Administrative Tools. Double click on Services, and then find the Print Spooler service and right click on that. Now click on Properties. Look for the General tab, and under that tab, you should see something called “Startup type.” Make sure that “Automatic” is selected as the Startup type. If you look under “Service status” and it does not say that the service is already running, click on Start and the click on okay. That should resolve your spooler issue.
Other printer issues can arise from ink and toner issues. You may need to swap out your old ink cartridges or toner for new. You may also be having a paper jam, which can actually damage your printer if you do not take care of it quickly.
Printer problems are certainly annoying, but they do not have to be the biggest hassle in the world. If you methodically sit down and run through some of the common and more in depth troubleshooting issues we have discussed here on Be Your Own IT, then you can often correct your printer issue yourself and get your printer back online and producing your documents like you need. And if none of these issues help you solve your printer issue, hit the Internet and look up the support section of the manufacturer's website – your printer may have an issue that many other users have also experienced, and they may offer a solution to you there.
