Computer Voodoo logo

printers and printing

the horror of owning an inkjet printer

The Dirty Little Secret of Inkjet Printers

problems with the print spooler

Create a .BAT file with the following. This will stop the print spooler and restart it. Run when needed.

@echo off
sc stop spooler
echo.
net start spooler
sc query spooler
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo RESTART COMPLETE, verify the result above and
pause
echo on

out of paper causes printing to stop

You ran out of paper while printing, added new paper, and now the printer won't continue printing. Even after restarting the computer and power cycling the printer it's still stuck.

  1. Click on the START button and go into the Control Panel.
  2. Open Administrative Tools.
  3. Open Services.
  4. Right-click on Print Spooler.
  5. In the floating menu, left-click Restart.
  6. Try printing something again.

To make life even easier try creating a batch file.

Start Notepad and copy the following lines in:

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

Save the file and name it DeletePrintJobs.cmd. Run the file when printing gets stuck.

How to cancel printing or to delete a print job that is stuck in the print queue in Windows XP

inkjet maintenance

To make sure your inkjet printer is going to live a long life, it is a good idea to print regularly. Print anything. I've seen many an inkjet dry up and spit out blank sheets of paper. The printer acts like it is printing, but no ink is reaching the paper. You can replace the ink cartridges, but the ink is dried up elsewhere clogging the spray. Make sure to print anything at least once a month. A large, colorful picture will do best.

consider purchasing a laser printer

If you're sick of buying ink cartridges for you inkjet printer then consider a laser printer. They usually come in two styles: black and color. The upfront cost may be large, but you don't have to worry about the toner drying out. Since the toner is a powder and not a liquid it already is dry.

Other advantages you'll have with a laser printer are quality and speed. You can crank out page after page of high-quality printouts in a fraction of the time it takes on an inkjet.

Check out HowstuffWorks "How Laser Printers Work"