Printer Error

Sometimes, you can get a print job stuck in the print queue and nothing else will print. Following is basic troubleshooting to clear this up.

1. Open the print queue
   1. delete the print job which shows the error (or all print jobs)
2. Manually clear print queue (NOTE: all print jobs will be lost)
   1. Turn off the print spooler
      1. Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services
      2. Find Print Spooler and stop the service
   2. Open Explorer and go to %WINDIR%\system32\spool\printers
      1. Delete all files in that directory
   3. If you can not delete one or more files
      1. Open Command Prompt as admin (run as admin)
         1. del %WINDIR%\system32\spool\printers\*
         2. dir %WINDIR%\system32\spool\printers
   4. If there are still files in there
      1. Download ProcessExplorer if you don't already have it.
         1. This is a stand alone app (no installation package)
         2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
      2. run procexp from downloaded files
      3. Find | File Handle or DLL
      4. Enter name of file (the one you can't delete) and do a search
      5. Determine process
      6. Kill process
      7. Delete the file
   5. If you still can not delete the files, reboot and start all over
   6. Turn on the Print Spooler
   7. Test the printer
   8. If you still can't do it, delete the printer and reinstall