Printing Problems

Oops! I don’t want to print all that!

Sometimes we press the print button when we really meant to just print one page or a specific group of pages, not the whole 97-page document! Don’t get flustered. Let the printer continue on the sheet of paper currently printing and calmly remove the rest of the paper from the supply stack or pull out the paper tray. This brings the printer under control. Now follow these steps.

Stopping a Print Job

If you try to stop the currently printing sheet by grabbing it, you may well tear the sheet and/or cause a paper jam and then you have that to fix as well! Removing the paper supply allows the printer to finish the page without jamming, then stop.

Every printer behaves differently but it will ask for more paper; old printers beep, new printers give a message on the screen.

Note: Do NOT put any paper into the paper tray yet!

Clearing the Print Queue

Next, open the print queue display. Sometimes this is as easy as clicking a printing icon in the System Tray. If this is not available, go to Start/Settings/Printers and double click the printer icon of the current printer. This opens the queue display. Click on Printer / Purge Print Documents.

Experience with your printer will soon tell you if that is all you need to do.

Clearing the Printer Buffer

The spooler/queue is empty but there may be some of the print job left in the printer buffer, waiting for some paper. With most printers you will need to turn off the printer ... if it hasn’t got an on/off power switch, pull out the supply cord and wait a few seconds before powering it up again. This will usually clear the remainder of the print job and that’s that.

Still behaving badly?

A print job consists of a header, the job and a tail. The printer must get all of these in the correct order. Sometimes a fragment of the print job is left in the printer queue. This causes manic printer behaviour; either a bit of garbage is printed or the printer locks up and will not print anything. If this is the case, you will need to re-start your computer with a cold boot, which is really the ultimate whammy.

The Cold Boot

This means a normal correct shutdown, that is click Start / Shut down / Shut down / OK. Next, switch off the printer and the computer. Put one sheet of paper in the printer tray, then switch on the printer, then switch on the computer.

If any problem still exists, a dialog may ask you if you want to print the contents of the print queue. Answer NO and delete all pending jobs. Now she should be OK! Start the next print job and if all is well, fill up the paper tray. Occasionally you may need to go round the correct shutdown circle again.