I'm often called with questions about print jobs that have become stalled in the print queue and won't let anything through. This can ruin your day! This appears to be a flaw in some drivers and there's only one way to resolve it when it happens...you need to find the jobs and KILL them. You can press CANCEL in the print queue all you want and nothing happens...that's when you know you need to follow the steps below to fix this.
1. Make sure all print jobs are complete and that no new print jobs are being submitted.
2. Double-click SERVICES in the PRINT CONTROL PANEL and stop the “Print Spooler” service.
3. Open the C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32SPOOLPRINTERS in My Computer.
4. Delete all files located in this folder. Files in the Printers are named xxxx.spl, xxxx.shd where xxxx is a hexadecimal number. Files with .shd and .spl extensions are printer files. Double-click Services in the Control Panel and start the “Print Spooler” services.
5. Re-print any print jobs AFTER you have determined what caused the stall: Was the job too big for your plotter's memory? If the failed plot was a PDF, try FLATTENING the file. (See my blog posting about flattening PDF's.)
1. Make sure all print jobs are complete and that no new print jobs are being submitted.
2. Double-click SERVICES in the PRINT CONTROL PANEL and stop the “Print Spooler” service.
3. Open the C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32SPOOLPRINTERS in My Computer.
4. Delete all files located in this folder. Files in the Printers are named xxxx.spl, xxxx.shd where xxxx is a hexadecimal number. Files with .shd and .spl extensions are printer files. Double-click Services in the Control Panel and start the “Print Spooler” services.
5. Re-print any print jobs AFTER you have determined what caused the stall: Was the job too big for your plotter's memory? If the failed plot was a PDF, try FLATTENING the file. (See my blog posting about flattening PDF's.)