Windows 10: Can no longer print

I have lost the ability to print anything from any app. I even bought a new printer but it does the same thing. The first printer is an older printer but it copies and scans along with printing. I can still copy and scan but not print. The new one is just a printer. I've connected both wirelessly and directly by usb, same issue both ways.

When clicking on "Print" it says "Getting ready to print", then it just quits, no error, no "end print" nothing. The print queue never opens nothing.

The printer is listed in the "Devices and Printers" and running troubleshooter shows no errors. I don't know what else to check. The last time I printed something was about two weeks ago and all worked as it should, the next time nothing.

What other information do you need?

:)

 

Print spooler shuts down, can no longer print from a Dell laptop running Windows 10.

The solution to this may be as simple as disabling "Fast Start".

My new (Jan 2016) Dell XPS 13 laptop suddenly stopped printing via regular apps such as Notepad and MS Word. It would still print from browsers (which I'm guessing manage their own print jobs). The symptom was that docs would very briefly appear in the
print queue, then disappear. There was nothing evidently wrong with the spooler or RPC services, and little mention of similar problems on the web. Windows diagnostics and fixits were of no use, nor were repeated device and driver removals & reinstalls etc.

I finally saw a comment that "Fast Start" might be the culprit. The theory is that in order to support the fastest possible return to operation, "Fast Start" lets Windows store a snapshot of the OS state. When you power back on, this is read into memory
instead of going through a normal Windows boot. There may be a problem with this whole process that occasionally corrupts the print spooler.

There are two factors that confuse the investigation. First, simply turning off "Fast Start" may not fix the problem if it has already occurred. You might have to restore your PC back to a condition where the printer works. In my case that meant resetting
to the "factory fresh" state, since System Restore defaults to "Off" under Windows 10 (thanks, Microsoft). Also, the problem does not recur on every fast start - only sometimes. So it's hard to tell when you've fixed it.

Once the printer is working eg from Notepad, disable "Fast Start". The post I found has this in detail:

• Open Power Options in Control Panel

• Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options

• Click the link on the left side that says "Choose what the power button does"

• Under the section labeled "Shutdown settings"

• Uncheck the "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" checkbox

• You may need to click the link at the top that says "Change settings that are currently unavailable" if the options are grayed out.

• Save changes

Now if you're lucky the printer will continue working after shutdowns, reboots etc. Mine has been good for two weeks now.

--> So for print spooler problems under Windows 10, try disabling "Fast Start", then do a full power-off power-on cycle. If that doesn't work and you have no other options, reinstall Windows or reset your machine via its recovery partition - just to get the
printer working - then immediately disable "Fast Start".

If this works for anyone, please report it here. Also I'd like to know if "Fast Start" is enabled by default on new Dell Windows 10 machines.

 

Print spooler shuts down, can no longer print from a Dell laptop running Windows 10.

Original Title - print spooler shuts down (windows 10 )

Problem: can no longer print from a Dell laptop running Windows 10.

Printing capability stopped after having worked fine for months.

Messages on print attempts include variations of "no printer installed.

Steps Taken:

- Removed and re-added the Epson XP-820 printer.

Downloaded drivers from Epson site and attempted to install.

The install failed, only indicating that a problem had occurred (multiple attempts)

- Discussion with Epson tech support revealed that the print spooler was not running, causing the

printer install to fail.

- When manually restarted, the spooler indicates that it is running for about 20 seconds, and then shuts down.

- Removed all files from the system32/spooler/PRINTER directory . The spooler still shuts down after

running for 20 seconds.

- ran the printer troubleshooting (windows + Q ; troubleshooting ; printer ) and restarted the computer .

no change in spooler behavior. Re-ran troubleshooting and tried to re-add the printer. No change.

Any suggestions on what to try next would be greatly appreciated

 

Hi RobbyK.

Here is how I would go about this. Uninstall all software associated with both devices. Then find the devices and remove them. Disconnect cables. Restart computer.

I would then concentrate on new printer. Head to vendor site and get the latest software/driver.

Now a number of printers can't be connected until software is install, HP and Canon's fall into this category.

By the way what kind of printer is this?

So I would start my install and when installation says it can't find printer connect USB cable. (I guess I shouldn't be assuming it wired but I will for now).

Complete install and test.

Then proceed with old device minding when you should connect.


Ken

 

I really don't do a good job of expressing myself when typing into a forum *Confused I try, it just doesn't work out.

But I have tried all of that on both printers, (both are Cannon's (strictly by accident)) making sure to use the device manager to uninstall completely including driver information.

I'm afraid it's my old laptop, but printing is a software issue not a (pc) hardware so that shouldn't be it....

Thank you Ken for your reply, I will appreciate any other ideas.

 

Copy is not a function of the computer but Scan is. If one can scan it usually means the printer is communicating with the PSC device. I have had call-outs where the Default printer was changed in Control Panel, Devices and Printers to something else and not caught by the user/client.

 

Thank you for your reply, I have checked that several times.

 

Try this, Robby. Go to Control panel, right click on your default printer, click "Printer Properties" (Note: NOT Properties), click on Advanced Tab and then select "Print Direct to the Printer", click Apply and OK. If at first it doesn't work, try a restart after toggling the setting again.

C.B.

 

Correct Answer *Cool

Another question, why would after several years would it change from needing to be spooled to direct print?

 

I have no idea. I am a Windows 10 Insider tester and this happened to me and many other testers about 5 or 6 builds ago and that's when we discovered this fix. A few builds later, I switched back to spooling and everything was working again. If I were you, after the next major update, I would try switching back.

C.B.

 

Well, got up this morning and the new printer would not connect to the wifi at all. The old one said it was connected but would not print. That's when I had an idea, I used my cell phone to set up a network, connected both printers to it and they both printed first try.

Seems my slow satellite internet isn't maintaining a fast enough connection for the printers to stay connected. Why not at times I can't surf the internet.

 

Satellite Internet service in my area is somewhat spotty in that there's an upward transmission and a downward receive. I had a client try to use MagicJack and the slight pause between up and down would disconnect the phone service every time, doesn't maintain a connection handshake.

 

Interesting. As far as I know you don't need any Internet service to Print. You are using an internal network to transit data between two devices, computer to printer, inside the LAN.

I would be suspect of router. Power down, count to twenty, power up. Satellite usually means more remote so likelihood of interfernce from the neighbour's router usually isn't an issue. I would still use something like

netsh wlan show all

at Command Prompt(admin) to produce a report of what your laptop sees. Routers do get old and some that are jacked up to increase power can have shorter lifespans than normal.

I've seen where all devices want to be on same band, say 2.4Ghz, and the 2.4 has better penetration.


Ken