If you’re like me and depend upon being able to print documents on the go, Windows can sometimes be very unaccommodating! One of my main problems is printer service lockup if I lose my connection to the printer (accidentally unplugging the USB cable for
example). When this happens, no matter how many times I try to cancel the frozen print job it just won’t go away – preventing any more documents from being printed out! Fortunately… I have a rapid solution at hand.
Three easy steps:
- Ctrl + Alt + Del, bring up task manager.
- Select ‘spoolsv.exe’ from the processes list and click End Process.
- Use either File->Run in task manager (or Start->Run from the taskbar) and enter ‘spoolsv.exe’.
This is a dirty (but effective) way of forcing the print spool server to reboot. You should see the document queue clear within a minute or so and then you will be able to send new documents to your printer.