plasmid.co.uk » spoolsv http://plasmid.co.uk because life is faster in reverse ... Thu, 20 May 2010 23:07:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://plasmid.co.uk http://plasmid.co.uk/wp/favicon.ico plasmid.co.uk Fixing printer lockups under Windows http://plasmid.co.uk/2008/03/05/fixing-printer-lockups-under-windows/ http://plasmid.co.uk/2008/03/05/fixing-printer-lockups-under-windows/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:58:42 +0000 plasmid http://plasmid.co.uk/2008/03/05/fixing-printer-lockups-under-windows/ 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:

  1. Ctrl + Alt + Del, bring up task manager.
    printer_fix_1.jpg
  2. Select 'spoolsv.exe' from the processes list and click End Process.
    printer_fix_2.jpg
  3. Use either File->Run in task manager (or Start->Run from the taskbar) and enter 'spoolsv.exe'.
    printer_fix_3.jpg

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.

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