TaskTray says printing queue is stuck

[Paul_B]

Hi,

I've been having a difficult very time with XP's printing queue.
I have a Word doc which won't print a table for some reason.

Fair enough. But when I delete the job from the printer spooler
folder (after stopping the spooler; deletion confirmed via
Refreshing the print jobs folder), the tasktray icon still shows
an error that presumably doesn't exist and therefore can't be
gotten rid of.

It seems that the spooler is extremely sticky. I suppose I can
clean the whole thing out by rebooting; hoping to find a more
elegant way to deal with the obstinate spooler. Turning the
printer off/on doesn't do anything.

Thanks,
p.

 

[Elmo]

Hi,

I've been having a difficult very time with XP's printing queue.
I have a Word doc which won't print a table for some reason.

Fair enough. But when I delete the job from the printer spooler
folder (after stopping the spooler; deletion confirmed via
Refreshing the print jobs folder), the tasktray icon still shows
an error that presumably doesn't exist and therefore can't be
gotten rid of.

It seems that the spooler is extremely sticky. I suppose I can
clean the whole thing out by rebooting; hoping to find a more
elegant way to deal with the obstinate spooler. Turning the
printer off/on doesn't do anything.

Thanks,
p.

Create a .bat file with these lines:

@echo off
net stop "print spooler"
del /q "%SystemRoot%\system32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
net start "print spooler"
ping localhost -n 5 > nul

Don't know how? Open Wordpad or Notepad, copy/paste the lines above,
Save As, in "Save as type", select "All files", ClearQueue.bat

If you don't change to All Files, Notepad might save the file as:

ClearQueue.bat.txt and it might not open as a batch file.

 

[Paul_B]

Create a .bat file with these lines:

@echo off
net stop "print spooler"
del /q "%SystemRoot%\system32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
net start "print spooler"
ping localhost -n 5 > nul

Thanks. I like the idea of a .bat file to do this. But I've
executed this file and am still left with the tasktray icon
erroneously indicating a print job problem.

I take it you are physically clearing out the print spool with
line 3 of the .bat. I would think that would take care of this
problem, but it doesn't. When I go to that folder I see that it
is indeed empty. This icon seems to have taken on a life of its
own. I wonder if there's a way to get to it via active processes.

p.

 

[Paul_B]

Thanks. I like the idea of a .bat file to do this. But I've
executed this file and am still left with the tasktray icon
erroneously indicating a print job problem.

I take it you are physically clearing out the print spool with
line 3 of the .bat. I would think that would take care of this
problem, but it doesn't. When I go to that folder I see that it
is indeed empty. This icon seems to have taken on a life of its
own. I wonder if there's a way to get to it via active processes.

p.

Ok, I ran a simple print job through successfully. The icon
remained. Then I closed the print job window and clicked Refresh
on the icon, and it disappeared.

I guess the combination of clearing the spooler folder and then
refreshing the icon is what's needed (I had thought that Refresh
referred to the folder view, not the icon).

Thanks much for your help!

p.

 

[Elmo]

Ok, I ran a simple print job through successfully. The icon
remained. Then I closed the print job window and clicked Refresh
on the icon, and it disappeared.

I guess the combination of clearing the spooler folder and then
refreshing the icon is what's needed (I had thought that Refresh
referred to the folder view, not the icon).

Thanks much for your help!

And thanks for reporting back.