The printing procedure is more extensive than you think and it requires several components. For one, the printing and spooling service must be running in order to successfully print your documents. When you invoke your printer, the task calls the printing spool service which then adds your document to the printer queue. The selected printer will then pick up your task and complete the print on a paper. The data to print is sent via a USB, Wi-Fi or other cables depending on the printer you are using. A lot of things can go wrong in between the process. In this article, we will explore the reasons why your printer would return the error “Error Printing.” Solutions will be given based on these reasons. As we have said, the error can be anywhere within the printing processes. Here are a few reasons that can lead to the printing error. It might be possible that your ‘Printer Spool’ service choked on bad data and terminated, stop running correctly, or it failed to start entirely (this is the case in safe mode). Corrupt data in the spool/printing tray might be causing this service to stop. The other most probable reason for the printing error is the connection between your computer and the printer. If you are sure that the transmission cable is working okay (tested the printer on another computer), then the problem might be the drivers. This can be the printer drivers or the USB port drivers. The communication between the computer and printer is therefore scrambled. This usually happens when you have upgraded to windows 10 from previous versions. Sometimes the drivers from previous versions are not always compatible with windows 10.
Here are a few solutions that will get your printers back on track.
Method 1: Update your USB drivers
If your printer is functional in another computer, then your USB drivers are likely to be the problem. To update your drivers: If your USB 3.0 port (blue) still shows this error, you can try the USB 2.0 ports (black).
Method 2: Restart the printer spool service and clear printing tasks
Restarting the printer spool service after clearing pending tasks can get things back on track.
We’ve stopped the queue service, now we just have to clear the jam that is already there. To do this we navigate to the print spool folder which is hiding within the Windows folders. Usually Windows is installed on local disk C: drive. The usual path to the spool folder is C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS, but yours may be slightly different. Windows may warn you that you are about to view system files, but click “View files anyway.”
Method 3: Troubleshoot your printer using these manual procedures
If you are not sure what is causing the problem, you can follow these steps.
Step 1: Use the troubleshooter to find the problem
This will restart your printer and drivers and check for any errors. Your printer must be connected during this procedure.
Step 2: Clear your printer queue using method 2 above
Step 3: Switch off and restart the printer
Sometimes this is all that’s needed to solve this. If there are any jobs in the queue that can’t be shifted, a restart should flush these out. Switch off your printer, unplug it from the PC, plug it back in and power it on. Now try and print. More often than not, this should resolve the problem. You can also restart your computer for good measure.
Step 4: Check the paper tray
Check the paper in your printer. It might be having trouble picking up the paper in your input tray, especially if you have an all-in-one printer and can still use its other functions.
Method 4: Resolving Port Conflict
Modern Printers use a WSD port which doesn’t work for some people and due to that, this error is triggered. Therefore, it is recommended that you try to add a simple “TCP/IP” port in your Printer properties and check to see if the issue is fixed.
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