Printer Ink » Articles » How To Guides Printers and Ink Cartridges » Clean Printer Spools

How To Clean Your Printer Spool

image

PCs and printers can sometimes work slow enough together under normal circumstances. When you have a log jam in your print queue, it's even worse. Below are steps you can take to clear our your print spool and remove the jam.

  • In Windows XP, go to Start, then Run, and type "services.msc". This should open a new window.
  • When the window comes up, on the right hand side should be a list of different things, and scroll down to print spooler.
  • If you click on "Print Spooler" once, it will give you the option (to the left) to stop it. Click once there and leave the window open.
  • For the next phase, you need to use Windows explorer to find your computer's System 32 folder. Find the Windows folder (under your "C" root directory). After you have gotten there, click to open it
  • Once in the System 32 folder, find the spool folder. Open that up and then you should see a folder marked Printers. You should now delete any files in that folder and close out of Explorer.
  • Now you need to restart your print spooler so go back to your services window and restart your "Print Spooler" again.