Tip #1364 - Cancelling Print Jobs
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Worldstart
Q:
Why is it when I go to cancel a print job, the printer just keeps on printing?
Is there a way to clear out all of the print jobs I have going?
A:
Ahh, the uncancelable printer job. I think we've all been there, desperately
yanking paper out of the printer, frantically punching power switches, pounding
on the computer with the kid's plastic hammer (OK, maybe that was just me, but
it only happened once and the doc says I'm better now).
In any event, usually the
easiest way to stop a runaway printer is to double-click its icon in the system
tray to open the "printer queue folder".
Then just highlight the
documents you don't want and tap the Delete key.
Oh, and should the Delete
not work, try right-clicking the documents and select Cancel from the resulting
menu.
If you don't have a system
tray printer icon (YIKES!), you can open the Printers & Faxes folder from
the Start Menu or Control Panel in XP. For folks using pre-XP Windows, you can
do it from "My Computer". From there, double-click your printer and
delete the rogue jobs as described above.
That should stop documents
sitting in the queue from printing, and cancel the one that's going.
If you still can't seem
to get the current doc to stop printing consider just letting it finish up if
it's small. On the other hand, if you’re printing a novel and decided
that it's the wrong font or something, you will probably want to stop before
you use up a tree's worth a paper. Here are some steps to try (getting more
extreme as we go):
1. Go back to the system
tray icon or the Printers folder. Try right clicking the document and canceling
the job again. Sometimes your computer wasn't paying attention and the first
try doesn’t take.
2. Shut off the power to
the printer. Using the printer's switch is the best way to go for this one.
Yanking the cord from the wall surprises the printer and may make a simple problem
a bigger one.
3. Shut Windows down. Try
restarting Windows, assuming everything you need is saved. That will usually
kill any print job. If you get a warning about possibly losing a print job,
acknowledge it and continue to shut down. When Windows comes back to life, you
may find that it asks you if you want to dump the print job—say yes.
If none of the above work,
go out and buy some stock in your favorite paper company. Oh, also, no matter
how tempting it is, don't jerk the printer cable from the back of your computer.
Although a USB printer probably won't care too much, you can blow a port if
you use a parallel printer connection.
~ Steve
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