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Fix Printer Paper Jam With A Simple Batch File

There are two big annoyances with Printers, one is when Windows cannot kill the print job and second is when the paper is stuck. In both situations hitting the Cancel button is useless, since Windows can in fact never kill the print job while the temp file is created and the job is still in use.

To fix this issue, you need to first open the task manager, stop spoolsv.exe service, and then delete everything inside the following directory,

C:\windows\system32\spool\printers\

Now open Run dialog box, enter spoolsv.exe and hit Enter. Doing this will run the spoolsv.exe service again.

If you face this problem frequently, why not create a simple batch file which can perform all these actions for you? To do so, copy the following text in the notepad and save it as “AddictiveTipsFixPrinter.bat”:

@echo off
echo Stopping print spooler.
echo.
net stop spooler
echo Erasing Temporary Junk Printer Documents
echo.
del /Q /F /S “%systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers\*.*
echo Starting print spooler.
echo.
net start spooler

To make it easier, we have provided the batch file below. All you need to do is to double-click it and try printing again.

If you have Lexmark printer, you need to add the following code after the “net stop spooler” command:

sc config spooler depend= RPCSS

This is important because Lemark printer can seriously mess up the services and makes it impossible to start the print spooler. Thanks goes to Print Flush for the code.

(https://www.addictivetips.com/app/uploads/software/AddictiveTipsFixPrinter.zip) Download AddictiveTipsFixPrinter

[via Reddit]

11 Comments

  1. Thank you, I was getting extremely frustrated with my Lexmark, it was about to be recycled into plastic coffee cups.