Windows 10 Print Spooler needs to be restarted often

[kirkdickinson]

I have been switching my office computers from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10. I usually do this when I build a new workstation or have done a couple when I put an SSD drive in for the boot and just reload from scratch.

This problem started with one Windows 10 computer, but I now have 3 doing it.

Symptoms:
Documents are in the printer queue but don't get printed. No error message.

Trouble Shooting:
Restart printer... does not fix.
Delete print jobs and resend... does not fix.
Restart Windows... print jobs left in queue will print after reboot.

Found a tech document about the printer spooler stalling. The document said to stop the printe spooler, delete some printer files (can't remember which files), then restart the printer spooler and resend the documents. I found that worked but took a while to do. With further testing I realized that all I had to do was stop the printer spooler and then start it. (I guess a restart might work too).

This started with one computer here, but I now have 3 Windows 10 comptuers that need to have the print spooler restarted on average of once per day.

I am also seeing this problem only on my one network printer. Not discounting the fact that it might happen with other, but one printer gets about 90% of the printing. The printer is a Sharp MX-2640 and yes, I have the newest available Windows 10 drivers from Sharp.

I would like a fix, if not, I would love to have a script that stopped and restarted the print spooler.

Thanks,

Kirk

 

[corkyg]

What I do for that is remove the printer and then find it and reinstall.

 

[mikeymikec]

And ensure that the printer driver has been deleted from the print server properties (which can be found by selecting a printer in 'Devices & Printers' then clicking on 'print server properties'). I'd probably delete every other print driver from the list that isn't necessary too.

 

[kirkdickinson]

What I do for that is remove the printer and then find it and reinstall.

Yep, have done that several times. Does not fix the problem for more than half a day.

And ensure that the printer driver has been deleted from the print server properties (which can be found by selecting a printer in 'Devices & Printers' then clicking on 'print server properties'). I'd probably delete every other print driver from the list that isn't necessary too.

OK, I can try that too.

Just seems crazy that this is happening on multiple computers.

Thanks

 

[mikeymikec]

Just seems crazy that this is happening on multiple computers.

Logically its the print driver that's at fault, but I would try to do everything I could within reason to eliminate other possibilities. What security software are you running?

 

[kirkdickinson]

Logically its the print driver that's at fault, but I would try to do everything I could within reason to eliminate other possibilities. What security software are you running?

It could very well be a bad print driver, but I'm kind of stuck with this printer and driver. It's for a security software one computer has AVG, one computer has Avast, and the other is a brand new windows install that as yet only has the built in Windows defender.

 

[mikeymikec]

Failing the earlier suggestion, if you can try an older version of the print driver, you might get lucky.