Apparently I have some problem with my computer system. I don’t know if it is a problem with Windows XP, My D-Link DI-713P Wireless Gateway with Print Server, or my HP Deskjet 5550 printer. Once or twice a week I will try to print something and nothing will happen. I can see the print job in the queue when I open the printer dialog box but nothing prints and I don’t see anything in process on my print server.

For a long time I would just reboot the computer, but this was time consuming. Then I did a Google search and discovered that I could follow the following steps to clear this up and start back over fresh:

1. Get a command prompt by clicking on Start | Run | type “CMD” | Click OK.
2. Type “NET STOP SPOOLER” to stop the print spooler service.
3. When it finishes browse to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS directory and delete any files with .SPL and .SHD extensions.
4. Return to the command prompt and restart the print spooler service by entering “NET START SPOOLER”
5. Close the command prompt window.

This worked but it was still rather time consuming and I always dreaded going through the process. A couple weeks ago I decided to write all this in a .BAT file so I would have one icon on my desktop (fixspooler.bat) that would take care of this for me. In case anyone else experiences this problem, here is the code for the bat file:

net stop spooler
del C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS\*.spl /Q
del C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS\*.shd /Q
net start spooler


One caveat that I have experienced with all three methods (reboot, manual process, and BAT file) is that the printer will sometimes start printing garbage when I send the next print job. When this happens. I kill the print job at my print server, turn off the printer, run my BAT file again, and all seems to be well with the world.

By the way, I haven’t experienced this yet with my Mac or Linux machines, but I don’t print nearly as much from them either. This does lead me to believe that it is a Windows XP issue. I hope that someone finds this useful. Leave a comment about your circumstances if you experience this.