Just a stab in the dark here.

Do you have the printer plugged into the wall or into a surge suppressor? One time I had a HP printer that started acting up for no reason when printing. It was plugged into the suppressor. When I contacted HP for assistance they suggested I connect the printer directly to a wall outlet. That resolved the issue.

I don't have a clue why.

DA

I had the same problem with an HP and tried to download a fix from HP, but I could not. I contacted a tech who came on my PC and tried to download the same fix. She tried with IE 64 bit, then FF, then another IE, none worked. Then tried with the 3rd IE and it assigned a new port to the printer.

It made me feel better that I wasn't the only one that had a problem with the fix download.

I've had good luck on client machines using a command prompt when all easier troubleshooting isn't working. Especially if you are seeing 'ghost' jobs in the printer queue or job list and you cannot delete them. You would not be able to print until the stuck jobs are deleted.

*** This looks more complicated than it is only because each step is thoroughly explained.

I am copy/pasting from the microsoft website.

Method D: Stop the print spooler and delete all spooled files
If you tried Methods A through C (pretty much all the steps you've tried)and you were not successful, Method D should work for you. If you came to Method D immediately only to delete a print job, some of what we say here might not apply to you, so please bear with us.

Method D is somewhat more complex and will require a bit more work than the other methods, but don't worry. Method D looks much more difficult than it really is.

First, in case that you don't know how printing works, here is a short explanation. Print jobs are sent to the printer as spooled files. This means that the files are put in a temporary location so that the printer can access a print queue and print jobs at its own speed. If you stop the spooler and its files, most of the time, you both cancel printing and delete the print job.

Note To use this method, you must have Computer Administrator status. If you are using your own printer, you most likely have Computer Administrator status. If you are printing to a shared printer, you might have to ask the system administrator to cancel the print job for you.
Step 1: Start Notepad
To stop the print spooler and its files, we will have you create and run a script file that will automatically stop the service. This sounds difficult, but it really isn't. Just follow these steps carefully.

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type notepad, and then click OK. Notice that a blank Notepad document opens.

Step 2: Copy a command script to Notepad
Now we will have you copy and paste some commands to the Notepad document.

Carefully select (highlight) all the following text:
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.shd
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.spl
net start spooler
Right-click the text that you selected, and then click Copy.
In Notepad, right-click in the blank document, and then click Paste.
Carefully select (highlight) all the following text:
C:\DeletePrintJobs.cmd
Right-click the text that you selected, and then click Copy.
In Notepad, click Save As on the File menu.
In the File Name box, right-click, and then click Paste.

Note Notice that this file name differs from most other file names that you might have seen. That is because this file is a command script file.
Click Save.

Step 3: Run the command script file
Now that you have created the command script file, you will run it. To run it, you will copy and paste the name of the command script file in the Run box.

Carefully select (highlight) all the following text:
C:\DeletePrintJobs.cmd
Right-click the text that you selected, and then click Copy.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, right-click, and then click Paste.
Click OK.
Notice that the Command Prompt window opens to run the command script file that you created. Notice also that this window closes automatically when the command script file has finished running. If you do not see the Command Prompt window open, check that you saved the command script file by using the correct name and that you entered the correct command script file name in the Run box.

Note If this method does not work the first time, or if you cannot print anything after you use this method, restart your computer, and then try again.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to cancel printing or to delete a print job that is stuck in the print queue in Windows XP

That happens to my HP printer about once a year. The easiest way I can get it going again is to go to HP's support site and download the latest driver. Once everything is restarted it will start working again.

I agree about going to HP's site. They offered me a fix even though I could not get it to work. The fix worked for the tech.

Thanks to all, tried all sorts of things, went to the HP site downloaded something and reinstalled the printer so now it works--really don't know what I did, guess I took a bit of several things.

When all else has failed, or even before that, I unplug my printer and start from scratch and re-install. That has fixed every problem I have ever had with my HP printer.

Glad you got your problem solved.

Now do something so that this problem does not happen in the future. HP has diagnostics for printers and networks called HPPDU.exe (Printer diagnostic) and HPHNDU.exe (network diagnostic). The OS does anything necessary to work around defects. Mask the defect. Diagnostics are how to find and then fix a problem before it causes another failure.

Some just cured symptoms; a failure reoccurs. Better is to see the problem before it causes another failure.

This post was edited by westom on Mon, Dec 31, 12 at 13:43