Printer Issues

Drybonz · Jul 19, 2021

I'm not able to print in Windows 11... haven't used my printer for a bit, but was wondering if anyone else has had issues. It still recognizes the printer model in the device manager, but each time I try printing I get a generic error notification that it was "unable to print" (helpful). Thanks for any feedback you can offer.

johnlgalt · Jul 19, 2021

No issues here with my Brother MFC-L3770cdw.

Have you checked for an updated driver, and / or tried re-installing the current driver?

Also, check if your print spooler is on.....

Drybonz · Jul 19, 2021

Yeah, the last driver update for it was 2015, same driver that has been running on Win 10. Print spooler, I'm not sure how to check... I thought that was all automated.

*edit* Just checked print spooler in services... it is "running" and "automated".

johnlgalt · Jul 19, 2021

Might try reinstalling the driver over itself to see if it works.

Also, check printer properties - does it show the printer offline? Maybe the port has been changed automagically by Windows 11 and you need to change the port for it to work again, it's been known to happen in Windows.

What printer model?

Drybonz · Jul 19, 2021

I actually just figured it out. My color cartridge was low enough to prevent printing (even though it was not telling me this was the problem). I was able to go into the printer properties and disable the color cartridge and then it would print. Oddly, I didn't have to do this in the past, even though I don't use the color ink. Thanks for the replies.

johnlgalt · Jul 19, 2021

And thank you for reporting back.

magilla · Jul 19, 2021

No problems with HP OFFICEJET MFP or HP LASERJET printer

Winuser · Jul 19, 2021

Drybonz said:
I actually just figured it out. My color cartridge was low enough to prevent printing (even though it was not telling me this was the problem). I was able to go into the printer properties and disable the color cartridge and then it would print. Oddly, I didn't have to do this in the past, even though I don't use the color ink. Thanks for the replies.

I want to thank you for posting the solution to your printing problem. This may help someone with the same problem in the future. I remember years ago my printer stopped printing because one of the color cartridges was empty. I'm not sure but I think it was a HP printer. At the time I was not doing any color printing. All my prints were using black ink. I did get warning messages about the color cartridge being low. I don't know how many warnings I got but the printer finally stopped working until I replaced the color cartridge.

erpster4 · Jul 23, 2021

maybe perhaps that problematic color ink cart either malfunctioned or the ink inside has dried up when the color ink has not been used for a very long time

Jabiru · Oct 19, 2021

I had an interesting printing problem similar to the above. I've used Win 11 in a HyperVM since it was released and had no printer problems with my HP 5520 inkjet in either the Win 11 VM or the Host Win 10. However, when I finally "upgraded" my host Win 10 instance via the Windows Installation Assistant my printer returned an error when I tried to print under the host Win 11. The error was generic with no codes and just said "failed to print", and the printer job status showed "error". I initially figured I'd just have to reinstall the driver, but I always like a challenge so I did some troubleshooting and discovered if I selected "Print directly to printer" it worked fine. To make a long story short, it turned out to be the printer spooler which apparently was hung, I suspect a memory management problem although several reboots failed to fix it. After restarting the spooler manually (and I'm still not too sure how I managed that), everything worked fine. Still don't know why, but it appears fixed at this point.

The-Hive · Oct 19, 2021

Drybonz said:
I actually just figured it out. My color cartridge was low enough to prevent printing (even though it was not telling me this was the problem). I was able to go into the printer properties and disable the color cartridge and then it would print. Oddly, I didn't have to do this in the past, even though I don't use the color ink. Thanks for the replies.

Great it's working

, If there is any updated drivers or accompanying software in the future look out for it as it may sort these issues out with win 11

spapakons · Oct 26, 2021

In general, if an official driver from manufacturer is available, prefer that, avoid Windows Update. The official driver gives you a variety of features including ink level report, while a generic driver just prints and never warn you about any issues.

The-Hive · Oct 26, 2021

I agree with @spapakons The best place is the manufacturers site to look, mine has had the same driver for over 4 years and works perfectly with 8.1, 10 and now 11.

spapakons · Oct 26, 2021

For printers with many drivers such as PCL, PS etc, I found that the PCL driver renders graphics and colors much better than the PS driver, so prefer it. For network printers, if you have difficulties to connect it with the manufacturer's proprietary protocol, try connecting with TCP/IP instead.

For example, my very old HP Deskjet 895Cxi printer only had Windows 98 and Windows 2000 drivers. While Windows 2000 drivers work OK on Windows XP, they don't work on newer Windows, so I rely on Windows Update with the generic driver and I miss all the paper selections and other features I had in Windows XP. It really sucks. So use the official drivers when you can.

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