Diagnosing the problem is a difficult task because there are many types of printers and many reasons why a printer may be malfunctioning.

First, make sure the printer is connected to the network and to Windows computer, in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

Then use the printer troubleshooter, which can automatically diagnose and fix the problem.

Try updating the printer driver on your computer. Printer problems are sometimes caused by an outdated driver and can be resolved by installing or reinstalling the latest driver.

To find the latest printer driver, first check Windows update, which detects hardware connected to your computer and automatically notifies you when new drivers are available.

  1. Open Windows service Update.
  2. In the left pane, select Check for updates and wait until Windows system will perform a search latest updates for computer.
  3. If an update is found, select Update.
  4. If a printer driver update is not listed, it is likely that one exists, but the printer manufacturer has not yet submitted it to Microsoft.

Most printer manufacturers offer latest versions drivers on their website in the support section. Drivers are typically organized by Windows edition and printer model. Once the appropriate driver is found, install it according to the manufacturer's instructions.

If your printer still won't print, check the support section of the manufacturer's website for troubleshooting tips for your specific model.

A message appears about Print Manager problems

A spooler is a program that temporarily stores print jobs on your computer's hard drive or memory until the printer starts printing.

If a document takes an unusually long time to print, or if you receive a Print Spooler error message, we recommend that you restart Print Spooler on your computer.

An easy way to restart Print Spooler is to save your work and restart your computer. Or you can do the following:

Restarting Print Spooler

To complete these steps, you must be logged in with administrator rights.

  1. Click to open the Administration folder.
  2. Double click Services.
  3. Click right click mice Print Spooler and select Properties.
  4. Make sure that the tab Are common near the point Startup type value selected Automatically.
  5. If the process has not yet started, in the area Service Status Click the Start button, then the OK button.

You need to add a network printer, but there is no such command

If Windows is unable to detect your printer, follow these steps to find and add the printer manually.

  1. Open the Devices and Printers window.
  2. Click the button Installing the Printer.
  3. In the Add Printer Wizard, select Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.
  4. On the page Find available printers select Printer is not listed.
  5. On the page Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address Choose how to search for the printer you want to use by type or location, and then click Next.
  6. Follow the wizard's additional instructions and click Finish.

Cannot find printer on network folder

To make sure that network printers are visible, check to see if your network is working properly. If the network is working properly, follow these steps:

Make sure that all computers on the network belong to the same workgroup. One way to do this is to change the workgroup name on computers that have Windows 7 installed.

If the name and network address(network location) of the printer, contact the user who installed the network printer or your system administrator.

If you are adding a printer that is connected to and shared with another computer on the network, make sure that the computer is turned on. You can also contact the computer owner to make sure that the computer is connected to the network and that the printer name has not changed.


Can’t print from Microsoft Edge: how to fix that?

Table of contents:

Solution 1 – Use Ctrl + P shortcut

Solution 4 – Select print option from the menu

According to some users, you can fix this problem by using the Print option from the menu. To do that follow these steps:

Solution 5 – Use Print to PDF or any other virtual printer

If you can't print from Microsoft Edge, you can try using feature.

With this feature, you’ll print a page that you want to a PDF file and you can just print that PDF file from your PC. To print to PDF from Microsoft Edge do the following:

This isn’t the best solution, but it’s a decent workaround so you might want to give it a try.

Solution 6 – Try using older drivers

Users reported that they managed to fix this problem after installing an older version of printer drivers.

If you can’t print from Edge you might have to remove your printer drivers and then install older drivers for your printer.

Solution 7 – Use Developer Tools

All modern browsers have Developer Tools feature that allows you to see the source code of a certain website, and so does Microsoft Edge. To fix problems with printing with Microsoft Edge do the following:

This is a rather strange workaround but users reported that it works for them, so you might want to try it.

Solution 8 – Edit the registry

According to users, you can fix this problem by editing your registry. This is a simple procedure and you can do it by following these steps:

  1. Press Windows Key + R, enter and press Enter or click OK to open Registry Editor.

  2. In the left pane navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MicrosoftEdge\Main key.
  3. Right-click the empty space on the right pane and choose New > String Value.

  4. Enter AlwaysUseDefaultPrinter as the name of the new String Value and double click it.
  5. In the Value data field enter yes and click OK to save changes.
  6. Close the Registry Editor and check if the problem is resolved.

This usually happens at the most inopportune time - when you urgently need to print an important document. Just yesterday, a printer that was working properly suddenly refuses to fulfill its duties: instead of a document, it throws out blank sheets of paper or stupidly blinks the lights, as if not understanding what you want from it.

Almost everyone who uses a printer regularly encounters printing problems. The most extensive group of such problems are various defects in the printed image; in second place is the complete lack of printing. There are many reasons why the printer does not print at all or prints poorly - from incorrect settings in the operating system until the device itself malfunctions.

Why doesn't the printer print?

All reasons that lead to failures and complete failure of the printing system are conventionally divided into 3 large groups:

  1. Problems with installing and configuring the printing device in the operating system. Other types software problems.
  2. Problems with cartridges or continuous ink supply system (CISS).
  3. Problems with the hardware of the printer itself.

The first group is the easiest for the user to diagnose and eliminate. It is possible to cope with it in approximately 90% of cases. A group of problems associated with cartridges cannot always be solved at home, but if funds allow, it is enough to simply buy new cartridge. The third group is solved only in case of simple and typical problems, such as a paper jam, a broken connecting cable, etc. Problems associated with a malfunction of the device require contacting service.

Problems with printer installation and printing in Windows

Fortunately, the majority of problems in the printing system related to software operation are very easy to resolve. These include:

  • There is no printer driver in the operating system or the driver has failed.
  • Disable the print service.
  • The default print device is incorrect.
  • User pauses printing.
  • Switch the printer to offline mode.
  • Problems with the document in the print queue (too large, not recognized, etc.). The printer still prints, but extremely slowly. Or instead of text it displays something similar to hieroglyphs.
  • Denying access to the printing system by security policies.

More complex cases include damage to OS components, driver conflicts, and viral infection. Unlike the previous ones, it is not always possible to deal with them with a couple of mouse clicks.

Reasons why it doesn't print network printer:

  • On remote computer The printer port is blocked.
  • The network path to the printer is incorrect.
  • Sharing settings are incorrectly set.

To separate problems with the printer itself from problems on your computer, try printing the document from another PC or mobile device. If it (the printer) is connected via USB, if possible, connect it via wireless communication and vice versa. Your task is to find out whether the print function works anywhere.

After making sure that the source of the failure is not in the printing device, but is connected to the computer, look at the device manager (the printer must be connected to the computer and plugged in). The absence of the “Printers” group in the list of devices and the presence of unknown equipment marked with an exclamation or question mark indicates that there is no required driver. To solve the problem, just download it from the device manufacturer’s website (for example, HP, Epson, Samsung, Canon, Brother) and install it.

If the PC sees the printer, but it still does not print, look at the “Services” application (it’s most convenient to open it through the task manager tab of the same name).

Find Print Spooler in the list of services and make sure it is running. If not, right-click its properties. In the “Startup type” drop-down list, set “Automatic”, then click the “Run” button below.

Is the problem still there? Go ahead. Run system application“Settings”, go to the “Devices” - “Printers and Scanners” section (this and further instructions are discussed using Windows 10 as an example). The right half of the window displays a list of all installed printers, among which should be the one with which problems occurred. If it's not there, check physical connection device to PC. If there is, click "Open Queue".

  • Is the printer used as the default (if not, it may be the default printing device) virtual printer, which instead of printing, for example, converts the file to another format).
  • Is there a checkmark next to the “Pause printing” and “Work offline” items? If the printer spontaneously switches to offline mode, this indicates bad connection with the computer, power problems or malfunction.
  • If there are documents in the print queue, click Clear Queue and try printing a test page.

If the printer does not print online only, click " General access" and check if it is allowed to this device.

Next, look at the “Security” tab and make sure that your account is not prohibited from using the printing function.

The reason the printer is not queuing files could be one of the following:

  • The paper is out or jammed.
  • The toner or ink is low.
  • The device does not contain the original cartridge.
  • The print counter has reached its limit - printing is blocked.
  • The user account does not have permission to print files.
  • The device is faulty.
  • There was a failure in the operating system.

Devices from different manufacturers block printing in different situations. So, when a cartridge runs out of ink, one machine stops processing documents and resets the print queue, while the other simply spits out empty sheets. The same is true in other situations. The specific problems that lead to blocking are usually described in the printer instructions.

Many printer problems are well recognized by their self-diagnosis system. If the device is equipped with a display, the cause of the failure is most often displayed on it. Diagnosis of simpler devices is carried out using their proprietary application. It is usually present on the disk that came with the device, as well as on the manufacturer’s website.

Below is an example of the troubleshooting function in the proprietary application of the HP Deskjet 1050 printer.

A stop when sending a specific document for printing is most often associated with the document itself. So, if the printer does not print pdf file, perhaps the author protected it from printing (pdf supports such functions). In such cases, the easiest way is to take screenshots of the pages. problematic file, insert them, for example, into Word document and easily print them as pictures.

If hieroglyphs, “crazy words” or spaces appear on the printed copy instead of text, try replacing the font in the document with one of the ones preinstalled in Windows (all printers recognize them).

Problems with cartridges, dye, CISS

Any dye - toner or ink - runs out sooner or later. But this does not happen suddenly. The idea that there is little paint left is suggested by a decrease in the quality of the print - pale colors, whitish stripes, partial unprinting. It happens that the printer stops printing even when the dye level is normal. This is due to:

  • A drop of ink dries in the print head or becomes clogged with an air lock.
  • Incorrect installation of the cartridge (for example, when the protective films are not removed, the cover is not completely closed).
  • Contamination of cartridge air ducts.
  • Clamping or blockage of the CISS ink plume.
  • Blocking of non-original cartridge.
  • The limit on the number of printouts has been reached.
  • Cartridge malfunction.

Clogging the head with dried ink is a common occurrence when an inkjet printer is not used for a long time. If the plug is relatively small, cleaning the nozzles (outlet holes) helps solve the problem. This is also done using the printer’s proprietary utility, and each manufacturer has a different name for this function:

  • HP has cartridge cleaning.

  • Epson has print head cleaning.
  • Canon has cleaning and deep cleaning (the second is an enhanced option when the first doesn’t help), etc.

During cleaning, a special pump installed inside the printer forces some ink through the nozzles under high pressure. This causes a clot of paint or an air lock to come out.

The most budget models printers are not equipped with a pump, and the nozzle cleaning function does not work on them (despite the driver supporting it). If clogged, the print heads of such devices must be soaked and washed in a cleaning liquid.

On modern inkjet printers The Epson print head is built not into the cartridges, but into the device itself, and it is quite expensive. Its failure is equivalent to the failure of the entire printer, which in such cases can only be thrown away. To prevent ink from drying out, owners Epson printers It is important to clean the nozzles at least once every 2 weeks if the device is idle.

If you removed cartridges from the printer, make sure that they are installed correctly and that their air ducts are not blocked.

When using CISS, first of all you should also check whether the ink plume is passable and whether the air holes of the tanks are free.

Spots and stripes (sometimes almost black sheets) when printing on a laser or LED printer are a consequence of the cartridge not being sealed (toner spills out), overfilling of the waste bin, foreign small objects getting into the device, damage, incorrect installation or wear of cartridge parts.

Problems after refueling when:

  • the printer prints in only one shade, for example, red;
  • the print looks too pale when the cartridge is full;
  • instead of an image there are multi-colored spots, etc.,

As a rule, they arise due to contamination, improper installation of the cartridge in place, or a violation of the refilling technology.

The complete absence of an image (white sheets) or printing defects after replacing the original cartridge or ink with a conditionally suitable one is precisely the result of the incompatibility of the latter with your printer model. In some cases, it can be solved by reflashing the cartridges or the device, in others - only by purchasing original components and consumables.

Printer problems

A breakdown of a printing device does not always manifest itself as a complete failure, when the device does not turn on or does not perform its functions at all. In some cases it looks like this:

  • The printer does not print in one of the colors, for example, black. The cartridge is in good working order, compatible, and there is paint. Replacing the cartridge and toner does not help.
  • Only part of the document is printed.
  • The toner does not adhere to the paper.
  • Paper does not pick up from the tray.
  • The printer does not print or incorrectly transfers the text of any documents onto paper, and does not reproduce standard commonly used fonts.
  • The print is not positioned correctly on the sheet.
  • Instead of one document, several are printed and vice versa.

The majority of such problems cannot be solved at home without special training. The user can independently see if the device has jammed the paper; if yes, try to extract it; check whether the cartridge is installed correctly; remove foreign objects that have entered the device if they are easily accessible; clean visible dirt. In other cases, all that remains is to contact the service or buy a new device, if it is from a series of disposable ones, which are very cheap.


New Microsoft browser Edge works without any problems, but it suffers from bugs, which are mostly due to its immaturity. If you're experiencing sudden crashes, slow performance, or Edge simply won't launch, you can try to resolve any of these issues by reinstalling the browser.

Many Windows users 10 have already become familiar with the procedure with using PowerShell. Unfortunately, this option does not work with Edge, since the browser is directly part of operating system. Moreover, unlike Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge settings cannot be reset to default. More precisely, you can reset the browser, but for this you will have to work manually and again turn to the PowerShell console for help.

Before you begin, follow the recommendations below (if none of this helps, then proceed to reinstall the browser):

Open Edge settings and clear your browser data ( cookies, cache, log, etc.). Check if this solved your problem.

If Edge crashes or freezes, switch to a local profile with your account Microsoft records or vice versa. Check if this solved your problem.

Create a new one account user. In this case, the browser will be available in a fresh state.

Reinstalling Microsoft Edge

ATTENTION| The procedure is intended for experienced users; The blog author does not bear any responsibility for any possible damage. Before you begin, create a system restore point. Also keep in mind that you may lose your favorite sites as well as your browsing history.

1. Quit Microsoft Edge if it's running.

2. Open File Explorer and go to C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\Packages

3. Find the folder Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe and delete it. This folder is protected and unless you make yourself the owner, you will not be able to delete it. To simplify this process, you can use free utility. Install the program, right-click on the folder in context menu select “Gain access/Restore rights.” Wait for a confirmation window to appear with the text “Received full access to file/folder" and then delete the Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe folder in the usual way.

4. Restart your computer.

5. Launch PowerShell with administrator rights.

6. Type the following command and press Enter:

cd C:\Users\Your username

7. Finally, type this command and press Enter:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge | Foreach (Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml" -Verbose)

The command initiates a browser reinstallation. If the operation is successful, you will see the following screen:

8. Restart your computer again.

The browser should now start working without any problems.

Did you manage to solve your problem? Tell us in the comments.

Have a great day!