Tag Archives: printer spooler

Windows 8 – Workaround for Printer Appears Offline

Scenario:

The printer stops working after a set period of time.  Rebooting usually fixes the printing issue but after a period of time it starts again.  When you navigate to the active print jobs you will see what you wanted to print but the printer will list as “Offline”.

Solution 1:

Note that is a work around to the real issue.  The first thing you will want to do is see if your printer has updated drivers.  If that doesn’t work often times restarting the print spooler service will alleviate the issue.

  1. Press the windows key to pull up your local search.
  2. Type services and then choose “Services” from the results to open that control panel option.
  3. Navigate to “Print Spooler” in the main window.  Right click on that item and choose “Restart”.

Solution 2:

  1. Press the windows key+R to bring up a run dialog.
  2. Type “cmd” and click Ok to start a command prompt.
  3. Enter “net stop spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.
  4. Enter “net start spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.