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How to Delete Print Jobs That Will Not Print

Symptoms

A print job is stuck in the printer queue of the Windows NT print server and cannot be deleted.

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Resolution

To remove the print job, follow these steps. On the print server:
  1. Close Print Manager in Windows NT 3.5x. Close the Printers Folder in Windows NT 4.0.
  2. In Control Panel, double-click the Services icon, click the Spooler Service, and then click Stop. If you are using TCP/IP Printing Services, click it and then click Stop.
  3. Delete the *.spl and *.shd files that show the approximate time and date of the print job causing the problem. They are in the %Winroot%\System32\Spool\Printers directory.


    NOTE: In some cases, Windows NT may not allow the *.spl file(s) to be deleted or renamed. Renaming the *.shd file and restarting the spooler service may be enough to clear the problem.
  4. Restart the services stopped in step 2.

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More Information

With corrupt or too many .spl and .shd files, a Dr. Watson or Application Error in Spools may also occur.


For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: 147347
TITLE : Application Error in SPOOLSS.EXE When Printing

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Keywords: kb, kbprint, kbprb

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Article Info
Article ID : 162365
Revision : 5
Created on : 8/19/2020
Published on : 8/20/2020
Exists online : False
Views : 127