Como Limpiar o Resetear la Cola de Impresión – Windows

Leo en http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm Una Solución a Limpiar Drivers de Impresora en Windows incluyendo Lexmark.

If the Print Spooler service fails when printing, when Windows starts or it can not be restarted, the usual reason is that one or more printer drivers is defective.  If the Print Spooler service is not running, the Printers and Faxes folder will be empty and you can not use it to remove (or add) printers or printer drivers.  If you have a Lexmark printer, see here
If the Print Spooler service is operational:

1. Open the Printers (Printers and Faxes on Windows XP) folder

2. delete all of the printers

3. click File, Server Properties

4. select the Drivers tab

5. for each entry:

   1. select the entry

   2. click Remove

If the Print Spooler service is not operational, or you want to make certain there are no printer driver remnants, either follow the instructions below or use cleanspl.exe from the Windows 2000, XP or 2003 Resource Kit (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en).  cleanspl.exe from the Windows 2003 Resource Kit tools will work on Windows XP.

Here’s how to clean up the print spooler stuff if cleanspl.exe is not available or you prefer to do things manually.

Warning! be very careful using regedit – if you delete the wrong things, you may render your computer inoperative!

1. open regedit (e.g. click Start, key regedit and press Enter)

2. navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers

under this key, there will be the keys Version-2 and Version-3 (one or the other of these may be absent – not a problem)

the sub-keys under these contain the printer driver configuration information

delete all the sub-keys inside Version-2 and Version-3, but not these keys themselves

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312052 lists some other registry entries to delete, but this is not usually necessary.

1. open a Command Prompt window

2. key the commands
   net stop spooler
   net start spooler

3. open Windows Explorer

4. navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\ and delete any files there.  By default, this is where the print spooler stores print files.

5. navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 (%systemroot% is usually Windows, but it might be winnt or something else; this is set when the OS is installed).

6. inside w32x86, there will be folders with the names 2 and 3 (one or more of these may be absent – not a problem)
   delete all of the files and sub-folders in each of the 2 and 3 folders, but not the folders themselves
   inside w32x86, there may be other folders with names starting with «hewlett_packard», «hphp» or something else; delete these folders also

7. restart the print spooler (see steps 8 and 9 above)

At this point, the system should be pretty well back to the way it was before any printers were installed.

Some would suggest restarting Windows at this point, but with Windows 2000 and later, this does not seem to be required.

If you have a Lexmark printer, these additional steps may be necessary (thanks to Robert Orleth [MSFT] for providing this information).  The Lexmark printer installation process sometimes installs a service that makes the print spooler service dependent on itself.  If there is a problem with Lexmark service or a Lexmark printer driver (or you removed it using the steps above), the print spooler service may not start (see also http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324757).  The steps below make the print spooler service only dependent on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service (RPCSS), which is normal.  The print spooler service dependencies are stored in the registry at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Spooler\DependOnService

The sc config command at step 16 resets the value of that entry.

1. Open a Command Prompt window

2. key the command
   sc config spooler depend= RPCSS
   (note the space after the = but not before)

3. restart the print spooler (see steps 8 and 9 above)

How to remove the old Lexmark Driver

1. At the command prompt type lexbces -u and press ENTER. You will receive confirmation that the file has been removed and that you have to delete one other lexbces.exe file manually.
2. Use the Search option to find the lexbces.exe file and then delete it from C:\Windows\System32.
   Windows 2000: Delete the file lexbces.exe from C:\WINNT\system32.
3. Go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.
   Windows 2000: Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.
4. Right click on the Print Spooler.
5. Go to Properties and click on Start.
6. Click on Apply and then on OK.

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