HP printer not printing anything

Technology is weird sometimes. I can control my thermostat with my voice, but somehow printers feel just as confusing and unreliable as they were 10 years ago. If your printer is throwing you an error (or just ignoring your demands entirely), here's how to troubleshoot the problem if the hp printer not printing anything so you can get back to work.

Check Your Printer's Error Lights

Frustrating as they can be, printers do sometimes tell you what the problem is so you can avoid trial-and-erroring your way through the troubleshooting process. Your printer may be showing an error message through a series of cryptic flashing, colored lights on the printer itself.

It isn't always clear which lights mean what, though, so you may need to check the manual to decode what your printer is saying. If you lost the manual, you can usually download a PDF copy from the manufacturer's support page for your printer.

Once you've figured out the error—e.g., printer jam or no ink—jump down to the corresponding section of this guide to diagnose it further. (If your printer isn't showing an error, keep reading.)

Clear the Printer Queue

Sometimes, your computer's print queue can get jammed up with old documents that failed to print for one reason or another, holding up the document you need right now.

Right-click on the printer icon in Windows' notification area, then choose Open All Printers to see a list of currently queued items. In macOS, you can see the queue from System Preferences > Printers & Scanners > Open Print Queue. Right-click any old items and clear them to get things chugging again.

Alternatively, in Windows, you can restart the print spooler, which will try to print those documents as if they were just added to the queue (so you don't have to clear them).

There are a few ways to do this, but the easiest is probably from the Command Prompt. Open the Start menu, search for "Command Prompt," right-click the option that appears, and choose Run As Administrator. Then paste in the following commands, pressing Enter after each one:

net stop spooler

del %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\* /Q /F /S

net start spooler

With any luck, this will bring your printer back to life and you'll get the document you've been waiting for.

Fiddle With the Ink Cartridges

If your printer tells you it's out of ink, but you know it isn't, there are a few things you can do. First, the print head may be clogged or dirty, and you can clean it out through your printer's built-in cleaning routine (which you'll find detailed in the manual).

Alternatively, if your printer's heads lie on the ink cartridges themselves—the little copper strip where the ink comes out—you can blot it with a wet paper towel to clean it up. Once ink starts to flow more freely onto the towel, give it a quick dab with a dry paper towel before re-inserting the cartridge.

If you have a laser printer, you may be able to get a bit more toner out of the cartridge by shaking it from side to side, then re-inserting it.

It's also possible your printer just doesn't realize you put in new ink cartridges. If it doesn't detect new ink automatically, there may be a setting on the printer that allows you to "reset" the fill levels. Check your printer's manual to see how on your specific model.

Conclusion

Remember that certain third-party cartridges may cause problems “hp printer not printing colors correctly”, too, so try genuine cartridges from the printer manufacturer to see if they work better. You can also take help from experts before choosing the cartridges.