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Deleted printer keeps coming back
Question
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Win7 Pro, an HP Officejet AIO self-installed (plug & play) on USB a few weeks ago. Then the printer was disconnected to send to an "out of office" employee and a different HP - just a color Officejet printer - was plugged in USB & also self-installed. The old printer was "deleted" from the "Devices & Printers" but every time the user logs in, the old printer returns like a ghost, its image greyed-out.
I have tried - to no avail - to remove it completely. I've gone into "print server properties/drivers" and tried o remove the "driver & package" - it fails claiming the AIO is still in use, which of course it isn't. I saw a post somewhere that said to remove the USB port in Device Mgr - then reboot - that didn't work either.
HP says since it installed plug & play - without their software - they cannot advise what to do.
So what CAN I do to get rid of this ghost?
Thanks.
Answers
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In your search box type print management or go to control panel, administrative tools, then printer management. All the printers should be listed there under print servers. You should be able to remove the printer by right clicking and selecting delete and once the printer is removed you can try removing the driver as well.
Regards
~G- Marked as answer by BillWCH Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:50 PM
All replies
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In your search box type print management or go to control panel, administrative tools, then printer management. All the printers should be listed there under print servers. You should be able to remove the printer by right clicking and selecting delete and once the printer is removed you can try removing the driver as well.
Regards
~G- Marked as answer by BillWCH Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:50 PM
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This worked for me, and thanks Jjinx! In "View devices and printers", right click on the ghost printer and select "See whats printing". Right click on any print jobs in the queue and select "Cancel". This may take a minute or two to clear the queue. You might have to close and reopen the dialog box a time or two to refresh the list. Oncde the queue is empty, you can remove the printer in the normal manner.
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You definitely have to remove all the print jobs. Problem can be an error on removing them.
For me the following procedure did work :
1.stop the print spooler (start "services.msc" in run from the start menu and search for "print spooler" - right click & select stop)
2.remove the countenance of the map C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS (or similar map)
3.restart print spooler via "services.msc as explained under 1.
In my case the print jobs were gone and I could remove the ghost printer.- Proposed as answer by Pete from Vancouver Tuesday, March 10, 2015 9:10 PM
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Freaking awesome. Been annoying the cra*p out of me for months now with "ghost printers" that keep re appearing after deleting. Couldn't delete pending print jobs no matter how many times I tried. Always kept coming back after 30 minutes or so. Koenge's fix worked perfect. Hats of to you, I will sleep good tonight :-)
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For ghost printers that won't go away - this will work:
Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Print Management
Click on All Printers or Printers with Jobs - usually the problem is that the ghost printers you can't delete have stuck print jobs. Click on the printer you want to remove, then click on More Actions and Cancel Print Jobs. Now you can delete the printer from here. Do this for all ghost printers, then reboot - all ghost printers are now gone.
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This was the fix for me. But swap the word countenance for contents in KoenGe's reply. I spent hours trying to set up a new printer with no luck until I was able to delete the print jobs in TWO different ghost printers. If you have several printers right click on each one in Devices and Printers and make sure there are no print jobs pending. I was not able to cancel the print jobs I had to use KoenGe's method. When I did the two printers were gone!
Thanks KoenGe
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You definitely have to remove all the print jobs. Problem can be an error on removing them.
For me the following procedure did work :
1.stop the print spooler (start "services.msc" in run from the start menu and search for "print spooler" - right click & select stop)
2.remove the countenance of the map C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS (or similar map)
3.restart print spooler via "services.msc as explained under 1.
In my case the print jobs were gone and I could remove the ghost printer.
Worked like a charm for me !