Printer slow to start

I have a Toshiba Satellite P105 w/XP-PRO SP3 connected via USB to a HP photosmart 7960. The printer has suddenly become very slow when starting a print job. When I send something to the printer the print queue icon immediately opens in the tray area. If I open the queue it says that it is printing. I have to wait 2 to 3 minutes for the printer to start. I have the print spooler set to start printing as soon as the document is received. I have tried different print processors with no change. It makes no difference which program I am printing from it is just as slow. If I send a test page from printer properties it is just as slow. I have reloaded the printer drivers with no change. Any ideas?

 

Print processors? I don't know what you mean by that.

Does the computer seem to be working fine in all other aspects?

If you send a second print job, does it start immediately after the first is complete?

Note the first thing that happens is the print job is typically dumped out of RAM and into a temporary file on your HD. Then it is "spooled" to the printer as fast as the printer's internal buffers can take it. If your HD is running low on disk space, it can cause printing delays. If the communications link is having issues, the spooling process will be delayed.

You can try another cable, or another USB pair (a different pair on a notebook may not be possible). Trying the printer on another computer would tell you right away (well, perhaps after installing all the drivers) whether the problem is on the printer side or not.

When you "reloaded" the drivers, did you uninstall the old first and did you disconnect the printer from the computer too. If not, do that. Unplug the USB connection, uninstall all the drivers then reboot. Then follow the instructions to install new drivers.

I would suggest a quick cleanup of your HD. Below is my canned text on running a quick clean and scan. This does not appear to be a malware issue so you can skip the scanning part if you are certain your system is clean - although it would not hurt to scan to make sure.

Have you thoroughly scanned for malware? Just to be sure, I recommend purging the hard drives of clutter with Windows (XP, Vista or 7) Disk Cleanup, ATF Cleaner or CCleaner. If using CCleaner, uncheck the option to install the Yahoo toolbar during installation. Before first use, go to Options > Settings > Advanced and ensure Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 24 hours is unchecked. Know your site credentials (user names and passwords) for sites you frequent before cleaning; you may have to login again at next visit.

Download and install Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware (MBAM) and scan as follows:

Check for updates before scanning,
Select Perform quick scan > Scan,
When complete, click OK, then Show Results,
Ensure all is selected, and click Remove Selected,
When complete, save the log in Notepad to a convenient place for future reference. ​

Repeat for all computers in the "Trusted Zone" of your network (your side of the Internet "gateway" - typically the cable or DSL modem).

Windows Disk Cleanup Note: One distinct advantage Windows Disk Cleanup has over all other cleaners is that it also has the option to delete all but the most recent Restore Point. This can be significant as malicious code can hide there too. But I caution this option, found under the More Options tab, should be used only after careful consideration. If experiencing a problem that first appeared within the last couple days, do not use this option until sure System Restore can not be used to fix it. If the computer is running fine otherwise, and you are doing your weekly supplemental scans and want to root out as many potential malware hiding places as possible, I recommend setting a new Restore Point, and then use this Disk Cleanup option to clear out the old points. ​

After cleaning the clutter of potentially 1000s of temporary files on your drive, now is good time to defrag your drive if you have not done that in awhile.

 

Under Printers and Faxs printer properties the advanced tab there is a button for printer processors mine has 3 choices. Computer has 500 Gig 7200 rpm hard drive with only about 100 Gig used and 4 Gig of memory and runs fine in all other respects. I run CCleaner regularly. All print jobs are equally slow. Have changed the USB cable and port. Uninstalled the old driver used HP's level 4 scrubber rebooted and reloaded no change. Defrag the drive regularly. I will try MBAM and see what it finds.

 

Ran MBAM found some minor Adware nothing else.

 

Well, it sounds like the computer is fine. Note USB ports come in pairs. Using the other port in the same pair does not force XP to reconfigure for new hardware found. If your laptop has a different pair, you can try that, but at this point, I would want to try that printer with another computer - before I started looking deeper into your laptop.

 

Don't think it is the USB port. I have a netgear print server, plugged it into that and it is just as slow to start. Once it starts it prints fine. I loaded the drivers in my notebook and connected it to the printer. It started printing almost immediately. Put the printer on the network and the notebook was able to print quickly that way also so definitely think the problem is somewhere in the laptop. Sorry for taking so long to reply we have had some rough weather and Cox High Speed(?) Internet goes down about the same time as the first rain drop hits.

 

Hey people have other commitments - don't worry about it. FTR, I too have Cox. If you really do have problems every time it rains, I would call them. You might have a loose connection on the pole drop or cracked cable insulation letting moisture in, or a bad splitter.
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I assume you mean a different notebook from the Toshiba?

So you put the printer on the network and the 2nd notebook prints fine, but the Toshiba still does not. Since the printer works fine on another computer, we know the printer is fine - so that points us back to the first laptop again.

How do these computers and the print server connect to the network? If by Ethernet, try another cable.

You said this problem suddenly started - how long ago? If just a few days, you might try a system restore to a point just before it happened.

You could Reset Print Spooler - this is normally for when it does not print at all, but this does no harm if not the problem.

 

This has been an on going problem for some time. It started suddenly but because it is a laptop it is not always connected to the printer. When I have the printer on the network it works fine with my wife's desktop (XP Pro also) and with my tablet running Vista. I have manually cleared the Printer directory under sys32/spooler/. I have completely removed all HP software from the computer and reinstalled. Nothing I have done seems to help. When I send a print job or even the print test page the print Que opens immediately and the window opens that tells me how much ink I have and then it just sits for 3 or 4 minutes. If I send a second print job while I am waiting for the first to print it sits for 3 or 4 minutes after the first job prints before it prints. They print fine it just takes a long time.

 

Hmmm, I wish I had an answer for you, but I seem to be out of ideas. Sorry.