Garbage From Printer
"When I start up my computer, the printer starts printing out a bunch of almost-blank garbage pages, containing hearts, smilies and lots of other gibberish. I don't know why it does this, and don't know how to stop it. Can you help?"
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Pages and Pages of Nonsense
When printers spew out pages of garbage or odd-looking nonsense characters, it COULD be that your computer has been hijacked by an army of monkeys attempting to re-type a Shakespeare play. But more likely it's because the printer and the computer are not communicating correctly.
If you interrupt a print job by turning off either the printer or the computer, the pages that print after that will probably be gibberish. That's because at the start of a print job, the printer receives instructions to load a specific font or code file, which translates the gibberish from the word processor into readable characters.
When you stop and restart the flow, the printer resumes printing the "raw text" and the results are usually not pretty. It's also a handy way to waste an entire ream of paper!
The Cure for Printer Garbage
In most cases, the best thing to do is turn the printer OFF and then make sure that any pending print jobs are deleted from the print queue. Look for a little printer icon near the bottom right corner of the screen, on the WIndows taskbar. Double click the icon to view the items in the print queue, then delete each one. 
Turn the printer back on, and see if a test printout looks okay. If not, I recommend that you uninstall the printer software, restart the computer, then re-install the printer. Use Control Panel / Printers to remove and re-add the printer.
If that doesn't solve the problem, it may indicate a hardware problem. See Death of a Printer for detailed intructions on how to proceed.
Do you have comments or questions about this topic? Post your thoughts below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on December 29, 2006 02:25 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Garbage From Printer (Posted: December 29, 2006 02:25 PM)
Printed from: http://askbobrankin.com/garbage_from_printer.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Garbage From Printer"
Posted by:
Jim Mulvey
07 Mar 2007
When my 970Cse HP DeskJet starts printing out the gibberish lines, I have to shut off the computer, and while it's off, disconnect the printer from the computer, and disconnect the printer's power cord. I start up the computer with everything "printer" disconnected, and in the control panel, "uninstall" the errant printer. I then shut down the computer again and re-plug the printer to the computer, and replug the power to the printer. The next time I start the computer, it recognizes a new piece of hardware, and I just follow the directions of the "Installation Wizard"...VOILA ! my printer is healed!
EDITOR'S NOTE: You shouldn't have to remove and re-install the printer software. If you go to the printer's queue and remove any pending jobs, that should do the trick.
Posted by:
ltunagur
17 Apr 2007
I have also found that if you go to
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS
and remove any files in this folder this problem can be solved.
Posted by:
Vinc DeRisio
30 May 2007
Hi Bob- I had one printer (HP Deskjet) several years ago that occasionally would give me a message that I was out of paper (not so) or that the computer was not properly connected (not so) and then would start printing gibberish. It was caused by the rollers not picking up the paper; I used something called "PathKleen" to run through the printer and the problem was solved for a few months.I'm not sure if this is a problem with newer printers.
Posted by:
John Clason
18 Dec 2008
I have the same issue as described in the original question. The printer works fine. Its just that every time I start my computer, or re-start my computer, the printer spits out about 3-5 pages that are almost blank, except for 1 line of gibberish. After that, the printer works fine. I can even hit cancel just as the printer starts to print, and it cancels the gibberish, and works fine. But its annoying to have the printer do this every time I start the computer. And its a waste of paper.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like there's something stuck in a printer queue, and when you reboot, it tries to print it each time. Check the queues for all defined printers and see if there's anything there...
Posted by:
Nick
25 Jun 2009
Hi Bob,
Whenever I have more then one page to print on my HP Deskjet F2180 it always prints the second page first which is genrally a few lines describing the sender or something similar or irelevent.
How can I make it it print the firat page first?
EDITOR'S NOTE: That's probably a printer properties setting. Go to Control Panel / Printers / then rightclick on the desired printer icon and select Printing Preferences or Properties.