How To Clear Printer Memory?

Technology has surely made our life easier. But sometimes this very thing becomes the reason for our frustration. For example, suppose you’ve got urgent paperwork and suddenly your printer starts malfunctioning. How would you feel?

Well, you may feel like banging your head out of panic. But would it solve your problem? Absolutely not! But fortunately, our article will.

Your printer may refuse to print if there’s a hardware problem. But sometimes even if the hardware is in prim and proper condition, it may not still do its job. You must have done everything possible but still to no avail. At this point, clearing the printer’s memory is the only thing to do.

That’s why in this article, we have come up with an elaborate description of how to clear printer memory. So, if you’re interested, stay tuned.

How Print Memory Works

First thing first, you need to know how printer memory operates.

• Computers have a print queue to separate print tasks if you send the printer several documents to print.
• The queue operates in every single user account that you have on your computer. It enlists the requested print works along with necessary data. All of these are kept in temporary memory which is otherwise known as ‘Print Spool’.
• When one print job is completed, your computer sends another task from this print spool.
• Most of the typical inkjet printers tend to print from the spooled data directly. Hence, if you want to clear any stuck file, you’ll need to clear that queue on your computer.
• On the other hand, laser or some high-end printers come with built-in temporary memory.

How to Clear Printer Memory

Now, let’s have a look at some of the most effective methods of clearing printer memory.

1. Cancel The Print Works

This is one of the most fruitful ways when it comes to clearing the printer memory. For that, you need to know how to delete printer from computer.

• If you use Windows 7 or 8, at first go to ‘Devices and Printers control panel’.
• Now right click on the printer’s name that you want to clear.
• Then, select “See What’s Printing.”
• After that, proceed to the “Printer” menu and click on “Cancel All Documents”.
• Now, select “Yes” and that list will be cleared in no time.
• In case there are any more print tasks on that list, it’s time to reboot the computer. It will clear the memory.
• If your computer is in a shared network with several other ones, you may have to go through this process in all of those computers.
• But that’s not necessary if you see that the problem is solved by performing the operation on one computer.

2. Restart Your Printer

If the aforementioned trick doesn’t work, you can try this out. It’ll clear the active memory of your printer.

• Switch off your printer. You must also unplug the device from the power outlet.
• Keep it unplugged for 60 seconds and then switch it on again. This is mandatory to allow your printer the time to lose the power completely before restarting.
•  After turning it on, let the device complete the startup sequence.
• When it’s done, your printer will be ready to receive a new printing task.

3. Clear The Printer Settings From Its Memory (Cold Reset)

You must be aware that some of the printers can store setup information in their long-term memory. Hence, the data lasts even after restarting the device. Paper setting and network setting are some of such information. 

You need to clear that memory and it’s popularly known as Cold Reset. This is the straightforward answer to how to delete printer history.

Cold reset turns back the printer settings to how it was by default when you bought it. It singlehandedly solves various kinds of problems related to your printer.

Nevertheless, you don’t need to perform it if you’re simply stuck with a minor print job. Also, the process varies from model to model and brand to brand. So, go through the user manual thoroughly if you need to perform this task.

Final Words

Dealing with a stuck printer may make you feel exasperated, especially if you’ve got an emergency. Only clearing your computer’s memory will help you fix the problem.

We hope that you don’t have to face such an unpleasant experience. But life is unpredictable and we should always be prepared for mishaps.

We hope our article may help you during those trying times. So, gear up and learn these methods by heart.