11.2 & how to.....?

[44139]

clear the printer queue??? The old 10.3 printer icon which allowed management is missing from my screen, and I'm not sure it was ever there in 11.2.

[D-cat]

See if this helps:

https://127.0.0.1:631/jobs/

[44139]

ta, but printer still has flashing busy light with purged queue, will do cold restart.

[44139]

Usuall crap-buggered colour cartridge! Gee I HATE HP!!!!

[D-cat]

Yeah, AFA the internal printer memory, I've always found just shutting it off was the quickest and most effective way to stop a botched print.

Some printers you have to yank the power from the back of the printer while it's still on, then hold the power button for about 30 seconds.

The reaaaal stubborn ones require a hard reset, holding the "go" button while powering up (supposed to clear everything and reset an HP to factory defaults).

In my limited searching, I have failed to locate a utility, even for windows, that clears/flushes the memory from a printer from the computer after a job is canceled. I hear rumor that it exists (or did at one time), but noone has so far been able to validate it.

When it comes to crap on the cartridges, all printers get it. That's why I don't buy Epsons any more (can't pull the head for manual cleaning... at least not easily). A bit of denatured or 90+% isopropyl alcohol on a paper towel will usually clear off the crud, then make sure the whole exterior of the cartridge is clean and dry before placing it back in the printer. If you use refill kits and the crap has actually clogged inside the head, I have had some success by soaking the head (don't get the contacts wet) over night in said alcohol in a sealed container (else the alcohol evaporates quickly), drying off, refilling, then waiting another 12 hours upright to use*. Still kind of a 50/50 shot bringing it back to life.

*Usually the waiting is only necessary if the reason for the crudding was running an ink reservoir dry. It allows time for the ink to absorb into the sponge and work its way down into the head.

[sles1983]

$ cd /var/spool/cups
$ rm *
$ rccups restart

[D-cat]

There's other tricks to clear the print spool too, but that doesn't clear the printer memory. Even after you cancel all the jobs, the printer will still print what's in its own cache. While most cheap printers that's only a few K, some (HPs in particular) can have up to 4 MB, sometimes even non-volatile (so printing will resume where it left off after a power failure).

If your printer starts printing junk (like PS code) from a large job, at approximately 4K per page (that's a liberal estimate), even after canceling all jobs, the printer can eat over 2 reams of paper (plus ink/toner) before it stops. Errors that print 1-3 lines per sheet eat even more paper.

That's the drive for figuring out how, if possible, to interrupt a job that has already been sent to a printer. Being able to cancel a job that's in the printer's memory can save paper, ink/toner, and down time.