HP Support Assistant does not recognise my Laserjet Pro 1606

[ChrisTee]

My printer has a problem. 

It is connected  via an Ethernet cable and router to three computers.  It has been working fine until yesterday when it stopped printing jobs sent to it, but no error message showed on the computer that sent it, and the document was shown as printing in the queue.  I deleted the jobs and tried printing a Test Page from Control Panel.   The printer then ran through the whole stack of paper in the tray printing a single line of gibberish at the bottom of each page!

A message then appeared when I selected the printer icon in Windows Control Panel that it needed attention but gave no clue as to the problem.

I have downloaded and reinstalled the latest driver and also the HP "Support Assistant" software.  However, the Support Assistant cannot find  the device so cannot even start a diagnosis.  However, if I remove the device and then reinstall it Windows does recognise it, although this has not fixed the issue.

Where do I go from here?

[Gemini02 · Accepted solution]

Hello @ChrisTee,

This is a great location to get assistance! I read your post and see that the printer keeps printing out gibberish. I would like to help you resolve this issue. 

Clear the Spool folder and restart the Print Spooler. 

Clear Printer Spooler Files and Enable the Spooler Service.
In desktop mode, press the Windows key and R at the same time, to show the run command line.
1. Type "Services.msc" (without the quotation marks).
2. Double-click "Printer Spooler" in the Services list.
3. Click Stop and click OK.
4. Navigate to "%WINDIR%\system32\spool\printers", right click on the document and left click to delete the job.
5. Run "Services.msc" (without the quotation marks).
6. Double-click "Printer Spooler" in the Services list.
7. Click on Start. In the Startup Type list, make sure that "Automatic" is selected and click OK.

Disable the Bi-Directional Support on each computer to see if that helps.

From Devices and Printers, right click on the printer and left click on Printer Properties.

Click on the Ports tab.

Uncheck Enable Bi-Directional support.

Click on Apply and OK.

I have provided this document with some steps to try, to see if it will resolve the issue: Resolving Strange, Garbled or Illogical Text, Incomplete Printouts, or Missing Text or Graphics.

You can click on the "Accept as Solution" if the issue is  resolved and the "Thumbs Up" for my effort. Please keep me posted. Good Luck! 
  

[ChrisTee]

Thaks - that certainly solved the problem of gibberish.