Strange WiFi Printer Issue with HP Pavillion Desktop Windows 11

[Curmudgeon10]

Out of the blue, no changes to anything I made, the following problem occurred. I am pasting the below from the Microsoft Community boards, where this has been up for a number of days, with no responses.

I have three printers. Two are WiFi and one is ethernet connected.

The problem only affects the Wifi printers.

I send a job to Wifi Printer A, and it prints (only after I've accomplished the steps laid out below, first). But when the printing is done, and I revisit for another print job (using, in this case, MS Word) on the Print dialogue screen, below the printer name, I see, "Ready, one document waiting." The printer will not execute; its as if the first job never printed at all (but it did). On the other Wifi printer, I get a more blunt message: "Cannot start print job."

The problem appears to be a Printer spool file that does not clear itself after printing is complete. One can navigate to this file (C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS) and delete the backed up mess that has accumulated in there. Oh --- when you first get there, you find you actually can't delete everything because the Print Spooler service is still running and is connected to one or more of the files. So then its off to "Services," locate the Print Spooler, hit the stop button, and then you can get rid of all the garbage. Hey --- don't forget to go back to Services and turn the Spooler back on!

One other oddity about this problem: you just sent a job to one of the printers, and it didn't print. If you run the Printer Troubleshooter, as it flashes the things it is checking as soon as it hits "Print Spool" your job will execute. But the Troubleshooter doesn't actually fix the problem. It still exists.

What the heck is going on here? (Yes, my Windows is up to date; yes, I've rebooted, etc.)

[Curmudgeon10 · Accepted solution]

This problem has been resolved, although I have no idea what action I took was responsible.

I ran the various troubleshooters/analytics available through HP.  After each, I would send a print job to my HP110, and after each, the problem would remain unsolved.  Printing would take place, but the print queue would still show a document waiting to be printed.

After I moved the printer icon in from the group of "hidden" icons in the notification area to the task bar notification area, the problem no longer occurred.  It also did not occur in my other printer, a Brother Label printer that also had been affected.

I'm not saying this had anything to do with problem resolution; just reporting what happened.