The printer intermittently delays printing jobs for 1 minute to several minutes

[Mina2025]

The printer intermittently delays printing jobs for 1 minute to several minutes, even though it is powered on and connected properly. The problem occurs randomly: sometimes the printer works normally, but other times it fails to respond immediately to print commands. When the delay happens, running the HP Printer Troubleshooter (via Windows Settings) forces the pending print job to complete, but the troubleshooter itself reports "No issues detected".

Key Observations:

1. The issue occurred with both the old printer (another model) and the brand-new replacement printer.

2. The problem persists across multiple troubleshooting steps, including:

   • Reinstalling/updating drivers (from HP’s official website).

   • Using HP Print and Scan Doctor (no errors detected).

   • Disabling the print spooler and switching to "Print directly to the printer."

   • Testing the printer on different USB ports, cables.

   • Updating the printer’s firmware.

3. The printer works normally after triggering the troubleshooter, but the delay recurs randomly.

I waiting for you to help in this issue please and ready to give any other information you need.

Thank you

[Garp_senchau]

@Mina2025, Welcome to HP Support Community,

Thank you for posting your query; I’m here to help by guiding you through steps to resolve this issue

It sounds like you're dealing with a frustrating intermittent printing delay issue. Given that the problem occurs with both an old printer and a new replacement, along with your extensive troubleshooting efforts so far, there are a few more areas we can explore.

Printer Spooler Conflicts or Corruption:

While you’ve already tried disabling the print spooler and using “Print directly to the printer,” it could still be worth trying to reset the print spooler service completely. Sometimes the spooler can be corrupted in ways that aren’t easily detected by basic troubleshooting.

1. Search services in the search box. Open the service menu.
2. In the list, find Print Spooler.
3. Right-click Print Spooler and click Restart.
   1. If it’s stopped, click Start instead.
4. Close the window. Check if the issue persists 

Network or Connectivity Issues:

Since you're using a printer that may be connected via USB or network, network delays can also be a culprit. Even with USB connections, Windows might sometimes try to check the printer status or initiate other network operations that delay the print job.

Printer Driver Conflicts:

Even if you've updated the drivers, sometimes older or conflicting drivers can cause issues with print jobs. It’s worth removing all existing printer drivers and then reinstalling the latest version.

Steps to remove conflicting drivers:

Open Device Manager (Win + X > Device Manager).

Under Printers, right-click your printer and select Uninstall device.

After uninstalling, go to Control Panel > Devices and Printers, right-click on the printer, and choose Remove device.

Restart your computer and reinstall the driver from the official HP website.

Run HP Print and Scan Doctor (Windows only):

• Download and run the HP Print and Scan Doctor tool. Follow the prompts to diagnose and fix common printing issues.

Update Printer Firmware (Update the firmware on an HP printer | HP® Support)

• Go to the HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads page. Enter your printer model number and search for the latest firmware update. Follow the instructions to download and install the firmware update.

Print Queue Size and Job Priority:

Sometimes, large print queues or certain complex jobs may take longer to process. If there are several jobs stacked in the queue, it could be causing delays. Try clearing out all pending jobs, then printing a simple test page to see if the issue still occurs.

I hope this helps.

Please feel free to reply here if you have any questions or if you need further clarification on any of the steps. 

Take care and have a good day. 

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