Waiting for printer connection

Anonymous
2023-12-14T05:51:25+00:00

“Waiting for printer connection” pop up started coming up a couple of weeks ago and has been causing multiple issues.

Excel and Word randomly do not open, and then when I open the program again it tells me the file is already in use yet nothing is open. Task manager shows nothing open or running. I have to restart my computer each time to use the document or workbook and I sometimes I need to do this more than once before it will decide to randomly work.

I cannot print new documents or workbooks, it becomes unresponsive and then the program has to close. I can only print from saved documents, which o can’t always open!

MYOB cannot print now, I have to save as a pdf and then print. I know MYOB isn’t “Microsoft” but this only started when this pop up started. I have never experienced this issue before.

This is happening on all four computers and started at the exact same time.

I have tried turning off all network sharing connections and still no change.

This is really impacting my day to day operations ans these programs are all I use. It causing a significant loss of time.

Can someone please help?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

47 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-08T21:06:16+00:00

    I think I was able to fix mine, it's working on mine I'm getting another guy who's experiencing it worse than me to give a go when he's on, but mine seemed to be fixed by changing the default of Microsoft Print to PDF to A4, I'm in Australia so that's what we use here, here's where I went

    Don't forget to hit apply on the second last screen, I did go through and do the other guys test first, but that did nothing, then I did this then I had to try to undo what I did on his, maybe take a screen shot of the screens so you can enable the start ups you need again, hope it works, or maybe just try this first, if it doesn't work then do his but yep worked for me :)

    Was this answer helpful?

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-08T13:11:05+00:00

    Yes. It still persists. I probably should have responded to this earlier but I’m just so over it I’ve lost all motivation to try and resolve it. All my Microsoft applications still become unresponsive multiple times everyday and I lose so much work having to restart the program. I’m confident it’s due to the Microsoft programs trying to find a printer but it’s just a part of life now.

    Was this answer helpful?

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-01-08T08:24:58+00:00

    Yes it still happens after running your test?

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-31T00:19:28+00:00

    I got the message in Access a few minutes ago (for the first time), but it actually cleared after 20-30 seconds and the report printed. What I find interesting is that I brought up a new computer earlier this month. I was able to manually duplex on my HP M127fw as is normal. Suddenly, however, I am no longer able to duplex. That popped up right about the same time as this issue. May have to try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-12-26T21:14:21+00:00

    It seems to be due to some dodgey Windows update. A search of internet shows lots of people are getting this issue on different applications. I get it on my company's in house product, some people get it on wordpad, some people get it on libre office. It might be a variation on the bug in the windows updates that was renaming everyone's printers to an HP printer. https://www.xda-developers.com/windows-update-bug-renaming-printers-m101-m106/#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,printer%20despite%20the%20incorrect%20name.

    Possibly any app where you've used a printer previously?

    I haven't got a work around for it checking printer connections on each start up unfortunately. I think we have to wait for MS to fix their bad update.

    Was this answer helpful?

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments