Many inkjet printers, such as the HP Deskjet 6940, are subject to various problems that pause the print queue. A computer may go into "Hibernate" or "Sleep" mode, and the printer won't wake up when the computer does. Or, the printer may encounter an issue with a specific document and stop printing. These errors can trigger a printer to switch to offline mode, where it won't even attempt to print your queued documents. This situation requires you to manually restore the printer to online mode.

  • Many inkjet printers, such as the HP Deskjet 6940, are subject to various problems that pause the print queue.
  • These errors can trigger a printer to switch to offline mode, where it won't even attempt to print your queued documents.

Turn off the printer and then turn it back on. Turning off the printer restarts the print spooler and often will resolve issues with a stuck print queue.

Click "Start" at the bottom-left corner of your computer screen and then select "Devices and Printers."

Right-click on the "HP Deskjet 6940" icon and choose "See What's Printing." This will open your print queue window.

Click "Printer" at the top of the print queue window.

Select "Use Printer Offline" to wake the printer from offline mode and bring it to online mode. Note that there will be a check mark to the left of "Use Printer Offline" when the computer is offline, and selecting that option will remove the check mark and bring the printer online.

TIP

If your print queue is stuck, and you can't determine where the problem is, restart the printer and your computer. Many printing errors occur because the print spooler simply won't resume until both devices have been restarted.