Nothing coming out of the printer doesn't always mean something's broken. Most of the time it's a stuck queue, an outdated driver, or a cartridge the printer doesn't recognize, and each one has a specific fix.
Why Your Lexmark Printer Won't Print
A Lexmark printer that refuses to print usually falls into one of four buckets: the printer can't be reached at all (power, cable, or network), a print job is jammed in the queue and blocking everything behind it, the driver Windows or macOS is using has gone stale, or the printer itself is flagging a cartridge it won't accept. Working through these in order, instead of guessing, is the fastest way to find which one you're dealing with.
Try These First (2 Minutes)
- Check the obvious physical stuff first: power cord fully seated, printer powered on, USB or network cable firmly connected at both ends.
- Confirm it's not asleep. Many Lexmark models drop into Sleep or Hibernate mode after a period of inactivity; press the power button once to wake it before assuming it's unresponsive.
- Check paper, ink, and toner levels. An empty tray or a cartridge below its minimum threshold will silently stop a print job on most models.
- Restart the printer, not just the print job: power off, wait about 10 seconds, and power back on.
- Print a test page directly from the printer's control panel (not from your computer) to rule out whether the problem is the printer or the connection to it.
If the printer passes all of that and still won't print from your computer, move to the sections below.
Is It the Printer or the Connection?
This is the same sequence Lexmark's own support documentation uses when a printer stops responding, in order:
- Confirm the power cord is plugged into a working outlet, not one controlled by a switch or breaker that's off.
- Confirm the printer is powered on and not sitting in Sleep or Hibernate mode.
- Check that USB or network cables are seated in the correct ports, not just plugged in loosely.
- If you've recently added hardware (a paper tray, memory module, etc.), turn the printer off, confirm the option is installed correctly, then power back on.
- Reinstall or update the print driver (see the next section).
- Power cycle the printer once more.
If the printer still doesn't respond after all of that, the next step according to Lexmark is contacting their support line directly, since it may point to an internal hardware fault rather than something you can fix from the control panel.
Clear a Stuck Print Queue
A single failed print job can jam the queue and silently block everything sent after it, even if that first job doesn't show an obvious error.
- Open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, select your Lexmark printer, and open its queue.
- Right-click the stuck job and select Cancel, or right-click anywhere in the queue and choose Cancel All Documents.
- If a job won't cancel, restart the Print Spooler service: press Windows + R, type
services.msc, find Print Spooler, right-click it, and select Restart. - Still stuck? Stop the Print Spooler service the same way, delete the contents of
C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, then start the service again. This clears out corrupted job files the queue can't process on its own.
Update or Reinstall the Print Driver
An outdated or mismatched driver is a common reason print jobs vanish from the queue without ever reaching the printer.
- Open Device Manager, expand Print queues or Printers, right-click your Lexmark model, and choose Update driver > Search automatically for drivers.
- If Windows can't find a newer one, go to Lexmark's official downloads page, search your exact model number, and download the current driver package directly.
- For a driver that seems corrupted rather than just outdated, uninstall the printer from Windows entirely, restart your computer, then reinstall using the fresh driver package rather than letting Windows re-add it automatically.
Confirm the Network Connection
If your Lexmark printer connects over Wi-Fi or Ethernet rather than USB, print a network setup page directly from the control panel: Settings > Reports > Network Setup Page. Check the status field near the top. If it says Connected, the network isn't your problem and the issue is on the driver or queue side above. If it says Not Connected, the printer has dropped off your network entirely.
For a full walkthrough of reconnecting a Lexmark printer to Wi-Fi, including the setup wizard, WPS, and the settings people usually miss, see our Lexmark printer not connecting to Wi-Fi guide.
Toner or Cartridge Errors Blocking the Job
If the printer's display shows something like "Unsupported Cartridge" or "Replace Cartridge" instead of actually printing, the job is being blocked before it ever starts.
- Confirm it's a genuine Lexmark cartridge made for your specific model. Third-party, refilled, or reworked cartridges are a documented trigger for this error, even when they physically fit.
- Reseat the cartridge. Power off the printer, remove the cartridge, check for obstructions inside the printer, then reinstall it firmly and power back on.
- Try a second cartridge if you have one. If the error clears with a different cartridge, the original one is the problem, not the printer.
- Check for a starter cartridge in the wrong printer. Cartridges shipped with a new printer are sometimes locked to that specific unit and will throw a compatibility error in any other machine.
Exact menu wording and error numbers vary by model, so if yours shows a specific error code, it's worth checking that code against Lexmark's own support site for model-specific guidance before replacing anything.
Run the Built-In Printer Troubleshooter
If everything above checks out and the printer still won't take a job, Windows has a built-in tool that catches issues the manual steps miss.
Go to Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters, find Printer under the most frequent section, and run it. Select your Lexmark printer when prompted and follow whatever it recommends; it often catches port mismatches or a printer that's quietly been set to work offline.
