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220-1201 Practice Question: A network printer in a busy law office is shared…
A network printer in a busy law office is shared by 15 users. Several users report that their print jobs are not being output, but the printer shows no error lights and the print queue appears empty. The printer is connected via Ethernet. Which step should be taken first?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Restart the print spooler service on the print server
When a network printer appears idle but jobs disappear, the issue is often with the print spooler on the server or client. The spooler may be stalled or corrupted, causing jobs to be lost without error. Checking the print queue on the server and restarting the spooler service is the appropriate first step.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Replace the network cable
Why it's wrong here
A faulty network cable typically results in complete loss of connectivity, causing the printer to appear offline or inaccessible to the print server and workstations. Print jobs would fail to reach the print server or the printer itself, often generating explicit error messages or remaining perpetually in the queue with a "printing error" status, rather than disappearing without a trace. This symptom points away from a physical layer issue.
- ✓
Restart the print spooler service on the print server
Why this is correct
The print spooler service on the print server manages the queue of print jobs, processing them sequentially and sending them to the printer. If the spooler becomes hung, corrupted, or encounters a resource conflict, it can fail to process jobs correctly, leading to them disappearing from the queue without being printed. Restarting this service flushes the current queue, clears any cached errors or corrupted states, and reinitializes the service, often resolving such intermittent printing issues.
- ✗
Power cycle the printer
Why it's wrong here
Power cycling the printer primarily addresses issues with the printer's internal hardware, firmware, or network interface, such as a frozen state or an internal error. In a scenario where print jobs are disappearing from the print server's queue without reaching the printer, the printer itself is likely functioning correctly and awaiting instructions. The problem resides upstream at the print server, making a printer power cycle an ineffective troubleshooting step for this specific symptom.
- ✗
Reinstall the printer driver on all workstations
Why it's wrong here
Reinstalling printer drivers on individual workstations is typically a troubleshooting step for client-side rendering issues, formatting problems, or specific workstation-to-server communication failures. Since the problem manifests as jobs disappearing from the print server's queue, implying the jobs successfully reached the server, the issue is unlikely to be with the client-side drivers. Furthermore, if multiple users are affected, a server-side problem is far more probable than a simultaneous driver corruption across all workstations.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.