USB-C Dock Detects My Printer, but Windows Won't Print

General
1

Hi everyone,

I’m using a StarTech USB-C docking station with my Windows 11 laptop. My USB printer is detected correctly through the dock, and Windows shows it as ready, but every print job stays in the queue and never reaches the printer.

I’ve already tried:

  • Reconnecting the dock

  • Restarting the Print Spooler service

  • Reinstalling the printer driver

  • Updating the dock and printer drivers

  • Connecting the printer directly to the laptop (which works normally)

Since the printer works when connected directly, I’m wondering if there’s a dock setting or compatibility issue that I should check.

Has anyone experienced something similar with a StarTech dock? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Hello @Zachary_Hickson,

Thank you for connecting with us here on the StarTech.com Community.

It is certainly strange to hear that the USB printer is not working through the dock. I would ordinarily not expect a docking station to affect printing performance but we can investigate and consider this further with you.

  1. What is the part number or the product id of the docking station? Ordinarily this is printed on product itself, or on a label on the bottom or the back of the product. If you have the packaging it may be printed as the part # near the barcode.
  2. What is the make and model of your printer?
  3. Can you share more about how the printer is recognized in the Windows 11 Device manager when connected to the docking station vs when it is connected directly?
  4. Do other USB devices work fine when connected to the docking station?

Please reply with as much detail as you can and we will be happy to look into this further with you.

Sincerely,
@DavidF

3

Hi David,

Thanks for your response and for looking into this.

I’m still gathering the exact dock part number and printer model, and I’ll update the thread as soon as I have them.

One thing I noticed is that the printer works normally when connected directly to the laptop, but through the dock Windows detects it without sending any print jobs. Other USB devices connected to the dock seem to work as expected, so the issue appears to be limited to printing.

In the meantime, I verified that the printer itself is functioning correctly by printing a standard test page outside of the dock setup. That helped confirm the printer hardware isn’t the problem, so I’m now focusing on the dock or Windows configuration.

I’ll post the requested Device Manager details in my next update. Thanks again for your help.