Why does my printer print random things?

[The Napkin]

Once or twice a week my printer will shoot out 3 pieces of paper - 2 blank and one with this on it:



What the hell is it doing? Is it haunted Or is it aliens? And what are they trying to tell me?

 

[notfar]

This seems very similar to your problem: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Errors-or-Lights-Stuck-Print-Jobs/Printer-Keeps-Printing/td-p/8717154. Does their suggested remedy work?

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

Printers are jerks.

That said, it is probably a services "print report" or some such setting that got triggered, along the lines of notfar's link above.

 

[Batman Likes The Sox]

I wouldn’t change a thing, if you want to keep-alive

 

[lars10]

SoSH obligatory. get a gun.

 

[opes]

The devil and all of the dark lords are demanding to feast on the flesh of the innocent. But check your printer properties and see if there are any print jobs in there. Something probably stuck in a queue. Check the the queue in printer properties, also try unplugging your printer for a while. It might have a saved print job in memory.
But its most likely the devil.

 

[Over Guapo Grande]

Have you tried turning her off and then on again? After doing that, try it with the printer.

 

[SumnerH]

Have you tried turning her off and then on again? After doing that, try it with the printer.

Yeah:
1: Reboot everything
2: Go into print manager or whatever it's called these days and see if there's a job hanging out; cancel if so.
3: Reboot printer again but leave it unplugged overnight this time
4:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9wsjroVlu8

 

[joe dokes]

Once or twice a week my printer will shoot out 3 pieces of paper - 2 blank and one with this on it:

View attachment 98062

What the hell is it doing? Is it haunted Or is it aliens? And what are they trying to tell me?

"I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do, Napkin."

 

[YouKantBeSerious]

This is a known issue with a January Windows Update and HP USB printers: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-usb-printers-print-random-text-after-recent-windows-updates/
I would wait until a patch comes to fix it this month. Or if you can move from USB to network printing.