Printing Problems

How to Fix HP LaserJet Printing Gibberish from Word or Excel

Ayan Masood Oct 12, 2026 871 views

Question details

The user needs to resolve an issue where their printer outputs garbled text instead of the correct document content.

How to Fix HP LaserJet Printing Gibberish from Word or Excel

Product: HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4101, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
Device & OS: Windows 10
Scenario: Printing a Word or Excel document from a Windows computer to an HP LaserJet printer.
Observed behavior: The printer successfully prints a Windows test page but produces a continuous line of gibberish or garbled text when printing Word or Excel files.

Before you start

Cancel all pending print jobs in the Windows print queue and turn your printer off and on again to clear its memory and prevent wasting paper during troubleshooting.

Solution 1Recommended

Install a Universal Print Driver (PCL6 or PostScript)

Garbled printing from specific applications like Word and Excel usually indicates a mismatch or corruption in the printer's font rendering driver.

Microsoft Office applications rely heavily on specific printer drivers to render fonts and complex layouts. If the standard HP driver is corrupted, switching to the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD) PCL6 or PostScript can resolve the translation error between Windows 10 and the printer.

Download the Universal Driver

Visit the official HP support website, search for your printer model, and download the HP Universal Print Driver for Windows (PCL6 or PS).

Open Printer Settings

Go to the Windows Start menu, open Settings, click on Devices, and select Printers & scanners.

Change the Printer Driver

Click on your HP LaserJet printer, select Manage, then click Printer properties. Go to the Advanced tab and click New Driver to install the downloaded universal driver.

Install a Universal Print Driver (PCL6 or PostScript)

Reboot Required: Restart your computer after changing the printer driver to ensure the Windows Print Spooler service adopts the new settings.

Solution 2

Export to PDF and Print as Image

This is a quick workaround to bypass Microsoft Office font rendering issues by letting the PDF viewer handle the print job as a flat image.

Solution 3

Consult the HP Support Forum

If driver reinstallations and connection testing (USB/Network) fail to resolve the issue, seeking help from HP experts is the best next step.

Print Documents Flawlessly with WPS Office

If Microsoft Word or Excel encounters spooling errors or driver conflicts that cause garbled prints, WPS Office provides a highly compatible, lightweight environment with an optimized print engine to handle your documents seamlessly.

1. Install WPS Office: Download and install the free WPS Office suite on your Windows 10 computer.
2. Open Your Document: Right-click the problematic Word or Excel file, select 'Open with', and choose WPS Office.
3. Print the File: Click the Menu button in the top left corner, select Print (or press Ctrl + P), choose your HP LaserJet, and click Print.

Fully compatible with Microsoft Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) formatsBuilt-in optimized PDF conversion and printing capabilitiesLightweight architecture reduces system resource conflictsFree alternative to Microsoft Office with a familiar user interface

microsoft office alternative - wps office

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my printer print a Windows test page perfectly but garbles Word documents?

A Windows test page uses basic system text rendering, while Word and Excel rely on complex printer drivers (like PCL6 or PostScript) to render custom fonts, margins, and graphics. If the advanced driver is corrupted, Office documents may print as gibberish even though the hardware works.

Can a bad USB or network connection cause endless pages of gibberish?

While it is primarily a driver issue, a faulty connection or network interruption can cause packet loss during the print spooling process. This corrupts the data sent to the printer, which the printer then misinterprets as endless pages of random symbols.

How do I stop the printer from printing endless pages of gibberish?

First, remove the paper tray to physically stop the printing. Then, go to Windows Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners, select your printer, click 'Open queue', and cancel all documents. You may also need to restart the 'Print Spooler' service in the Windows Services app to clear the system's memory.

Document & File Issues