My printer is printing garbage! Random letters, numbers and characters.

you need to clear the Microsoft printer spool

The Microsoft knowledge base article "Fix printing problems by resetting the print spooler" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000007), includes a related Microsoft FixIt application.

To clear the printer spool, you must stop the Microsoft printer spool service, then restart the printer spool service. The following instructions describe how to accomplish this manually.

Click the Start menu, look for My Computer, right click My Computer, then from the menu select "manage".

This will open Microsoft Computer Management. Look on the left hand side for "Services and Applications", it is at the bottom of the list. Click the plus sign next to it to open Services and Applications. Look under it for "Services".

Now look in the box on the right hand side, for Print Spooler. You have to scroll down to find it. Right click "Print Spooler". Select stop from the menu. After it finishes stopping, right click print spooler again and select "Start". You may have to click on the desktop before you can right click print spooler again.

Now your print spool should be clear and the printer won't try to print garbage.