Slow printing to your printer can be caused by a recent Windows Update.
The Windows update over-rides the default driver settings (normally set to print via an IP address) and replaces it with a WSD port, this process has been shown to create significant amounts of network traffic and slow printing (up to an hour) for a single page document.
STEP 1 – Opening Control Panel
Click on the Windows icon (usually bottom left corner), then without clicking anywhere else, type in “control”, the search bar will automatically show multiple results, Click on “Control Panel” from the list.
STEP 2 – Opening Devices and Printers
Click on “Devices and Printers” to open the devices and printers menu. If your screen does not look like the below, you can change its view with the top right drop down box from View By ‘Catagory’ to View By ‘Small Icons’.
STEP 3 – Enter the printer properties
Right click on the printer you want to check, and choose ‘Printer Properties’
STEP 4- Ports Tab
Choose the ‘Ports’ tab from the top tabs, and check to see if the printer is set to print to a ‘WSD-…….’
If the printer is NOT set to ‘WSD-……’ then no change is needed, click [Cancel] and close the window – if it IS set to ‘WSD-…….’ proceed to the next step.
STEP 5- Choose the correct TCP/IP
If your printer is set to ‘WSD-…….’ then if available choose the correct IP Address from the ‘Port’ list (Nb. you may find it helpful to expand the ‘Ports’ column width to see more of the information in ports) – ensure there is a tick next to the IP address you want to print to. If you do not know your machines IP address, you can see on a Ricoh model using step 3 of this guide. Click [OK] to complete the guide.
Nb. If your printer does not appear in the list
If your printers IP address does not appear in the list, make sure you are changing the settings of the correct printer. You can find instructions on adding a new printer IP address here.
You may also find the below tutorial useful to stop the WSD port from re-installing or from Windows automatically installing a new network printer.
Stop Windows from automatically adding a Printer Driver (Windows)