Help required please with Printer Spool error in XP.
Suddenly this started turning itself off for no obvious reason and when I restart it within a few hours it turns itself off again. I first noticed this when I tried to send a document to printer and it returned an error;
Spooler Subsystem Application
sz AppName error: spoolsv.exe
I looked in Control Panel > Administrative Services > Services > printer spooler. and found it was set to off. I looked in C:\\Windows\System32\Spool\printers and it was empty with no files in there.
After restarting this service again in control panel the printer reverted to working perfectly again.
However this is when the cycle started, after several hours it appears to turn itself off, I restart > turns off > restart, etc, etc
This did not follow any incident or computer changes, etc, but just started out of the blue.
So I have tried several System Restores to previous dates, but this makes no difference and the error is still re-occuring.
I am running M/soft XP Prof. SP3, M/soft Office Prof SP3, Firefox, Avast antivirus.
Thank you for responding, unfortunately I am not getting reply notifications, as was the case a few weeks ago when I last used this service!
However I logged on randomly to see if there was a reply and found yours. How can I repair this email non-notification?
I have now read the article which talks about bad drivers, but my driver has been working fine for a number of years up until about a week ago. Also it works fine once I restart the spooler manually and remains so for about half a day when it turns off and I get the error message telling me it has done so. Printer folders are empty when this happens.
So it would not appear that the driver is suddenly incompatible, but more likely that something is causing the service to repeatedly turn off.
This is where I need help to identify the cause and correct it.
To get notifications of replies make sure that the clickable "button" (towards the right side of the page near the top… its called Follow this topic, is used) this usually does the trick, but of course with software one can never be certain!
So it would not appear that the driver is suddenly incompatible, but more likely that something is causing the service to repeatedly turn off.
It's by no means certain, but a bad driver (corrupted, out of date, in the wrong location or modified in some way) is a prime suspect for causing this sort of issue., its your call, of course, but I would inclined to follow the steps indicated in the article I linked previously.
Be very careful when updating drivers, do make sure you get the right one!, and thoroughly virus check it before installation.
Naturally you won't be using the XP machine on line, but as you will be introducing new code to the machine (perhaps by memory stick) then you need to exercise utmost care as you will be using an unsupported and therefore relatively unprotected operating system that is vulnerable to infection.
When uninstalling the previous software, be sure to restart the computer after the uninstall has completed… I would also recommend running the clean up tool (see the link) restart again and then install the printer software/drivers again.
Let us know how you get on and if this stops the spooler issues.
I have been trying to carry out the re-installation of my printer driver as advised, hoping to overcome my print spooler problem.
I have found the most recent driver for my printer on the Cannon website and now have it sitting on my desktop ready to install.
However I have not been able to remove the old driver despite trying everything I have searched to do so. On trying to delete in printers>server properties>drivers I always get a message "cannot remove as driver is in use".
There are many suggestions that the trick is to switch off and then on again the print spooler service and within one second of restart to hit the driver delete key. This however is not possible because as soon as you switch the spooler off, the list of drivers is cleared and does not reappear until the restart is completed and you refresh the viewing box. I have tried everything, but can see by Googling that this appears to be a common huge problem, with no apparent found solution.
Is there an available software or script that will allow successful driver deletion. I read of Kyocera Deletion Tool, but am unsure if this is safe.
Note: I have been trying to remove the printer driver without complete removal of the printer and it's software. I do have other printers and their drivers installed on the XP computer.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
p.s. The 'Follow this Topic' button has always been set to on and recently reset, but does not work for me, I still have to look on site to find replies.
However I think it would be wise for you to consider a complete uninstall of everything that is related to the printer concerned on your computer.
If the printer in question is a Canon then it would be wise to use a dedicated tool like Revo uninstaller (the freeware version will do just fine) and can be downloaded from here:
The default settings (4) will first of all run the standard uninstall routine and then carry out a deep hunt for all the usual registry entries that usually get left behind, removing these will stand a good chance of helping with the issues you are facing and hopefully reset permanently, the correct configuration for your spooler..
When Revo has completed its work, then it's important to carry out a full shutdown (not just a sleep/hibernate) and restart (with the printer disconnected from the computer… then after waiting for a few minutes install all the Canon software including the printer driver and then try a test print.
The install CD I have for the Canon Pixma MP10 printer installs everything including the original driver all together, with no option to exclude the driver. This means that if I want to use the more recent release driver, I would have to then try to uninstall the original driver first, that of course is exactly what I have failed to be able to do now. So maybe I will have to hope that the original driver will work ok as it indeed did since I first bought the printer, except that the new release driver may have been published to overcome effects caused by more recent other software.( I have run ok without the driver update until now though).
Let's hope the correct configuration for my spooler is re-established in this process.
If you still think I should carry out the uninstall/ re-install then I will go ahead with that, please concur.
I did the Revo uninstall of the printer, then a complete shutdown, then re-install.
Within 10 mins before I had a chance to try a print, I got the error message that the printer spooler had to close, so it seems to be something else that is causing the problem.
Before you re-image with an image created when everything was working perfectly it would be worth trying the Repair tool v3.8.4 from tweaking.com. (Shane, the developer, updated the tool just a week or so ago)
Its a free programme that has got lots of folks out of trouble, follow the instructions to the letter especially the instructions on the shutdown and safe mode… however do not carry out the virus checks (usually step 1)
This may do the trick for you in setting your "services" back to default.
If you find that this does not fix it then I would not spend any more time on it, just perform the re-image.
I can now happily say that it appears that Tweaking.com has fixed my Print Spooler error.
Of the 43 repair items it worked through one of those was for Print Spooler about half way through. After the first few in-depth item it sped up and started wizzing through until it got to Print Spooler when it stopped for a short while and then sped on through the remainder of items, it clearly made the necessary repair changes on the Spooler as required.
Upon restarting my computer has now run without re-appearance of the error for about a day, so it appears fixed.
What a brilliant repair program it is and thank you for suggesting it, obviously somehow the registry files for that application got corrupted.
Once again WhattheTech has proved a star performer and I thank you personally for your perseverance in helping me with this, really appreciated. Keep up the great work guys!
