First of all, what is a print spooler?

The print spooler is a software service which runs on any Windows OS and it enables printing, without it you cannot print. And sometimes is freezes or it hangs, to fix it you have to restart the print spooler and the printer. For an in depth troubleshooter read below how to fix your spooler subsystem app.

Here is a quick overview of the steps on how to fix your printer problem.(in 5 steps)

Step Zero: restart the spooler and see if that works, if not keep reading.

Step One: restart the print spooler and the printer if it works you fixed it. if not go to next line.

Step Two: make sure that the print spooler is stopped and delete the offending jobs in C:\windows\system32\spool\printers and also restart the printer.

Step Three: if you can’t stop the spooler, then preempt it with the task manager and restart the printer.

Step Four: Make sure the spooler is stopped and delete the files in C:\windows\system32\spool\printers also restart the printer.

Step Five: restart the computer and the pritner.

Step six: research further other methods of fixing your printing problem: further troubleshooting

Below there are step by step instructions on how to accomplish the steps.

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To troubleshoot the Print Spooler we need to know if it is running or not. If the print spooler service is not running you can’t print. So that is the first hint that there might be a problem. If it is running and you still can’t print just restart it anyway, that usually fixes the problem. But you should power off the printer and start it back up in tandem with the Print Spooler Service. To learn how to restart the spooler, look down the page at any of the three methods. In addition you have to see if the print spooler service start-up is set on automatic. To find that out go directly at method two (run services.msc) below and then double click the print spooler to look how is the start-up set. Then set it to automatic if otherwise.

There are multiple ways that hint to us if the print Spooler is running or not, but by default in any Windows OS it starts up automatically. You can see in the services console if the Print Spooler Services is running. Look at the Methods 2 or 3 down the page how to get there and make sure if the print spooler is started. In addition you can check the task manager (image below) under processes to see if the spoolsv.exe is running. Sometimes if the spooler service can’t be stopped it is easier to preempt it by using task manager. In windows 7 or Vista  you have to make sure that the 1# Show processes from all users check-mark is checked. Then look for the spoolsv.exe select it and #2 end task. To start up the print spooler back up follow the tutorial further. Sometimes in extreme situations there might by other processes which might be locking the print jobs (and they can’t be deleted) even if the spooler is not running. Usually these processes load the CPU the most and they also have to be preempted (end task). To view which ones are loading up the CPU just arrange the processes by the CPU column, to view the top CPU frames consumers.

Now if the spooler is stopped, something must have stopped it (usually it stops due to offending jobs) . Therefore you will have to look in the Folder: C:\windows\system32\spool\printers if you see any files there just delete them because they are the spooled jobs that caused the Spooler to stop (You can try to restart the print spooler and the printer before deleting the jobs to see if that fixes it, saving your self the work of re-printing the documents). However you won’t be able to start the spooler because it will send the offending jobs back, causing it to stop. It could also be that the Spooler is still working and the files cannot be deleted. To delete them just stop the spooler first and then delete the files. To get to any folder location on your computer use method 1 or 2 but replace CMD with C:\windows\system32\spool\printers to see if any offending files reside in that location.

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In windows XP Vista and 7 the service can be found in the services console. There are multiple ways to get to the print spooler. So the easiest way for me is like this:

Method 1. Press the Windows Key on the keyboard in combination with the “R” then type CMD in the pop up dialog box and press enter or click the OK button.  On the pop up window with black background type in: “net stop spooler”, after you receive the confirmation message, type in “net start spooler”. That is it.

Method 2. Another way is instead of running ”cmd” in the Run Command Dialog box you can run “services.msc” after the dialog box with services pops up scroll down to print spooler service. If you can’t find it, just select any service by clicking once and then press the “P” key on the keyboard it should take you in the P range of services.

Method 3. Another method is to right click on “my computer” and from the popup menu select “Manage” in the Computer management dialog box on the left hand side look on the bottom and expand Services and applications then click on services, from there on look at Method 2 to get to the print spooler.

Further troubleshooting. Restart the computer and then follow the entire process but make sure that C:windows\system32\spool\printers location has no files in it.

Furthermore look at this FixIt tool from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000007 Download the tool, run it and follow the wizard. Select the reset spooler to defaults. Just a heads up your printer/printers will get uninstalled if you run the FixIt app. So you will have to reinstall them.

The reinstall all your printers after you have ran the Fixit tool kb2000007.

For all you that are beginners and intermediates in computers, you might want to buy the book below. It will help you with many problems, just download the PDF over there to look at the contents and some examples on how to fix and maintain your computer.

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Other tips installing printer and or troubleshooting:

Right click on My Computer
Select Manage
Double click on Services and Application
Double click on Services
Scroll down to Print Spooler and double click on it
Click on Dependencies tab
Check what dependencies the print spooler has, if any
you may need to click on “+” on those dependencies to more dependencies
Go back to the Services list
On each of the spooler dependencies, double click on it
Make sure it is set to Automatic in the Startup Type drop down menu
Now click on Start to start the service

Click OK

Now try and print
if you still get spooler error messages, try this
Open a Command Prompt window, found in your Start (Orb) at bottom left, and it is in the list that pops up
key the command;
sc config spooler depend= RPCSS
(note the space after the = but not before)
restart the print spooler
Hope that works, re post after you have done the above and let me know if it worked!

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Remote CMD reset spooler – you need to have administrative privileges on the remote computer. The script can be used to restart the spooler on remote computer systems.

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sc \\computername query spooler | find /I “STATE” | find /I “stopped”
if “%ERRORLEVEL%”==”1″ (sc \\computername stop spooler) ELSE GOTO NEXT

 

REM the Computer Name can be replaced by the computer’s IP address.
REM So the first command is querying the spooler and pipes the information to
REM second command to find the state, which is piping the information to the IF statement
REM the IF statement will make the decision what to do and pass the next execution to display on the screen the next message after @echo

@echo The Spooler is stopped Mapping the Jobs folder to delete the temp files

REM The next line maps a network folder because Command Line doesn’t understand UNC paths
REM Then you need to delete the jobs, which can be deleted easily since we made sure the print Spooler is not started.

net use x: \\computername\C$\windows\system32\spool\printers

REM After mapping the network drive, we are accessing it in the next line.

x:

REM now we are able to execute the deletion of the spooled files with “del /q *.*”.
del /q *.*

REM Un-mapping the network drive “net use /delete x:” Then starting the Print Spooler
net use /delete x:
sc \\computername start spooler

REM Querring the spooler to see if its running. But here the Window might exit.

sc \\computername query spooler | find /I “STATE” | if /I “%STATE%”==”RUNNING” @echo Spooler has been started

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