Some time ago I had a problem after installing a printer with a driver downloaded from download.com because I kept getting errors related to something called the "spooler" and I was never able to print any more.
I thought the problem was related exclusively to the downloaded driver, and I thought that it would be solved as soon as I installed a brand new printer with its new driver ...
Today I've bought a new printer (Canon PIXMA iP2500) and I've installed it without problems, but I still cannot print. Whatever I try to do with that printer, included printing a document, removing the printer, seeing its properties, etc. is not possible because "the print spooler service is not running" according to the error message.
I've never been able to uninstall the printer with which all the problems started. And if I go to Control panel> Add or remove programs and I try to remove this printer I get a message saying that the spooler system has stopped and that I must restart the system to be able to remove the printer.
If I try to delete old drivers from any of the old printers I haven't deleted, I also get the same message: Printer cannot be removed. Printer spooler service is not running.
More importantly, when I restart my computer I get the following message: To help protect your computer, Windows has closed this program.
Name: Spooler Subsystem App
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation
Data Execution Prevention helps protect against damage from viruses and other security threats
I really need to solve this! Please, help me with this! I need to print!!!
PS Some news about the situation: After some failed attempts, I have succesfully uninstalled the old printer that I thought was the source of all problems, but I still cannot print with the new one. I get the following message when I try to print: spoolsv.exe - Application Error
The instruction at "0x00200000" referenced memory at "0x00200000". The memory could not be "written".
Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program
What does that mean???
I'm experiencing a very similar problem in Vista Home Premium, my HP printer was working fine up until about a week ago and I now get the same error message that you're seeing. You can restart the Printer Spooler by going to 'Control Panel>System and Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Services' Find the Printer Spooler in the list, right click on it and choose start (incidentally, whilst you're there check that the 'Startup Type' is set to 'Automatic'). Unfortunately if your problem is the same as mine this won't resolve the issue as once you've done this and you then try to add the printer you'll receive the following error: 'Windows can't open Add Printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006be)'. If, on the other hand, restarting the printer spooler fixes your problem then lucky you, enjoy many a fulfilling printing experience in Vista!
I've searched numerous forums, microsoft's site and contacted my printer manufacturer quoting that specific error and not yet found a solution...
Thanks for your answer. I tried the solution that you suggest and I also got error messages. Even though the errors were not about the spooler any more, they referred to some memory issues that I didn't understand, so it seems that that solution substituted one problem with another.
However, I've found a partial solution by chance. I am sure it is not ideal, but it works. I would like to find a right solution, but this one works for the moment. And I don't get any error messages any more. Perhaps it also works for you. Here it is:
I reinstalled the printer goint to: Control panel>Printers and Faxes>Install a new printer. There you get a wizard to help you install a printer when you don't have the corresponding driver. Just choose your printer model and follow the instructions as if it wasn't installed yet. In my case it has created a 'copy' version of the printer and it works just fine, ignoring the printer already installed. Now I have in my printer folder two printers, "Canon iP2500 series" and "Canon iP2500 series (copy)", of which only the latter works.
I am aware that this is not very clearly explained, but I think that you'll see what I mean when you are doing it. You don't have to erase anything or add any suspicious element, so the process is pretty safe. I hope it works for you too, although if it does we'll never know why it does, or why it wasn't working originally.
Please, don't hesitate to ask any questions and I'll try to answer as well as I can. Just keep in mind that this has been a coincidence and that I don't know anything about computers; I have only very basic user knowledge.
I've seen the print spooler remember jobs for the user you are logged in even when your computer has rebooted. You can try to login as someone else to test this.
Do you see a printer icon next to your clock when you reboot? If so, dlb click and cancel all jobs therein. If not, then remove all of the printers from your 'Printers and Faxes' window, reboot and try again.
As for the 'Add new printer' method...I like that best if you can determine where on the CD-ROM the drivers are and the drivers let you do this. Otherwise, running installs from the CD not only put drivers in, but also all sorts of other stuff you probably don't need.
Thanks for your suggestion, Vista is set up a little differently to XP so the 'Install a new printer' option appears to have been replaced with 'Add a Printer' (unless I'm missing something!) and when I click that I get the spooler error and then, once I've restarted the spooler, I get the 'Operation could not be completed' error!
Ho hum, thanks for coming back to me though and it's good to hear that you've found a 'workaround' for your problem.
My printer icon has disappeared, as has the printer from the printer folder and trying to re-add it produces the problems mention above. That said I appreciate that I'm a Vista user posting in an XP support thread so am possibly 'barking up the wrong tree'!
Oh no! Sorry to hear that it didn't work!
Just try a couple more times. I think I also got some error messages at the beginning, but I kept restarting the spooler and clicking 'install a new printer' like a maniac and it worked at some point. I restarted the spooler by going to Start>Run and then typing net start spooler>OK. Perhaps that makes a difference???
Oh! I guess I should let you fix gameover's problem and then get back to me, since my case is less urgent. But please, don't forget about me ... I want to know what happened and whether I still have some kind of disguised spooler problem!
Cheers,
Marta
1) Open a Command Prompt window, type "net stop spooler" (no quotes).
2) Navigate to c:\windows\system32\spool\printers\
3) Once there, on the menu bar, click on Tools, Folder Options, View, put a dot in the radio button on the 9th item in that list "Show hidden files and folders", Click Apply, then OK,
4) Delete all files found in the ..spool\printers folder, if found.
5) Go back to command prompt and type "net start spooler".
Thanks for the suggestions and for digging around to find me some answers. First up, yes, I have removed the printer 'key' from the registry and tried restarting the spooler from the services menu as per the microsoft support links and 'second up' there was nothing in the spool\printers folder hidden or otherwise!
Hi again,
I read in a Microsoft forum something a bit scary about this issue and I need someone to clarify how important it is:
"I hit this error today with an HP driver. The nice thing about that is
there are a couple of HP driver developers who work here who were able to
get symbols files from Boise to debug the problem. Basically the print
driver is corrupting the memory in the spooler process and causes the
install process within the spooler to terminate. If the spooler did not die
with this driver, it will eventually."
by Alan Morris [MSFT] http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...&tid=c1da5500-023d-4f6d-b416-980751515419&p=1
My question is: What does it mean that the spooler will eventually die??? How bad is the problem?? Have I solved it with my unprofessional solution???
Please, I don't want my computer or any of its parts to die! Is the problem gone or only disguised?
Was there ever a solution to this problem? I've been unable to print for many months because of a spooler error and would like to find a reason for the problem as well as a solution. The ultimate solution I keep getting is to "reformat and start over" but I can't believe that with as many posts as I have read with the same problem, that a fix has not been found.
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