[shauno]

First off - I'm running XP Pro SP2 with a HP 845c printer.

Some time ago my printer suddenly stopped working. I've tried reinstalling it but I get this message...

Operation could not be completed. The print spooler service is not running.

I've tried reinstalling the printer drivers etc, but the problem is with the print spooler. Having read similar threads, I saw that the first thing to do was to open Services and to try and start the print spooler. This is where other people's problems end, but when I press start, I get this message...

Could not start the Print Spooler service on Local Computer.
Error 3: The system cannot find the path specified.

The microsoft website doesn't seem to mention this message and I've not found it in any other threads, so I've had to start this one. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[godspeeed]

check if the application spoolsv.exe is running in your task manager. Ive heard that it was recently being used by a worm to infect the computer. Maybe the file was corrupted by the worm or quarantined by an anti-spyware program preventing it from running. For further information about this application just type spoolsv.exe in google the first website to pop will give a very good definition of the file and tell you how to fix it.

 

[shauno]

It doesn't look like that is the problem. spoolsv.exe is not running in task manager and so it looks unlikely to be the virus which is supposed to use loads of cpu.

How do I try to repair the file? shall I copy it from another PC or use my XP disc (if so, how)?

 

[Terrister]

Try to system restore to back to when the printer worked.

 

[shauno]

As I've had this problem for a while but have only just got around to fixing it, I've since had to turn System Restore off and on to resolve some other virus issues, so I can't use System Restore.

I'm pretty sure the problem started when I installed SP2 a while back.

Also found that I can't get my scanner to work either. Related?