I'm having problems with the spoolsv.exe. Symptoms: I get a program error on startup (Win2k):[spoolsv.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created]. Additionally, the original printer icon has disappeared w/ no trace, and double clicking on Add A Printer generates the error: [Out of Resources: Printer operation cannot continue due to a lack of resources. The print subsystem is unavailable]. I cannot uninstall the printer b/c it is not registered as being there, and I've also tried installing Service Pack 2 for Win2k, but receive the same spoolsv.exe program error, followed by a Service Pack Setup Error: [The remote procedure call failed]. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?
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Spoolsv.exe problem #2 6
- Thread starter coolie
- Start date
If you need to run the repair from Cd , look in the Help
index for "repairing system files,corrupted system files"
You should find fairly detailed instructions on how to run this, as well as reference to the Online Book for Windows 2000.
The tip about deleting the spool file entries for the printer as mentioned above is critical. If you do not delete the files, each time you restart the SPOOLSV or go into the Services section of Administrative Tools in the Control Panel, the spooler will try to print the garbage files and crap out again before you get a chance to delete the printer and reinstall. Again make sure you have a new driver if you have an older printer, or W2k will take it upon itself to substitute things. The last resort is the Registry edit described in the "down under tech" reply. This is the only dangerous recommendation, not for the timid. Thanks to all the contributors. This error is probably in most people's futures.
index for "repairing system files,corrupted system files"
You should find fairly detailed instructions on how to run this, as well as reference to the Online Book for Windows 2000.
The tip about deleting the spool file entries for the printer as mentioned above is critical. If you do not delete the files, each time you restart the SPOOLSV or go into the Services section of Administrative Tools in the Control Panel, the spooler will try to print the garbage files and crap out again before you get a chance to delete the printer and reinstall. Again make sure you have a new driver if you have an older printer, or W2k will take it upon itself to substitute things. The last resort is the Registry edit described in the "down under tech" reply. This is the only dangerous recommendation, not for the timid. Thanks to all the contributors. This error is probably in most people's futures.
Guest_imported
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I also had the described problem after attempting to install a Lexmark Z31 computer using the installation CD that came with the printer. I got a program error on startup (Win2k):"spoolsv.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created". All of the printer icons disappeared from the Settings/Printer window (including all of the printers that I installed previously), and double clicking on Add A Printer generated the error: "Out of Resources: Printer operation cannot continue due to a lack of resources. The print subsystem is unavailable". Without the printer icon you can't easily delete the offending Lexmark Z31 driver files!
This is what I did based on the very helpful posts in this forum and elsewhere (Thank YOU!) I clicked Start/Run and ran regedt32. I went to Hkey_local_machine/System/Control/Print and deleted everything that related to Lexmark Z31. You'll have to search through some of the folders. Disclaimer: As noted in other posts deleting register information can be dangerous. Do so at your own risk!
Go to c:\windows\system32\spool\printers and delete everything.
Click Start/Run NET START SPOOLER. You can then go to Start/Settings/Printers and you should be able to see your printer icons again sans the offending Lexmark printer icon... I would restart the computer here.
Now go to the Lexmark site and download the Win2K/NT driver. Follow the instructions that they provide EXACTLY. Problem solved!
It appears that the install CD that is packaged with the printer does not have the Win2k/NT drivers included. I checked the folders on the CD and sure enough they had one for win95 and win98 but not win2k/nt. Of course, not once during installation does it indicate compatibility requirements... and away it merrily installs.
BTW, this problem occurred on two of my machines... one was a Win2k upgrade from Win98. The other was a Win2k upgrade from NT.
This is what I did based on the very helpful posts in this forum and elsewhere (Thank YOU!) I clicked Start/Run and ran regedt32. I went to Hkey_local_machine/System/Control/Print and deleted everything that related to Lexmark Z31. You'll have to search through some of the folders. Disclaimer: As noted in other posts deleting register information can be dangerous. Do so at your own risk!
Go to c:\windows\system32\spool\printers and delete everything.
Click Start/Run NET START SPOOLER. You can then go to Start/Settings/Printers and you should be able to see your printer icons again sans the offending Lexmark printer icon... I would restart the computer here.
Now go to the Lexmark site and download the Win2K/NT driver. Follow the instructions that they provide EXACTLY. Problem solved!
It appears that the install CD that is packaged with the printer does not have the Win2k/NT drivers included. I checked the folders on the CD and sure enough they had one for win95 and win98 but not win2k/nt. Of course, not once during installation does it indicate compatibility requirements... and away it merrily installs.
BTW, this problem occurred on two of my machines... one was a Win2k upgrade from Win98. The other was a Win2k upgrade from NT.
Guest_imported
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Search for and delete *.spl. (bad print jobs) If that doesn't fix it the problem is a bad driver. Remove the Version-2 registry key under PRINT.
I upgraded to 2K from NT 4.0 and recieved the spoolsv.exe error and was not able to install SP2. I deleted everything in Hkey_local_machine/System/Control/Print/Version-2 to solve the problem. No error message on bootup and was able to install the service pack. Thanx to all those who posted this fix. 
Guest_imported
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I just started having the same problem as described and found this forum doing a google search.
I have no reason to be running the spooler. It's only necessary if you are running as a print server or if a printer is directly connected. I'm having the problem trying to print to various printers on my network (I've tried four different ones at this point -- two are Laserjet 5m's, the other two are Color Laserjet 4550).
I also have no .spl files nor any files in my spool/printers directory.
After my last reboot, I've noticed that all my defined network printers have disappeared, and I'm getting the "Out of Resources: Printer operation cannot continue due to a lack of resources. The print subsystem is unavailable" message when I try to add a printer.
I can go for days and not need a printer. It figures the one day I really need one something like this would happen.
[running Win2KPro on a Dell Latitude C600]
-Tim
I have no reason to be running the spooler. It's only necessary if you are running as a print server or if a printer is directly connected. I'm having the problem trying to print to various printers on my network (I've tried four different ones at this point -- two are Laserjet 5m's, the other two are Color Laserjet 4550).
I also have no .spl files nor any files in my spool/printers directory.
After my last reboot, I've noticed that all my defined network printers have disappeared, and I'm getting the "Out of Resources: Printer operation cannot continue due to a lack of resources. The print subsystem is unavailable" message when I try to add a printer.
I can go for days and not need a printer. It figures the one day I really need one something like this would happen.
[running Win2KPro on a Dell Latitude C600]
-Tim
Guest_imported
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I am also getting this problem with a HP 8000 printer on a Windows 2000 pro workstation. I tried reinstalling the SP to see it there was any issues with that. Didnt work. Also went in to the registry and deleted keys for the 8000 printer under control set. This did not resolve the issue. Does any one know what causes this ? Seems Bitware and lexmark and now HP all seem to have this problem . Any help would be appreciated thanks.
Dana Stevenson
Dana Stevenson
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Had Spoolsv.exe startup up error after installing Lexmark Z31 software on Win2000 machine. Followed DCinLA's advise below and all works. Went to Lexmark web site and downloaded WIN Y2K drivers and it now prints in Windows 2000. Thank you DCinLA
Hi, all.
I, too am having similar problems, with the spoolsv.exe error, Win 2K, Adobe software and Epson 870 printer.
I don't have the background to explain any of all this, and I now have workarounds that are acceptable to me (thanks to copious assistance from my son, without whom I would be still struggling). I am posting my experience with the problem(s) in the hope that others much more expert in the field can glean some vital clue.
1. If I try to print an image file from within Adobe Photoshop (whether in version 5 light edition or version 6 complete) to my Epson 870, I get the error if the spooler is involved. ie whether the spooler is set for immediate printing or to wait until the last page has been spooled, up comes the error message, and away go all of the printer icons in Control Panel.
2. Generally the printer icons return with a simple restart. Once only I found that they were still missing even after a full shutdown; turning off the Epson and restarting brought them back.
3. Setting the printer options to print direct to the printer 'cures' the Adobe-to-Epson problems.
4. Printing from Adobe Photoshop to my other printer (ancient Canon BBJ330 B&W) works like a charm, even with the spooler set to start printing immediately, and with a 'huge' image file (the *.PSD file is nearly 200 MB).
5. Printing from any of the other photo-editing programs available to me (ie MS Imaging, Paint Shop Pro 7, Polyview 3.64, Color Pilot 4.00, EZ Photo 2.6) gives me satisfactory printing even when set for immediate printing via the spooler.
6. I do not 'appear' to have any bitware installed on my system. A search right through all 7 partitions of my hard disks for files bw* turns up nothing. There is, however, an entry in my registry for bwagent.exe. I have not yet tried doing a manual edit of the registry to get rid of any such entries, since my simple logic suggests that if bwagent.exe is not on my hard disk, the registry entry should be fairly harmless.
7. The workarounds which are quite acceptable for my use are either to avoid Adobe entirely, or if there is something in unique about Adobe Phoroshop that I just must use, then cut the spooler out of the loop.
With luck, there is a clue in there somewhere; all we need now is the right technical Sherlock Holmes.
I, too am having similar problems, with the spoolsv.exe error, Win 2K, Adobe software and Epson 870 printer.
I don't have the background to explain any of all this, and I now have workarounds that are acceptable to me (thanks to copious assistance from my son, without whom I would be still struggling). I am posting my experience with the problem(s) in the hope that others much more expert in the field can glean some vital clue.
1. If I try to print an image file from within Adobe Photoshop (whether in version 5 light edition or version 6 complete) to my Epson 870, I get the error if the spooler is involved. ie whether the spooler is set for immediate printing or to wait until the last page has been spooled, up comes the error message, and away go all of the printer icons in Control Panel.
2. Generally the printer icons return with a simple restart. Once only I found that they were still missing even after a full shutdown; turning off the Epson and restarting brought them back.
3. Setting the printer options to print direct to the printer 'cures' the Adobe-to-Epson problems.
4. Printing from Adobe Photoshop to my other printer (ancient Canon BBJ330 B&W) works like a charm, even with the spooler set to start printing immediately, and with a 'huge' image file (the *.PSD file is nearly 200 MB).
5. Printing from any of the other photo-editing programs available to me (ie MS Imaging, Paint Shop Pro 7, Polyview 3.64, Color Pilot 4.00, EZ Photo 2.6) gives me satisfactory printing even when set for immediate printing via the spooler.
6. I do not 'appear' to have any bitware installed on my system. A search right through all 7 partitions of my hard disks for files bw* turns up nothing. There is, however, an entry in my registry for bwagent.exe. I have not yet tried doing a manual edit of the registry to get rid of any such entries, since my simple logic suggests that if bwagent.exe is not on my hard disk, the registry entry should be fairly harmless.
7. The workarounds which are quite acceptable for my use are either to avoid Adobe entirely, or if there is something in unique about Adobe Phoroshop that I just must use, then cut the spooler out of the loop.
With luck, there is a clue in there somewhere; all we need now is the right technical Sherlock Holmes
.
Guest_imported
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deleting files from the following directory fixed it for me. After I ran a Win2k upgrade which did nothing for me.
C:\WINNT\system32\spool\drivers
C:\WINNT\system32\spool\drivers
I too, was having the same spoolsv.exe error messages while starting up, followed by the disappeared printer icons. Finally solved the problem by deleting the files. I was put on hold by Dell for over an hour only to get that it was the printer's problem and I had to contact Lexmark, and that they were not responsible for it. So much for my one hour and 17 minutes wait, eh?
Anyway..thinking back, I did get the spool error messages while cancelling a print job in the middle of it very often before this whole mess happened. I was running windows 98 back then and it never really gave me any major problems. I guess there's something not very stable between Lexmark's driver and Windows 2000. I now remembered that a couple weeks ago, I did print out stuff fine, and that was probably the only time (and last time of course) that I printed something after I installed Windows 2000. I didn't like what I was printing so I canceled the print job. I didn't get any error messages back then, but that was probably how the whole thing started.
I guess I learned my lesson now, and until Lexmark updates their driver to be more stable, I will try not to cancel any print jobs in the middle of it.
Spain
Anyway..thinking back, I did get the spool error messages while cancelling a print job in the middle of it very often before this whole mess happened. I was running windows 98 back then and it never really gave me any major problems. I guess there's something not very stable between Lexmark's driver and Windows 2000. I now remembered that a couple weeks ago, I did print out stuff fine, and that was probably the only time (and last time of course) that I printed something after I installed Windows 2000. I didn't like what I was printing so I canceled the print job. I didn't get any error messages back then, but that was probably how the whole thing started.
I guess I learned my lesson now, and until Lexmark updates their driver to be more stable, I will try not to cancel any print jobs in the middle of it.
Spain
Having the same problem, havent had a spoolsv.exe has generated an error though. Using w2k pro and HP 950 usb printer. Tried deleting the spooled files with no joy, reinstalled the printer driver.
I am currently running out of options! please help. The only couple of ideas left is to repair the installation of w2k. Has anyone any ideas about the compatibility with adobe problems? acrobat 5 and photoshop 6.0.
thanks
I am currently running out of options! please help. The only couple of ideas left is to repair the installation of w2k. Has anyone any ideas about the compatibility with adobe problems? acrobat 5 and photoshop 6.0.
thanks
Guest_imported
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I have win2k w/ canon bjc-2100
I deleted the info in Hkey_local_machine/System/Controlset001/Control/Print/printer/
It workred fine !!!
I deleted the info in Hkey_local_machine/System/Controlset001/Control/Print/printer/
It workred fine !!!
Guest_imported
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I'm getting the "out of resources" and "printer subsystem unavailable" message when trying to add a printer. My Canon BJC-250 worked perfectly a month ago and I don't believe I've installed any new software since the last time I printed something. I may have cancelled print jobs in the middle, though. Anyway, the device manager tells me the port is fine, but no programs can print. And there is no longer any listing of the BJC-250 in the printers directory.
There is nothing to delete in my WINNT\system32\spool\PRINTERS directory. There are no *.spl files anywhere, and when I go into Admin Tools/ Services, there IS NO PRINT SPOOLER option (or anything similar) that I can set to "automatic". I gather that I'm getting the error because my spooler isn't running, but evidently, I don't even have a spooler service.
I browsed my registry and Hkey_local_machine/System/Controlset001/Control/Print/ lists about six things after that, NONE OF WHICH is "printer". Has my system just decided to catch amnesia, forgetting it ever had a printer?
There is nothing to delete in my WINNT\system32\spool\PRINTERS directory. There are no *.spl files anywhere, and when I go into Admin Tools/ Services, there IS NO PRINT SPOOLER option (or anything similar) that I can set to "automatic". I gather that I'm getting the error because my spooler isn't running, but evidently, I don't even have a spooler service.
I browsed my registry and Hkey_local_machine/System/Controlset001/Control/Print/ lists about six things after that, NONE OF WHICH is "printer". Has my system just decided to catch amnesia, forgetting it ever had a printer?
Guest_imported
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Turning off bi-directional printing also worked for me.
Guest_imported
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Guess what I am using a Lexmark too!! Lexmark z51.. I
called them for support left me on hold for over an hour
recently upgraded from win98 to win2k pro. Cannot install the drivers. Is there any tool to fix this problem ?
Help me please!
Thanks
)
called them for support left me on hold for over an hour
recently upgraded from win98 to win2k pro. Cannot install the drivers. Is there any tool to fix this problem ?
Help me please!
Thanks
)
Guest_imported
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I had the same problem with memory being consumed at a dramatic rate....I went into services and stopped the Print Spooler...then restarted it and everything was fine.
Guest_imported
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Check to see if your BIOS hardware resource settings match those of your OS: eg I have Win2K==>LPT1 (parallel port printer connection)==>Toshiba E-Studio 16, 2K was not using the IRQ that the BIOS? was assigning it.
HTH
HTH
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1
- #38
I was stumped until I found this site through Google.com
I had upgraded an NT system with all of the latest updates from I then installed Win2000 Pro to take advantage of the USB support for a printer I needed to install.
After the upgrade to W2K the printers folder would not open.
I could not install anything. Everything I launched even after rebooting would not open. I could not get the Product Updates to run from the site.
Spoolsv.exe spiked the usage up to 67%+ and consumed memory until the system crashed.
Here's what I did to finally fix the problem, Thanks to the help of several different postings on this site.
I took this suggestion from Azmath... "This is a complex problem with a simple answer. Just go to the control panel->admin tools->services and check the print spooler option is set to automatic (not disabled or manual). If not, set it to automatic option and then start the service. Hope this will solve ur problem irrespective of the type of printer."
I set the print spooler option to manual and rebooted.
This fixed the problem of running out of memory/resources but my system was running very very slow.
I then applied the fix from Novell as suggested by Billmac1958 in the Jul 27, 2001 posting...
"You might try one of these links
good luck
Billmac "
I am running the Novell Netware Client 4.8. I downloaded the 253829.exe file to C:\temp and followed their instructions for the fix. It installed a new NWWS2NDS.DLL file.
I then rebooted again and set the print spooler back to Automatic and rebooted.
It worked PERFECTLY, No registry to hack and no files to find to delete. Also all of my printers came back and I could print again. I have since downloaded all of the updates from Microsoft and the system still runs just fine.
I have duplicated this fix on 4 different systems and they all are running great.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to everyone who helped me resolve this problem.
I had upgraded an NT system with all of the latest updates from I then installed Win2000 Pro to take advantage of the USB support for a printer I needed to install.
After the upgrade to W2K the printers folder would not open.
I could not install anything. Everything I launched even after rebooting would not open. I could not get the Product Updates to run from the site.
Spoolsv.exe spiked the usage up to 67%+ and consumed memory until the system crashed.
Here's what I did to finally fix the problem, Thanks to the help of several different postings on this site.
I took this suggestion from Azmath... "This is a complex problem with a simple answer. Just go to the control panel->admin tools->services and check the print spooler option is set to automatic (not disabled or manual). If not, set it to automatic option and then start the service. Hope this will solve ur problem irrespective of the type of printer."
I set the print spooler option to manual and rebooted.
This fixed the problem of running out of memory/resources but my system was running very very slow.
I then applied the fix from Novell as suggested by Billmac1958 in the Jul 27, 2001 posting...
"You might try one of these links
good luck
Billmac "
I am running the Novell Netware Client 4.8. I downloaded the 253829.exe file to C:\temp and followed their instructions for the fix. It installed a new NWWS2NDS.DLL file.
I then rebooted again and set the print spooler back to Automatic and rebooted.
It worked PERFECTLY, No registry to hack and no files to find to delete. Also all of my printers came back and I could print again. I have since downloaded all of the updates from Microsoft and the system still runs just fine.
I have duplicated this fix on 4 different systems and they all are running great.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to everyone who helped me resolve this problem.
same problem. lexmark z31.
Guest_imported
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Thank you so much! We bought 2 new Dell Dimension's and could not connect to printers on Novell 4.12 network. Task Manager confirmed Spoolsv.exe was consuming 50%+ CPU; machines would hang on shut down, "End Program - CSC Notification Window".
As recommended in your thread, I downloaded revised NWWS2NDS.DLL (see Novell TID 2958354 to download 253829.exe), extracted and installed as directions.
Success! Passed on information to Dell Support as they had no idea and this problem will probably exhibit on any new Dell Dimension 4300 running Windows 2000 Novell Client 4.71 or 4.8, at least to Novell 4.12 network.
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