Solving Spooling Problems

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Windows uses the Print Spooler service to control the spooling of print jobs. If this service isn’t running, print jobs can’t be spooled.

Checking the Print Spooler Service

You can check the status of the Print Spooler service on a local computer by typing

sc query type= service | find /v "x0"

For a remote computer, you specify the UNC server name, such as

sc \\Engsvr04 query type= service | find /v "x0"

Either way the output should have a section for the spooler, which will look similar to this:

SERVICE_NAME: Spooler
DISPLAY_NAME: Print Spooler
TYPE                    : 110WIN32_OWN_PROCESS (interactive)
STATE                   : 4RUNNING
(STOPPABLE,NOT_PAUSABLE,ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN)

This tells you that the Print Spooler service is running. If it was stopped, you might want to check the service configuration. You could do this by typing

sc qc spooler

or

sc \\Engsvr04 qc

Among other things, the output tells you the startup setting for the Print Spooler, as shown here:

 [SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS
 
SERVICE_NAME: spooler
        TYPE                : 110WIN32_OWN_PROCESS (interactive)
        START_TYPE          : 2AUTO_START
        ERROR_CONTROL       : 1NORMAL
        BINARY_PATH_NAME    : C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP    : SpoolerGroup
        TAG                 : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME        : Print Spooler
        DEPENDENCIES        : RPCSS
        SERVICE_START_NAME  : LocalSystem

The start_type should be AUTO_START, which indicates Print Spooler is set to start automatically.

Fixing a Corrupted Spooler

Spoolers can also become corrupted. If this happens, you’ll find that the printer freezes or doesn’t send jobs to the print device. Sometimes the print device may print pages of garbled data. In most of these cases, stopping and starting the Print Spooler service will resolve the problem. You can stop Print Spooler by typing

sc stop spooler

After the spool stops, restart it by typing

sc start spooler

If you are working with a remote computer, you can enter the computer name you want to work with as well, such as

sc \\Engsvr04 stop spooler sc \\Engsvr04 start spooler

Other Services to Check

If this doesn’t resolve the problem, you may want to check other related services, including any of the following if they are installed:

• TCP/IP Print Server

• Print Server for Macintosh

• Print Server for Unix

Note

Some spooling problems can be related to permissions. You’ll also want to check the printer access permissions.

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