Printer Spooler Problem
Yrko Philogene
Out of the blue I lost my printer connection. When I look at my printer menu there is no printer listed. When I try to add or install a printer, I get some odd message about a printer spooler is not running. Restart the machine. I've tried unhooking the printer, rebooting, unhooking from the power source. I even went into some area as an administrator and found the print spool task and when I clicked on the start button there was no action.
I actually just ran into this problem myself and while looking for an answer, I ran into this post. I have a Pixma Canon MP250 and I also have Windows 8.1. Is there a way to fix the spooler problem so that I can use my printer once more? It's so weird because I was using it just yesterday and today out of the blue it stopped working and I have no idea whatsover what 'caused it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Printer Spooler Error Message: I found that by going into the Windows Control Panel, then selecting: "Program and Features" you will see the heading on this page: : "Inistall or Change a Program" ... to the left of these words on this same page,, you will see a small Windows Shield and the wording: "Turn Windows Features On and Off." I then selected that option and then, within that option, went down the alphabetic list to: "Printer and Document Services" -- In my situation, the Printer and Document Services box along with the related services boxes below were not checked.. just a dot mark.. My printer and computer had been working just fine.. how this got changed is not understood.....
I made certain all boxes under Printer and Document Services were checked and then my printer started to work and the "Printer and Spooler Error Message" went away.... In my stiutaiton this appeared to be a Windows problem not related to my Cannon MP280 printer which works just great for me...!
I found a solution to the print spooler. I have an android phone and that may be all this works for. Under my print options when I have my page ready to go, there's printer defaults I had 2 printer defaults running ( canon and the phones default print software). Turn off the phones default. If you ever get another print- we'll turn it back on or your new printers app as default. I'm not a super geek by any means so maybe this can help/maybe not. GL
Since this is an 11-year old topic, it's likely the issue you experienced, and solution offered differs greatly from the individual who started this thread. If you would like assistance, please start a new thread. It should include the model number of your Canon device, the version and build of the operating system you are using, what your device is connected to and how. Please include any additional information or errors you have encountered or believe will help us better understand your issue. There is just too much which has changed since this thread was started.
A problem with the print spooler can cause some printing and communication issues. Sometimes, restarting or clearing the print spooler may resolve these issues. The print spooler helps your Windows computer interact with the printer, and orders the print jobs in your queue.
It is also possible to delete printers from the computer's registry. If the printer cannot be deleted or removed, and restarting the print spooler has not cleared the issue, remove the printer manually from the registry.
The print spooler is a dedicated program/software that essentially manages the order of the documents to proceed to the print queue. When you select print, your program talks to the print spooler service to work out how to render (or draw) your print job so the printer will understand it and put the colors in the right spots on the page. There are all different types of spoolers in computing (once upon a time there were literal tape spools running inside computers), so the print spooler, you guessed it, takes care of just your print documents.
One of the most used outside of Windows is the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) which lets a computer act as a print server and does the print spooling and scheduling. CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) to manage print jobs and queues.
I have a Toshiba Satellite C55D-A Laptop and an Officejet 4630 printer, both hooked up by wifi. Now a few days ago the printer wouldn't print, and when I looked in active printers it would say spooling and quickly delete the print job to where I had no documents pending. It could copy fine, but not print. So I went to the print spooler, stopped it, then started it again, and at first that fixed it as it started printing again.
However it started happening again and stopping/starting the print spooler would not fix it. It's even happeneing to my old Deskjet 2400 which is connected via USB, so I think the problem is on my laptop's end. So I tried using the HP Print and Scan doctor. It could not print a regular test page but could print an INTERNAL test page. At this point the Print and Scan Doctor told me to uninstall and reinstall the software. I uninstalled it and had to reintall it via usb, because I now keep getting error messages when I try to install it wirelessly. Now when I try to print it says PRINTING instead of SPOOLING, but still doesn't print, and still deletes the print job.
Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips! I understand you are having issues while printing from your HP OfficeJet Printer. Don't worry I'll be glad to help you with this.
@Jeet_singh, I couldn't do the first option as "Print Directly to Printer" was greyed out. So I tried the 2nd option and I'm still getting the Same 'ol Situation: Says its printing but doesn't print and deletes the print job.
As I understand you have followed the steps suggested and still having the issue, I would suggest this could be an issue with the computer, I would recommend you try to create a new User account and check if that helps.
It looks like an operating system issue with the machine. TRy to create a new local user and then try to install the printer. Follow the steps here to create a local account on your PC: Create a local user or administrator account in Windows
@Jeet_singh, I tried creating a new user and the printer was already installed. So I tried to print and it said spooling for a few seconds, then printing for a few seconds, and then deleted the print job again. So it still won't print.
As I understand you have followed all the possible troubleshooting steps, however this has not helped to fix the issue. I would personally suggest you contact our HP phone support so that they can remotely take control of your PC and help you check the settings.
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Have you run into an error that says "Printer Spooler error" or "The local print spooler service is not running?" on your Windows PC? The print spooler helps Windows interact with the printer and orders the print jobs in your queue. If you see any error message about the print spooler, this tool has been corrupted or is failing to interact correctly with other software. This wikiHow article will teach you how to troubleshoot and fix your print spooler on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
We have seen this problem on two Windows 11 systems with the latest Thunderbird version. The last system had version 115.5.1. The first system was a couple of months ago and I do not remember what version we used there.
What happens is that the print spooler is stopped (often, but not always) when Thunderbird is started. A manual start of the spooler after starting Thunderbird then enables printing again on the system.
On the first one we did not know what was causing the print spooler to stop. We wiped the system, re-installed Windows and everything else. The problem was gone after that. In hindsight we do not know why this fixed it. Apparently this is not just a problem in Thunderbird alone?
On the second one we added an extra Windows user with administrative rights and changed the original user to a standard user. Then Thunderbird (or another culprit?) no longer has sufficient privileges to kill the spool server on startup of Thunderbird and that seems to work.
Unfortunately, I have also had to follow Tim's advice - but I learned the hard way. I originally got an error in Vista Business (ick) saying "Spooler SubSystem App has stopped working." Then no printers would work HP, Epson, or otherwise. Could not get the Spooler to start again without crashing. So I followed similar advice from another source (basically the same instructions as what Tim has linked) that had me completely uninstalling Adobe Reader and all my other printers, deleting printer keys from the registry, deleting from C:/Windows/System32/Spool, and then uninstalling and reinstalling Windows Scan and Print functionality. As long as I don't ever reinstall Adobe Reader (any version - and I've tried as far back as 7), then I'm fine. I've found Foxit to be a good substitute to Reader.
You'd think Adobe would have a fix for this already. Especially when people are migrating away from their software. I can never install another piece of Adobe software on my system again because it crashes the printers, so my plans for Photoshop or Acrobat are out the window. I've got a system that's only a couple of months old, too. This sucks - big time.
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