Printer Spooler Dead
Hi All,
looking for some urgent help. We have a 2003 server that usually has around 25 printers, the server is also a dc. Its backed up by Arcserver 15.
This morning one of our admins was trying to install a new HP Printer and the software crashed half way. After a reboot the spooler service now does not start.
All our printers are down.
Does anyone know of a way of restoring / repairing this without loosing all the existing printers ?
looking for some urgent help. We have a 2003 server that usually has around 25 printers, the server is also a dc. Its backed up by Arcserver 15.
This morning one of our admins was trying to install a new HP Printer and the software crashed half way. After a reboot the spooler service now does not start.
All our printers are down.
Does anyone know of a way of restoring / repairing this without loosing all the existing printers ?
Check if you are able to find consecutive 7031/7032 events in System events
Start the print spooler service manually to take the backup of the existing printers using printmig.exe tool
Then let me know if you have any events to printers
Start the print spooler service manually to take the backup of the existing printers using printmig.exe tool
Then let me know if you have any events to printers
It's good to see the old printer issues that were so problematic in NT 4.0 TSE environments can still raise their ugly heads.
One procedure I have used in the past with good success:
Open registry editor.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
In there you will see various OS types for the drivers.
Expand each one and you should see a Drivers sub-key
You may also have a Version-3 sub-key below that.
Find any references to the failed printer and make a note of the Configuration File and Dependant Files values.
Hopefully you won't need to delete any files as they might be shared, but it's worth knowing what they are.
At this point you may also want to back the whole Environments key up to a .reg file.
Delete the entries for the affected printer.
Try restarting the spooler.
If this fails, you may have to look for either an associated Print Processor (HP branded usually) and/or delete the files mentioned above.
They will be in the associated x64/w32x86 folders under Windows\System32\spool\dri
In some extreme cases, a reboot was necessary.
One procedure I have used in the past with good success:
Open registry editor.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
In there you will see various OS types for the drivers.
Expand each one and you should see a Drivers sub-key
You may also have a Version-3 sub-key below that.
Find any references to the failed printer and make a note of the Configuration File and Dependant Files values.
Hopefully you won't need to delete any files as they might be shared, but it's worth knowing what they are.
At this point you may also want to back the whole Environments key up to a .reg file.
Delete the entries for the affected printer.
Try restarting the spooler.
If this fails, you may have to look for either an associated Print Processor (HP branded usually) and/or delete the files mentioned above.
They will be in the associated x64/w32x86 folders under Windows\System32\spool\dri
In some extreme cases, a reboot was necessary.
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Check this and let me know