Print Spooler Won't Keep Running

Hi all.

I was having trouble with my printer a while back and finally figured out that this was due to the print spooler not running.

Well, I went into services and set it to "automatically" run (it was on "manual"). It will work for like a day (even if I shut-down and restart), but then it reverts back to manual after a day to a few days.

It never did this before. Can you guys help me get it back to normal?

Thanks a lot!

 

Is this a wireless printer or is it connected via USB? What type/make and model of printer is this? Have you updated the printer drivers recently? To isolate the OS or hardware I would disconnect the printer and reboot the PC and see if print spooler says in auto mode. I would next go to MSconfig and see if print spooler has a check mark in the box. If not check it and reboot.

 

Do the windows event logs have anything to say?

 

Reinstall your printer drivers from the CD or run a repair. This helped me in the past.

 

It is an Epson Stylus NX415 connected via usb.

It still turns off even when the printer isn't connected.

In MSConfig, it's checked but listed as stopped. When I set it to automatic, it reverts back to manual after a day or so.

I'll check the event logs and try re-installing and let you know how it goes.

 

Sorry to get back so late.

I deleted everything EPSON in my computer and re-installed the drivers from the disk that came with the printer.

The spooler still reverts back to manual after a day or two.

However, I did run an update-check and it found updated drivers for the printer and scanner, so I installed them today, reset the spooler to automatic, and we'll see how it goes.

 

I restarted my computer about 5 times, and the spooler stayed on automatic. Now, I just checked it and it says it's "started" but that it's now manual.

Apparently, there's something wrong with my spooler.

 

to repeat: is there anything in the windows event logs?

 

Sorry Newsposter, didn't mean to ignore your post.

Could you be more specific as to where I should look in the event logs?

I go into "event viewer," click on "windows logs" and then it gives me the following choices: application, security, system, setup, and forwarded events.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

application and system tabs but it's an occasional good idea to check all of the tabs from time to time for errors and/or problems.

After you look at the tabs and note any errors that might be in there, go ahead and right click and clear/don't save the logs in each tab so you have a known-clear starting point.

 

Here's one I found under the system tab:

I had uninstalled the office trial that came with my system (never used it), maybe I uninstalled one-note as well and this is what's causing the problem?

 

One Note often installs a phantom printer driver to handle some of their doc formats so yah, could be.

Any other software in there like a virtual PDF printer or?? that might be in the same general category?

 

Not to my Knowles, unless Adobe installed something without my knowing during one of the recent updates. I wonder how to go about finding this "phantom driver"?

 

Try Device Manager --> View --> Show Hidden Devices

 

Perhaps the term phantom driver is misleading. Sorry 'bout that.

What I *mean* is that a printer driver doesn't have to actually target a physical device. Things like OneNote, the various virtual PDF creation tools (like doPDF, etc) and some Adobe products all create these non-physical printers to provide an output path to a file instead of a physical device.

And as a printer driver, a bad virtual printer driver can still munge up the print spooler service.

 

I checked to view hidden devices and this is what I found:






As you can see in the last photo, one of these hidden drivers seems to have a problem. I'm wondering if this could be the culprit?