Print Spooler is an important Windows process that functions as a bridge between your computer and printer. Print spooler crash will stop the printer from working properly. There are various causes of print spooler crashing errors: faulty software, corrupted printer drivers, corrupted spool files and so on. In this article you will find more than one instruction, as there is not a single solution to the problem: the solution will depend on the cause of the error.

Download Fix Wizard

Way 1

1. Click on the Start button (it is found at the left button corner) and then Control Panel
2. Now select Administrative Tools, after that click on the Services link.
3. Finally, find the Print Spooler service, click on it and restart the process.

Way 2

1. Go to the Start Menu again and click on Run
2. In the opened command box type “services.msc” without the quotes and click OK.
3. A new window should open. Scroll down until you find Print Spooler. Enter the settings and turn on automatic mode. Click OK.
4. Reboot

Way 3

1. Enter Start Menu and type “printer” in the search box. Hit Enter.
2. Now find the installed printers and delete them.
3. Then right-click on the blank part of the window and choose “Run as administrator” and after that “Server Properties”
4. Find and select the Drivers tab. Remove all the listed printers, and also select Remove driver and driver package
5. Now go to Start and type “appwiz.cpl” in the search box and hit enter.
6. Remove all related printer software and reboot.

Way 4

Remove all 3rd party monitors and drivers:

NOTE: this solution will involve modifying and deleting registry files. Be always very careful when dealing with the Registry Editor as any misdoing will cause even more troubles.

• Go to Start > Run and then type “regedit“, press Enter
• Now navigate to the following registry key by clicking “+” signs

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86

• Delete all the subkeys there except for Drivers and Print Processors. Before deleting them, make a back up. To make a back up click Export and save it to your Desktop or to any other folder.
• Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors registry key

and delete all the sub-keys that are not listed below:

• BJ Language Monitor
• Local Port
• Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Monitor
• Microsoft Shared Fax Monitor
• Standard TCP/IP Port
• USB Monitor
• WSD Port

Do not forget to make a back up before you delete the registry keys.

• Now disconnect your printer and reboot.

Way 5

If you are experiencing the spooler service on startup:

• First go to Start menu, then Control Panel, Admin Tools and finally Services. Stop the Spooler Service.
• Now delete all the files in C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers
• Restart the Spooler Service that you stopped in step 1.

If the error persists, use Microsoft’s ADPlus tool. The tool will help you get information about the reason of the print spooler crash.

• First download the tool from www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx and install it.
• Use the tasklist command (tasklist find /n “spoolsv.exe”) to determine the pid of the process (spoolsv.exe)
• Now open a command prompt by clicking Start > Run and type the following “cscript adplus.vbs -crash -p PID -o c:\adplus“
• The tool would create log file.
• Analyze the log file: Open it and find “This process is shutting down“. See what was the reason to the crash. If the problem was caused by a dll file or a driver, you will need to reinstall it.
• Reboot.

Information provided by: Alexey Abalmasov

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