Print spooler shut off

[Chuck Tucker]

Any idea what would cause the print spooler to turn off? All of a sudden my wife's computer wouldn't print and I found the spooler was turned off.

[Deadeye81]

Hi Chuck,

Don't know why the spooler turned off, but were you able to start it up and print again?

You might check in Services to see if the Print Spooler is dependent on any other service to function properly. If so, maybe that service shut down, causing the Print Spooler to turn off as well.

[Doc Brown]

A bad (corrupt or incompatible) driver is almost always the cause of print spooler crashes. I have seen an occasional corrupt file crash spoolers, but its kind of rare. The fastest and least aggravating way to troubleshoot this is to reload the driver. This not the same as reinstalling the driver and software, nor deleting and re-adding the printer. Of course, if it doesn't happen again, I'd leave it alone, but if you keep having issues, this is what you can try:

1. Disconnect your printer from your PC
2. Delete the printer from Printers & Faxes
3. While in Printers & Faxes, click on File, then Server Properties
4. Click the Drivers tab
5. Click on the printer driver for your printer, select Delete
6. Connect your printer back to the PC and add the driver when prompted

Also, check the disk free space. It may be that its low on space and Windows doesn't have enough room to spool the file.

[Chuck Tucker]

It was quite simple to turn the spooler back on. I was just curious as to how it got turned off. I was in the process of installing the printer on a new laptop via our LAN as the printer is attached to my wife's computer. How that managed to turn off my wife's spooler remains a mystery.

[Doc Brown]

Look at the System Event Log. When services are stopped, either manually or otherwise, there should be a corresponding event.

[Chuck Tucker]

Thanks. I'll have to check it out.