Troubles with the print spooler

[Don Corleone]

So I was having some troubles getting something to print the other day. I went in and looked, and all of my print driver icons were gone. Zoinks! So I tried to reinstall my printer. Windows flashed a message saying "Cannot be done at this time, because the print spooler service is not running", or something to that affect.

Now, I didn't even know you could shut the print spooler off. But, after a quick websearch, I found that error message and Windows describes how to turn it back on. It was my first trip to the Administrator Functions "Services" tab. Well, the 'automatic' flag was already set. So I just clicked the start button, and bad news, I got Error 23: Cyclic write verification or something like that (was definitely Error 23). I did a google search on the text of the message and while I didn't find it specifically for the print spooler service, I did find the error. It apparently means the sector of my harddrive that the print spooler is written on has gone bad, and I'm going to have to save everything and reformat my harddrive, reinstall windows, then reinstall everything. UGH!!!

Is this correct, or could it be something else? Before I dedicate 6 hours of a Sunday afternoon, I'd like to 'know', not just suspect.

Thanks!

[caravel]

Go to the start menu click on run and enter "cmd". From the command prompt enter "chdsk /f", then "y" when it asks you to schedule the disk to be checked on next reboot, then reboot. Take note of the number of KB in bad sectors or run chkdsk again without arguments after the reboot.

Run a search for all files and folders for "spoolsv.exe" it should find two files. Find the one in \system32 and rename it to "spoolsv.bak" copy the one from \dllcache into system32 and see if that fixes your problem. (windows system file protection should do this part anyway - but in case you have it disabled do it manually.)

Try to start the spool service again: Go to the start menu click on run and enter "cmd". From the command prompt enter "net start spooler".

If this fails, the next thing to do is a repair install from your windows XP CDROM. To achieve this follow this guide:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ps/doug92.mspx

[Don Corleone]

Thank you sir. I'll try this tomorrow night when I get home from work and have some time.

[Don Corleone]

Well, took me a little while to get around to doing this. But i only had 12KB in bad sectors.

But it did say that they found problems with the file system and to run CHKDSK with /f to fix them. I had tried that, as you said, but when I rebooted, I just loaded Windows again, and it didn't run the CHKDSK utility. Did I do something wrong? I have a splash screen that hides the BIOS loading, is that the problem, and how can I shut that off?

[Don Corleone]

Okay, I believe I solved the problem. I think what happened was Windows was doing an update and muffed up the file in the process. The reason I say that:

1) My computer doesn't have a dllcache
2) There was no spoolsv.exe in Windows\system32

When did a search on it, I did find copies of it in a folder that ended with i386, and in 2 separate windows dowload folders. I grabbed the one from the latest download and copied it into the system32 directory, ran the print spooler, and voila! my fultifunction printer is now printing again (and scanning).

Thanks for the help Cambyses.

[caravel]

Well, took me a little while to get around to doing this. But i only had 12KB in bad sectors.

But it did say that they found problems with the file system and to run CHKDSK with /f to fix them. I had tried that, as you said, but when I rebooted, I just loaded Windows again, and it didn't run the CHKDSK utility.

After you ran chkdsk /f what happened?

Did I do something wrong? I have a splash screen that hides the BIOS loading, is that the problem, and how can I shut that off?

No, the disk check on reboot only runs if chkdsk couldn't dismount the volume to scan it. It runs after the BIOS POST and before windows starts.

Okay, I believe I solved the problem. I think what happened was Windows was doing an update and muffed up the file in the process. The reason I say that:

1) My computer doesn't have a dllcache
2) There was no spoolsv.exe in Windows\system32

Which Service Pack have you installed?

spoolsv.exe being missing was causing the problem.

When did a search on it, I did find copies of it in a folder that ended with i386, and in 2 separate windows dowload folders. I grabbed the one from the latest download and copied it into the system32 directory, ran the print spooler, and voila! my fultifunction printer is now printing again (and scanning).

Thanks for the help Cambyses.