The print spooler service is not running

[Rebel1]

I can't print anything. If I go to Start/Settings/Printers and Faxes,
none of my printers are listed. If I click on Add Printer, I get the
following message: "Operation could not be completed. The print spooler
service is not running."

If I go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and look at Print
spooler, Startup Type is Automatic and Status is blank. If I click on
Start the service and then try to add a printer, the message now becomes
just "Operation could not be completed." If I click on Add Printer
again, I get the original message.

Others have mentioned that Remote Procedure Call must be started and
automatic. It is.)

Using Task Manager, Processes tab, the entry spoolsv.exe appears when I
start the Print spooler via Administrative Tools/Services, but
immediately disappears as soon as I click on Add printer.

I also tried several other things that google located (making sure
certain folder didn't have files in them) and deleting printer drivers.

Printing had been working perfectly for many months with my Konica and
Canon printers. The most recent problem was the w32/blaster.worm and a
file called defender.exe. Although everything else is now working okay
again, just the printer problem remains.

SOLUTION: Researching the worm, I found two files associated with it:
conhost.exe and dwm.exe. The first is located in c:\documents and
settings\owner\application data\microsoft\; the second in c:\documents
and settings\owner\application data\. I deleted them, in the Safe Mode
(see next paragraph). Since I knew the time stamp associated with
defender.exe, I searched for all files on c:\ on that date and time.
There were about 7 or 8. I deleted them, rebooted and now my two
hardware printers and three virtual ones are working again.

To delete files in the Safe Mode, type Start\Run explorer.exe to launch
it and navigate to the files. Go to Tools/Folder Options. On the View
tab, make sure "Show hidden files and folders" is selected.

Good luck.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Do I take it from the last "SOLUTION" section of your post, that you have
no real problem at all now, and that your original situation of being
unable to use the Spooler Service has now been resolved?

If so, please don't post problems to which you have already found the
answer to, just because your so happy and elated about it that you feel the
need to share - please use "Twitter" for that kind of thing!

This NewsGroup is not for people to blindly post all their solutions to
just in case someone else has had precisely the same experience. It is for
people who have extensive experience who feel they may be useful in
answering other's queries, and for those who have currently unsolved
problems and who are having a "last-ditch" stab at getting some sort of
sensible good advice.

The chances that someone has had the exact-same problem as yours and finds
your solution applicable are miniscule!

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[VanguardLH]

Rebel1 wrote ...


Do I take it from the last "SOLUTION" section of your post, that you
have no real problem at all now, and that your original situation of
being unable to use the Spooler Service has now been resolved? If
so, please don't post problems to which you have already found the
answer to, just because your so happy and elated about it that you
feel the need to share - please use "Twitter" for that kind of thing!

Some folks get so gleeful after finding a solution that they just have
to submit a "diary" post. They feel compelled to share their joy.

Sometimes after working many hours or days on a coding problem at home
and then discovering the bug or contriving a solution, I want to point
at my solution to someone "See, I fixed it, I did that" but no one else
around my house has the expertise to understand what I'd be talking
about. I have to resist sending an e-mail to my old buddy that is
cooperating on the software project.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Sending a boastful email to your buddy, or "Tweeting" the entire world that
you're so happy you got full-control of your PC back, is perfectly
understandable.

But, compelling though it may be (and I too, admit to feeling such an
urge), one does have to resist posting your success to a PC-problems
NewsGroup!!

It's quite different to "re-posting" that your problem has been resolved on
an existing thread which you've either already started yourself, or one you
have been contributing to.

Starting a new thread about experiencing a problem and also stating that
problem has been resolved - all in the same post - makes no sense at all.

As I said, the chances that it will be of any use to anyone are vanishingly
small...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[VanguardLH]

Sending a boastful email to your buddy, or "Tweeting" the entire world that
you're so happy you got full-control of your PC back, is perfectly
understandable.

But, compelling though it may be (and I too, admit to feeling such an
urge), one does have to resist posting your success to a PC-problems
NewsGroup!!

It's quite different to "re-posting" that your problem has been resolved on
an existing thread which you've either already started yourself, or one you
have been contributing to.

Starting a new thread about experiencing a problem and also stating that
problem has been resolved - all in the same post - makes no sense at all.

As I said, the chances that it will be of any use to anyone are vanishingly
small...

Sometimes there is a spike in the same problem encountered by a
multitude of users of the same software (or whatever is the topic of the
newsgroup). Perhaps an update made a change or a new version altered
behavior and the users start creating an uproar of posts all asking
about the same problem. Then someone finds a solution and posts it.
Obviously they aren't going to everyone that was complaining of the
problem and append their post. That would be akin to spamming since you
would be spewing out as many "solution" reply posts as there are threads
discussing the same prevalent problem.

So I can see the advantage of posting your solution to help everyone at
once; however, it really isn't as useful as first seen on the surface.
Those that are having that shared problem rarely go searching the
newsgroup(s) to find if someone already found a solution. How many
times has someone asked about "Outlook not remember password" in the
microsoft.public.outlook[.general] newsgroups when there have been
dozens if not hundreds of replies addressing the same problem. Posting
your solution when there is a multitude of users sharing the same
problem has merit but only in face value. I've seen someone posting
about a known or discovered problem with a Windows update, submit a post
to announce a solution or to not install that update until it gets fixed
(assuming it is known that Microsoft is working on a fix), and other
posters continue asking for help on that same problem.

The vast majority of posters asking for help are not long-time regulars
in Usenet and/or they don't bother searching (in Usenet or the web) to
see if a solution already exists. They do a knee-jerk submission not
expending any effort to fix their problem before asking others to do
their work. The "info" or "how I did it" diary posts are only useful to
those users that investigate and search before posting; however, alas,
that isn't the norm for more users seeking help.

I have seen some users admit that they use Usenet as their "help
article" archive. They post in a newsgroup their solution so they can
look it up later. Instead I use ClipMate (ClipMagic is an alternative)
to store an easy and editable clip database of solutions and is
especially handy for canned responses to oft asked questions.

 

[Tester]

What the f*ck is this about? Tim - whoever he may be- has always been
right; you are wrong here because you didn't even quote the original
message for us to decide if Tim is that idot people have come to know about.

Go an visit here:

<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/>

The site belongs to one time president of Cambridge University Union.

 

[Tim Meddick]

"Rebel1"'s posting of an unsolicited piece on "How I got my printers to
work again after being knocked-out by a virus" is not going to be of much
help to others.

You would have to know exactly what you were looking for to be a able to
search the web and find it's content....

So it's of limited usefulness, IMHO, to have such a topic, when all the
time it's content is so specific.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

P.S. I find it incredibly arrogant that you feel justified in giving these
one-liners that pass judgement with no apparent need for you to even show
your reasoning or not feel obliged to discuss the matter but condense your
output to so few words.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Thankyou (err, I think?!!)....

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Tim Meddick]

"beatgrinder", can you tell me more about your own problem and the outcome
of your attempts to fix "defender.exe" ?....

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.