Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Unfortunately, I have also had to follow Tim's advice - but I learned the hard way. I originally got an error in Vista Business (ick) saying "Spooler SubSystem App has stopped working." Then no printers would work HP, Epson, or otherwise. Could not get the Spooler to start again without crashing. So I followed similar advice from another source (basically the same instructions as what Tim has linked) that had me completely uninstalling Adobe Reader and all my other printers, deleting printer keys from the registry, deleting from C:/Windows/System32/Spool, and then uninstalling and reinstalling Windows Scan and Print functionality. As long as I don't ever reinstall Adobe Reader (any version - and I've tried as far back as 7), then I'm fine. I've found Foxit to be a good substitute to Reader.
You'd think Adobe would have a fix for this already. Especially when people are migrating away from their software. I can never install another piece of Adobe software on my system again because it crashes the printers, so my plans for Photoshop or Acrobat are out the window. I've got a system that's only a couple of months old, too. This sucks - big time.
Other forums - especially those from Windows and Adobe - will tell you it's a problem with your print drivers. I had 3 different newer printers go down and none would function - even when installed alone with the latest and greatest drivers - once Reader was installed. They all work fine on their own when Adobe software is not installed. As soon as Adobe Reader (7,8,or 9 versions) is installed, the print spooler crashes again. I guess I'm sticking with Foxit.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I saw your comment on people migrating away from Adobe and thought I would add my experience.
I have a client that has been dealing with this issue on a large scale. Close to 200 computers running Adobe, most with HP 1022 printers as local printers. Since Adobe isn't responding to the issue with an update, we (they) are migrating away. For most users downloading Foxit reader and using that to view and print .PDF's solves the issue. Shame that Adobe is losing customers over this but when you don't fix the problem there isn't much of a choice.
P.S. After dealing with this this thing from every angle it IS an Adobe issue
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Our problem is we heavily use Adobe Pro and Adobe Standard to create documents. HP was zero help. But, I hooked up a Dell 1110 printer to one of the computers and the problem disappeared. So we are replacing the printers using a volume purchase from Dell. This was less expensive than continuing to waste labor cost on trying to solve the problem of driver/software incompatibility.
Regards,
Harmon Snipes
[signature deleted by host]
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I am having the same problem. I dug a bit into it, and it seems that printers create 2 temporary files in the Windows/system
32/spool folder (one .SHD file, one .SPL file).
Every program that prints that I have tested so far releases these temporary files after the print job is over and they are deleted (presumably by the spooler). Printing with Adobe Reader leaves them in the folder. Next time you start a print job, the spooler crashes.
You can fix that by deleting the files and then restart the print spooler (My computer -> manage -> services), but it will crash after the next Adobe print job again.
I downloaded Foxit, and without any other changes, it works fine. No crashes. Unambiguously, the problem is with Adobe. Should be fairly easy to fix (probably Adobe just has to release the files so the spooler can delete them).
Adobe, get on the ball.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I will try the fix. We are having the same problem ourselves and I have 8 HP 1020 printers to support. You can work around the problem and clear the printer.
- Disconnect the USB printer cable from either the printer or the computer. This will take the printer off line.
- Restart the print spooler service
- All printers should reappear
- Right click on the 1020 printer and choose "Cancel All Documents" Alternately you can double click on the printer, choose the document and cancel it.
- Once the document is cleard reconnect the cable and print a test page to insure it is back.
- If you have Adobe Pro or Standard you can save the document as a JPEG. Then open the document with your photo viewer and it will print from there.
HP was not helpful at al and basically said "not our problem" even though l told them it printed just fine on our OKI network printers. I like there printers but I am now soured on them as a company.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Was having the same problem with a client. We switched the driver to the HP LaserJet 4 since it's a black and white printer anyway, and it worked.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thanks, I will give that a try.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I have noticed this problem several times as well over the last two years, and with an HP LaserJet 1020 printer (= 1020), which is a reliable medium-volume printer (regrettably it has been discontinued by HP - I have three of them for my home business).
When I receive the spooler subsystem app notice (= spooler notice) for the 1020 printer, I am able to print the document with other HP printers (e.g., color printers), so it appears to be segregated to the 1020 printer.
I have been following these strings (on Adobe, on Microsoft, on HP websites) with great interestg. However, I just noted an interesting pattern today. My business receives many PDF documents, some of which are generated by copiers or scanners (e.g., someone wants me to send me a document, and only a paper copy is available, so the document is fed through a scanner and gets converted to a PDF document by the scanner, and then sent to me as an e-mail attachment). I use Acrobat extensively and NEVER have a problem printing any Adobe document that I create on my own using Acrobat 9.X - but I can get the spooler notice when I try to print out a document that has been scanned and sent to me (and it's not all scanners, but just some scanners from some remote locations, but pretty reproducible).
Also, I note that I religiously accept Acrobat software updates, so my Adobe Version 9.X Acrobat is always up to date. However, I got to wondering - how does a "stand alone" scanner or copier update its own PDF-making software, if it is not connected to the Internet? So it makes me wonder if the PDF that's generated by a remote scanner at another location is incompatable with my latest version of Acrobat.
So my workaround is to delete and re-install the 1020 driver (...easy), but also to "print" the incoming PDF document as a PDF file (select PDF in the print menu), so the inbound PDF document gets "re-rendered" as a Actobat Version 9.X PDF document. When I "re-render' the incoming PDF document in this way, it ALWAYS prints on the 1020 printer correctly. In fact, I can have the two documents side-by-side on the desktop, print the inbound one (guaranteed spooler notice), and then print the "re-rendered" one that I created myself using Acrobat 9.X and it ALWAYS prints correctly on the 1020.
So - until someone proves differently, my theories are: (1) scanned document using an older-version PDF maker+Acrobat 9.X+HP 1020 printer = spooler notice and (2) re-rendering scanned documents with Adobe Acrobat 9.X+HP 1020 printer = NO spooler notice.
I hope that this helps. I am not a technical guy, but my job is to recognize patterns, and this is the pattern that I see (which makes sense to me).
Regards,
Jon Rogers
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I think Jon may have put his finger on it. I have a relatively new Gateway computer with Windows 7 and Adobe Reader 9, and an older but until now very trusty and reliable HP Laserjet 1018 printer (not a 1020 but it looks very similar). Since I got the new computer I've had no problem whatsoever printing pdf files with AR 9... until yesterday when I received as an email attachment a scanned image converted to pdf by email, which I tried to print... and which brought on exactly the problems described in these emails.
After several hours messing around with troubleshooters and searching the internet for ideas I gave up and followed the drastic solution of reinstalling Windows and all the application software from scratch (suggested as a last ditch solution by one frustrated user whose comments I had read). With a completely clean install of everything I reconnected the printer and it worked perfectly - printing emails and MS Office documents. I then tried printing the email attachment again and immediately had the same problem.
I started searching again for solutions and came across this string. Since I've had no problem printing pdf documents up to now, and since the problem now appears to be solely with this pdf document, that is a converted scanned image, Jon's observations describe my precursor conditions exactly, so I'm going to try his solution. If it works I will be very happy (and grateful to Jon for sharing his experience and observation).
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I'm (a) really disappointed that Marjon01 had to reinstall Windows OS to fix this, but (b) really pleased that we seem to be coning down on the problem. When I originally discovered the problem 2 years ago it was with a Dell Inspiron computer with a Vista 32 bit OS, which required reinstallation by Dell remote tech support (what a hassle - 1.5 days of downtime prior to the fix). However, in the intervening period I have discovered progressively more efficient ways to fix the spooler problem and reduce downtime. I think that this combination generates corrupt registry keys (which we are told not to fool with, and also to avoid registry cleaners), but there was no way to efficiently delete and reinstall the printer driver because the printer spooler kept stopping before I could delete the printer driver. However, I purchased an online application called "Printer Spooler Fix Wizard" for about $29 which deletes the corrupt registry keys and the HP 1020 printer driver simultaneously (sorry, I do not know where I purchased that application, but it enjoys a coveted place on my Start menu!). This wizard allows you to become functional very quickly and delete the offending document in the printer cache in order to start over again. Now when this happens, I either (a) convert every incoming PDF to a Adobe 9.X-compatable PDF and then print it on the HP 1020 printer (which is somewhat time-consuming) or (b) if I am feeling lucky, just try to print the PDF on its own without conversion using Adobe 9.X. If I then get a spooler alert, then I simply run the wizard (as discussed above), reinstall the 1020 driver and then re-render the incoming PDF using Acrobat 9.X.
Here is where it gets potentially really interesting. I mentioned this problem to a colleague a couple of days ago, and it sounds like he has a problem very similar to this (HP 1018/1020 printer + certain incoming (???scanned PDF) documents = spooler alert). This indeed may be the root cause. Sound off everyone, we may be on our way to a definitive solution here - and this occupies a lot of chat on Adobe, Microsoft and HP user groups bulletin boards (and wastes a lot of our time, until we get a definitive solution...).
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Jon - you really do seem to have hit the nail on the head. We generate PDF invoices, reports and other documents - and they all print out fine. PDFs originating from scanners almost always fail to print though.
Solutions:
To fix print spooler issues, you don't need to hack around in the registry. This works for me consistently:
To print scanned documents, either use FoxIt PDF reader or switch to 'Print as Image' in Acrobat Reader / PRO printer properties:
Other people mentioned these in previous posts but I thought a summary might help and might save other from wasting days figuring this out.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thanks. Very good. I'm going to print off this string and keep it for future reference. Many thanks to Sherlock Jon for for his excellent observational and deductive skills!
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I am having the same problem. I have confirmed that the problem is related to using Adobe Reader to print out scanned documents. I am using Windows 7, Adobe X, an HP LaserJet 1018, and I have scanned documents that were generated in PDF form. When I scan the documents using STANDARD PDF compression, there is no problem printing at all. When I scan the documents using HIGH PDF compression then the problem occurs as discussed in this thread. In my case I am using a Canon Scanner LIDE 35 and CanoScan Toolbox version 4.9. I can only guess that at least in this case, the software used in the CanoScan Toolbox to generate the HIGH compression PDF has some kind of bug or incompatibility with Adobe Reader when it prints, or some kind of incompatibility with the HP printer. I am going to simply use STANDARD compression when I scan documents. If people send you scanned documents, and you have some control over the situation, you might be able to find out if they are using HIGH compression and ask them to use STANDARD, to see if this helps in your case.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Just thought I would check in with a "we're in the same boat". Hopefully anyone else who comes across this article will create an adobe account just for the purpose of adding their $0.02 to this issue (We have about 20 computers but it's only happened on a couple thus far). In case it's of any help:
I set my spooler service to restart and this is now what I see in my logs:
The Print Spooler service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 437 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: Restart the service.
Which consists of an entry in my Application log, too:
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I've been having these exact issues for awhile now.. I can't pinpoint if it was when we pushed out XP SP3 or if it was an Acrobat Reader push.. but it's been happeneing for awhile. We've experienced it with more than just LSJ 1020's too... multiple deskjets and personal LSJ's have had the same error. We learned early on that you could avoid it by printing to a network printer but some locations are remote and don't have access to a shared printer. It's pretty sad that so far, the fix noted on the Adobe forums is to load Fox-it reader... I like Fox-it, don't get me wrong, but as far as corporate standards go, we want to stay with Acrobat Reader, however, we'd like it to function on local and network printers.
The latest idea I read on here was to "print as image".... if that truly is a fix, is there a way to set that in the registry, so I can push it out to all my client machines without having to manually set it? I searched the registry for "print as image" and "printasimage", I came up empty.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Oh, I have just spent hours on this exact problem. I have a new HP desktop, windows 7, HP 1022 printer and Lexmark color printer. Worked fine for last week or so. For the first time, I needed to have Adobe Reader for a document so I downloaded Adobe Reader X, and started having problems. Printer spool problem message appeared and my printers disappeared from printer and device (except showed up oddly, in undefined area, not on the printer line) All of my documents (Word, PDF) said there was no printer installed. Spent hour online last night with HP support..no solution, unless he sent me the link to the HP Print Diagnostic Utility. It worked perfectly, fixed the problem (said it was the print spool problem) and quickly reset everythng. Worked fine until...I tried again to print a scanned PDF document. Everything fell apart again. Just re-ran the Diagnostic Utility and it is fixed again. I uninstalled Adobe X and installed Adobe 9 in hopes that would fix the problem but it didn't. I am now afraid that everytime I try to print a scanned PDF, I will have to rerun the utility...go to HP website, located it again etc etc. At least I found a fairly easy solution...if anyone else needs it, it is on the HP support website.
I might try printing to the Lexmark and see if it causes the same problem -- I can't tell from postings whether this is only an HP printer/Adobe problem with scanned documents, but it sounds like scanned documents may be the problem. Did not have this problem before with my old XP and the same printer.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I just answered my own question. At the risk of having to run the utility again, I tried to print the scanned PDF document to
the other printer (Lexmark) and it worked fine. So the problem is an HP printer/Adobe scanned document problem. Funny, I asked
the HP tech support person last night if there was a known Adobe/HP problem and he said no....thanks to everyone on this posting. I think I have my immediate answer. If I remember to only print scanned PDF's on the Lexmark, I won't have this problem...unless, of course, either HP or Adobe fix this problem. What I haven't tried yet is to print a regular PDF file (not scanned) to my HP...I guess I should try that next.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I just had a recurrence of this problem and was contemplating with dread the only solution that worked for me last time ... a complete reload of Windows 7 OS and all applications, which took about 8 hours to complete and update. I went back to this string and noted ss2011's comment about the HP Print Diagnostic utility, which I had not heard of before. I found it and dowloaded and ran it. It worked perfectly, and now several reboots later, I still have no problems. It looks like HP has finally stepped up to the plate with an effective solution to this infuriating problem.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I had this problem again today on the HP Laserjet 1020. I know that is a very old printer, but I tell you other than this issue arising it prints great still.
Anyway, I read some the posts above and I thought I'd try something. It worked so I just had to share.
In the printer settings when you print a PDF (as this is the only program that does this) choose the PRINT TO IMAGE option under Advanced settings. This worked like a charm.
And I'm not sure if it's already posted (sorry I didn't read the whole 3 years worth of posts - Really?!?! Wow anyway)....
If you get the spooler error you do NOT have to uninstall / reinstall, etc.
You just need to clean out the print spooler. To do this see below:
[Windows users]
Type "services.msc" at the prompt which will open the Services window Scroll down the alphabetical list in the right window pane until you come
to the entry with the name "Print Spooler"
REMEMBER to prevent the error from re-occurring - choose to print as image in the advanced printer settings.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
RE: Adobe 10 and HP Laserjet 1020
running an old 32 bit P4 at 2.8Mhz on winxp SP3 using Adobe 10.
1) printing as image did not work
2) tried adobe's recommendations from support page to kill nearly every app that loads at startup and try again, still would not print
3) uninstalled Adobe 10 and Air and any other associated Adobe installs (flash)
4) went to www.oldapps.com, downloaded Adobe 9.4... it works great (and faster)
5) also, have not had any printer problems with LJ1020 until Adobe 10....
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Hi,
Go to Start / Run and type in "services.msc" without quotation marks, then press Enter or click OK.
In the window that opens (Services) look for "Print Spooler" on the right
Right-click "Print Spooler" and select "Properties".
Click on the "Recovery" tab and change all 3 drop-down boxes to "Restart The Service".
Make sure the 2 text boxes underneath say "1" in them.
Click Ok until you are back at the Services window, close it and you're good to go.
Go back into the properties of the "Print Spooler" tab and be sure to click Start to restart the Print Spooler service and it will restart the service immediately.
The Print spooler depends on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service. Is this service disabled? Go to services.msc look for RPC. Check state: Automatic
Get more information to printer spooler error :
http://printers.iyogi.com/troubleshooting/printer-spooler-crashes.html
Hope this helps you.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
RE: Adobe 10 and HP Laserjet 1020
running an old 32 bit P4 at 2.8Mhz on winxp SP3 using Adobe 10.
1) printing as image did not work
2) tried adobe's recommendations from support page to kill nearly every app that loads at startup and try again, still would not print
3) uninstalled Adobe 10 and Air and any other associated Adobe installs (flash)
4) went to www.oldapps.com, downloaded Adobe 9.4... it works great (and faster)
5) also, have not had any printer problems with LJ1020 until Adobe 10...
hi, I use this comment; but before drivers unistall and after this hp laserjet 1020 driver install