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A
Anonymous
April 5, 2016
Question

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC randomly stops printing

  • April 5, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 2658 views

Recently installed Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for a client and they are reporting that it is unable to print. Restarting the computer will allow them to print for a time but then it will stop printing again. Found that ending the splwow64.exe process and closing all Adobe Pro windows then opening PDFs will have the same result as restarting. User is on Windows 7 Pro x64. User is able to print from other programs while unable to print from Acrobat Pro. Any ideas on a permanent solution?

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2 replies

Sarojini_Nagar
Sarojini_Nagar
Participating Frequently
May 2, 2016

Hi Jason Walters,

Please try the following steps and let us know if this works .

  1. Open Regedit(Windows key + R  -> type “Regedit” -> Press Enter)
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers
  3. Under that path there will be a key called Version-3
  4. Go into Version-3 and delete all of the values.

When that is done you need to open Command Prompt (CMD)  as an Administrator

  1. Open CMD as an Administrator
    1. Search for CMD in the start menu
    2. Right-click cmd.exe and click “Run as administrator”
  2. Type the command: net stop spooler
  3. Open Windows Explorer
  4. Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers\ and delete all the files inside.
  5. Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3 and delete all the files and folders inside of there as well, you might have to use IOBit Unlocker to delete some locked files.
  6. Restart the printer spooler by typing this command into CMD: net start spooler
  7. The next step is very important, if you don’t do it your printer might spew out a ton of paper with random scriblings on it due to not having a working driver installed.
  8. Now you have to open the “Devices and Printers” windows, wait a few seconds until it has properly initialized and started up(right-click -> refresh).
  9. Remove all your printers by right-clicking and choosing “Remove device”, then re-add them with the “Add a device” button.
  10. Your printer should now be working correctly again.

Regards

Sarojini

A
Anonymous
May 3, 2016

I followed the instructions provided and at first the splwow64.exe wasn't even running. Tried opening Acrobat again and it still didn't run. Found splwow64.exe and ran it and then was able to print. Since problem was not constant I will monitor the issue and update you with further results.

A
Anonymous
April 25, 2016

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome. If I posted on the wrong board then knowing the correct board to post to would also be useful.

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