Printing problems in windows 7 Enterprise X64
Some of our users have experienced printing problems on our HP printers. The problem they have is when printing any document from any app to any one of our HP printers the app sends the document and there is no error from the app but the printer queue shows 0 documents pending and you never see the document that you send and it never prints. Here is an event that one of the users found in event viewer: Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-PrintService/Admin Source: Microsoft-Windows-PrintService Date: 9/17/2012 4:30:57 PM Event ID: 372 Task Category: Printing a document Level: Error Keywords: Classic Spooler Event,Document Print Job User: domain>user Computer: computer name.domain name Description: The document MSDITS_ARS_DOS_20110328_CCO_v3.pdf, owned by USER, failed to print on printer {AEC70227-9B7E-4C13-BA98-C76993BA0868}. Try to print the document again, or restart the print spooler. Data type: NT EMF 1.008. Size of the spool file in bytes: 426364. Number of bytes printed: 0. Total number of pages in the document: 2. Number of pages printed: 0. Client computer: \\computer name. Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 5. Access is denied. Here is our setup: Around 145 computers - windows 7 enterprise x64, HP color CP3525 and HP Black/White P4015N, all HP all printers except for one Xerox is installed on a print server and client machines all get the same driver: HP Universal PCL v5.2. Only a few computers have experienced this problem and it is not very consistent. I have managed to delete the driver package though print management before and it works for a little while but then stops working after about 1-2 months. Have not tried sfc /scannow but not sure that will find/fix anything with this and if it did the problem would most likely come back. Not sure what else to try since every machine has the same drivers and we really don't want to change drivers because we have ran into other issues by doing that. I would say that this affects only 5-10 users out of 145 so not really very many. Only thing I can find online about this is where many people are having trouble with this error using RDP clients and printer redirects. Not our problem here...just won't print doing normal job functions. David Hood
September 18th, 2012 11:45am

Check the Print Spooler. Click on the Start button and select Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Locate Print Spooler in the list. Check that it has started and that the StartUp type is Automatic. Check whether it has stopped and that just starting it does not solve the problem. If it is not set to Automatic right click and select Properties, General tab. There is a box after StartUp type. The options are available on a drop down by clicking on the arrow down to the right of the box. Make the change and click on Apply and OK. Restart the computer and check whether it has started. You may need to show hidden files. Type Folder Options in the search box above the Start button and select View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files" is unchecked. You need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. Now access Windows Explorer and select c:\windows\system32\spool\printers. Normally this folder should be empty but there is a problem when files with spl and shd extensions stick there. Delete the files and restart your computer. This may resolve your immediate problem. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprohardware/thread/2b618d54-854a-4cfd-84f5-f069aad75a9f Print problems Microsoft Fixit Tool http://support.microsoft.com/mats/printing_problems/en-usHope this helps, Gerry
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September 18th, 2012 1:04pm

Thanks for the reply. I already checked the print spooler and it is set to automatic. I have not ever tried to delete the files in the directory you listed but I will try that as well. Here is one thing that I did today and I hope that this will do something to help: 1. First I removed printer in "Devices and Printers" 2. Then I stopped print spooler 3. In registry I opened HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\ 4. I renamed all Print Processors that were listed. Like Winprint to Winprint.old, Hpcpp107 to Hpcpp107.old, and so on ... 5. I started print spooler 6. Removed problematic driver pack in Print Management MMC 7. Reopened registry location HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\ 8. Renamed back all Print Processors to original name. Like Winprint.old to Winprint, Hpcpp107.old to Hpcpp107, and so on ... 9. Restart print spooler 10. Installed new printer drivers 11. Tested printing This seemed to fix the problem for now as well and then I did what you suggested and deleted the contents of c:\windows\system32\spool\printers. David Hood
September 18th, 2012 2:50pm

Thanks for the reply. I already checked the print spooler and it is set to automatic. I have not ever tried to delete the files in the directory you listed but I will try that as well. Here is one thing that I did today and I hope that this will do something to help: 1. First I removed printer in "Devices and Printers" 2. Then I stopped print spooler 3. In registry I opened HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\ 4. I renamed all Print Processors that were listed. Like Winprint to Winprint.old, Hpcpp107 to Hpcpp107.old, and so on ... 5. I started print spooler 6. Removed problematic driver pack in Print Management MMC 7. Reopened registry location HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\ 8. Renamed back all Print Processors to original name. Like Winprint.old to Winprint, Hpcpp107.old to Hpcpp107, and so on ... 9. Restart print spooler 10. Installed new printer drivers 11. Tested printing This seemed to fix the problem for now as well and then I did what you suggested and deleted the contents of c:\windows\system32\spool\printers. David Hood
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September 18th, 2012 2:57pm

The spooler problem is a common one. It has been around since 2009. It has croppped up less often this year. It occurs with some pdf files and some web site pages but I do not think that the exact cause has been discovered.Hope this helps, Gerry
September 18th, 2012 4:58pm

Hi, Glad to hear this issue has been solved after checking the print spooler. Hope this issue will not occur again. Regards, Vincent Wang TechNet Community Support
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September 19th, 2012 10:26pm

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