Incident Center > Printers

HP printer failing - print spool error

Customer Tech Support Issues

Customer has been having a printer problem from a week ago. HP printer that's connected to a Dell desktop (running Windows XP SP3) stopped printing and the error said the print spooler is not running. Customer believes this is the result of possibly using a shortcut key that might have deleted the printer itself. Customer tried to install the HP printer.  Prior to having the HP printer the customer had a Lexmark printer.  In the process of trying to re-install the HP printer drivers the print spool is not running.  When reinstalling the software customer gets an RPC error or MDM.exe error, print spool not working.

Problem is a known issue reported by Microsoft where a third-party printer driver or service that is installed prevents adding printers (or the third-party driver interferes with the functionality of a new printer).  Lexmark printer driver software fully removed including relevent registry keys.  HP printer software re-installed successfully and printer confirmed working.

In the Words of our Customer

Problem was 'print spooler not running'. Gio was my solutions engineer and boy was he patient in finding the problem. It took 2 hours, but he persevered until he solved the issue. I plan on using PC-Support for all of my pc issues from here on in. I might even sign up for another session just to "clean up" my computer. Thank you so much.

Debbie, Indiana