# [SOLVED] Win XP Printer Spooler keeps stopping: SOLVED



## TerryKing (Dec 5, 2011)

Hi, I have been chasing this for many, many hours.

The Print Spooler kept stopping, I would restart it but every time I went to my HP 1020 Laser printer it would say "Unable to continue, print spooler is not running", and sure enough it was stopped again.

SOLUTION: Found in an older thread here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f10/xp-print-spooler-keeps-stopping-79926.html

I had two weird files, including a movie file in C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS

I guess this is the spool file?

I deleted those files, turned my printer off and on again, and it WORKS!!!

And the Print Spooler keeps running all the time.

I guess those files barfed the spooler???

Regards, Terry King
...On the Mediterranean in Italy


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## CriticalPoint (Feb 9, 2008)

Hi Terry,

Welcome to TSF.

Just to save your sanity, the 'System32\Spool\Printers' folder is where the jobs are stored, so if your spooler got stuck, the jobs would hang there.

Some people have previously reported 90~99% of their processor is jammed against the Spoolsv.exe service and others have reported that they have had up to 3GB (+/-200mb) in the 'System32\Spool\Printers' folder.

Looks like those files did indeed barf the spooler!

Hope you've learned a little something something from this buddy.

Best, Crit.


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