This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

print spooler service is not running. why? what do I do? I have checked that my printer is showing on my control panel.

  • 5 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 481 views
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė westie33

more options

My printer is HP Laser Jet 1022. The Control Panel shows 1 doc awaiting printing, and Status READY. When I view installed printers and click on the printer name I get message "operation could not be completed. Print spooler service is not running". I have unplugged the printer, reconnected it - that usually clears any outstaanding document in the printer queue, but document is still there, and still the same error message. I have just involuntarily been upgraded to Firefox 5, around the same time.

My printer is HP Laser Jet 1022. The Control Panel shows 1 doc awaiting printing, and Status READY. When I view installed printers and click on the printer name I get message "operation could not be completed. Print spooler service is not running". I have unplugged the printer, reconnected it - that usually clears any outstaanding document in the printer queue, but document is still there, and still the same error message. I have just involuntarily been upgraded to Firefox 5, around the same time.

All Replies (5)

more options

Adding more details to my above problem.

 I have deleted any .spl and .shd files under ...\spool\PRINTERS, then got into ...admin tools and services and restarted printspooler.   After several attempts, and having to delete .spl and .shd  and etc.several times,   I was able to print a Word .doc file.   But I get the same print spooler service error when I try to print a .pdf file.   Adobe Reader is up to date and all Firefox plug ins are up to date.
more options
more options

Thanks for pointing me to your earlier reply. I still have problems, but only when printing .pdf files using Adobe Reader. The print spooler service is set to automatic and START.

I have used Ctrl & P using Firefox to get the printer dialog box, all seems correct under PROPERTIES, with the HP Printer showing (there are also CutePDF Writer and MicrosoftXPS Document Writer listed and I ignore them).

When checking about:config (with care) print.use_native_print_dialog does not show at all. print.extend_native_print_dialog is there and shows true. print.use_global_printsettings is there and shows true.

I can print .doc and .xls Documents with the above settings. Only .pdf files are the problem.

How do I recover print.use_native_print_dialog  ?? Is there anything else I need to do?

more options

Where are you coming up with this pref?
print.use_native_print_dialog
I can't find that pref anywhere in Firefox documentation or in any of the 7 different version of Firefox I have installed.

It just dawned on me that when you are using an external program (Adobe Reader) and its' plugin (Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 10.1.0) to display a PDF file in Firefox, when you go to print a PDF file the program / plugin is what is handling the printing, not Firefox. I don't think any setting within Firefox will have any affect when printing in a situation like that.

I have two suggestions, the first involves determining the version of print drivers you currently have installed and then seeing if HP has newer drivers available. If so, see if the newer drivers solves that issue. If not, try re-installing your current drivers.

The second involves visiting the Adobe support forum and doing search to see if any other HP users have reported the same or a similar problem. If you can't come up with anything, post there and see what they can come up with as a possible solution.
http://forums.adobe.com/index.jspa

more options

Thanks, I will follow up on your suggestions. Seems logical. You folk are so patient! Great.