Spoolsv.exe application error

Recently I have been trying to research an issue with windows xp sp2 to no avail. I have 3 seperate users complaining of the same issue, but with 2 different computer types (laptop/desktop). I can only assume it has to do with a print issue with the spooler.

This is a spuratic issue that is very hard to troubleshoot or recreate. The users are complaining that when they try to print (networked printers, different manufacturers and lcations), they experience their programs to become non-responsive and the print never resolves. All users use Citrix on occasion, and are frequently working in Powerbuilder applications (both are known to have print issues). But the problem seems to occur while working locally to the machine while in MS Office apps or Lotus Notes V.5.4.3 (these are the apps that then become unresponsive). Print spooler is in the started state after lock-up. We have deleted the local user profile, scrubbed all reg key entries, reinstalled the iPrint client 4.15, reinstalled all printer drivers. We have even gone as far as to reimage a new machine for 1 user and the problem came back.

Upon checking the Event Veiwer, here is a sample of the errors the users are receiving:

Source:Application Error
Catagory: 100
Event ID: 1004
Discription: Faulting application spoolsv.exe, version 5.1.2600.1699, Faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.1217, Fault address 0x00019ecd

Any help in tracing the root of this issue or a potential fix would be greatly appreciated.

 

can anyone give me any ideas on how to approach this?

 

Can you be more specific:
What printers?
Shared out from a PC or printing over TCP/IP?

I ushally see that error when the printer is ofline or unavaible for whatever reason.

 

We use NDPS and the iPrint client (v.4.15.00). The printers are HP8150 and 4000 series printers. All printers are accessable via TCP/IP w/ jet direct boxes attached to the printers as the NIC.

The printers themselves are running without issue for other users, they are seldom offline or unavailable. Power cycling the printers/jet directs does not seem to clear the issue.

It is very difficult to recreate the issue, could this be an issue with a corrupt dll? Could a program caused this dll to become corrupt forcing errors with the print client? If a program caused a dll to become corrupt, wouldn't other users become affected? Just tossing some more brainstorm ideas out there.

Again, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry,
I'm not familliar with those print clients.
When I print over TCP/IP I let Windows create the TCP/IP port then just load the printer driver using the TCP/IP port instead of LPT.

 

It could be dll problems. I would expect a dll problem to only effect the PCs with the corrupt dll. That is unless the dll issue was server side.

Easy solution to a dll problem should be uninstall and reinstall your print management software on the client PC with the problems. However, that tends to be only as effective as the uninstall routines buildt into the software. If it is a poor uninstall utility, it may leave corupt dlls in place, and then not overwrite them on reinstall.

Another option would be to uninstall the Novell print management software and set up basic Windows printing on the computers with the problems. As Scott suggests, printing to TCP/IP port works well with JetDirects (assuming you're using TCP/IP). Even if you need to use the functionality the Novell print management software is providing, running without it for a while will at least answer the question "is it the Novell software causing the problem or is there an underlying OS/hardware problem ". Once you've answered that question you can start concentrating on either fixing a Novell problem, or an underlying OS/drivers/network issue.

 

Try this, first shutdown the spool service and go to windowsroot\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86
and move the 3 folder to the desktop so that it is not in the w32x86 directory anymore. Reboot the computer and reinstall the printer if necessary. Have the user try it for a week and see if it resolves the issue. If so you can do the same to the rest of the people having this issue.

 

Thanks for all the replys!

Unfortunately, removing the print client is not an option. We have tried to uninstall the client and replaced it with a newer version to no avail. I'd doubt it would be a dll issue on the server side, as less than 1% of our users are reporting this problem.

I also tried tonmans suggestion of removing all traces of the print drivers and reinstalling, but the problem reared its ugly head agian less than 24 hours later.

I am currently looking into the possiblity of another program such as powerbuilder to see if that may be the issue. I'll have to look into this with our development team and programmers to get any real answers.

If anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to post. Everyones help is greatly appreciated.