The Print Spooler (`spoolsv.exe`) is the Windows background service responsible for spooling document pages to memory and sending them to your printer. When it crashes, Windows displays errors like “The local print spooler service is not running” or “RPC server is unavailable”. Here is how to perform a deep restart.
Why This Problem Happens
- A corrupted third-party printer driver crashed the shared spooler memory space.
- A massive print job ran out of disk cache space.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Procedure
Step 1: Open Windows Services Management Console
Objective: Locate and inspect the spooler process.
- Press Windows Key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
- Scroll down to “Print Spooler”.
- Check the Status column: if it is blank or says “Stopping…”, it is hung.
Step 2: Stop the Service and Purge Spool Files
Objective: Ensures no corrupted job re-crashes the service upon restart.
- Right-click Print Spooler and click “Stop”.
- Press Windows Key + R, type %WINDIR%system32spoolprinters, and click OK.
- Delete every file ending in .shd and .spl inside this folder.
Step 3: Start the Service and Configure Recovery Actions
Objective: Configures Windows to auto-restart the spooler if it ever crashes again.
- Back in Services.msc, right-click Print Spooler and select Properties.
- Click the “Recovery” tab.
- Set First failure, Second failure, and Subsequent failures all to “Restart the Service”.
- Return to the General tab, click “Start”, and click OK.
Verified Troubleshooting Tips
- If the spooler immediately terminates upon starting, look in Windows Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application for error event ID 7031.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my Print Spooler stop automatically every few minutes?
A corrupted or incompatible printer driver in your registry is crashing spoolsv.exe. Remove all unused printer drivers from Print Management (printmanagement.msc).