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Windows Server: Troubleshoot Event ID 6161 — Print Spooler Status

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Event ID 6161 — Print Spooler Status

Applies To

Windows Server 2008

(This wiki page is part of a pilot program to remove topics such as this one from the TechNet and MSDN libraries and move them to the wiki.)  

Print Server Status controls basic operations such as initializing the spooler, creating threads, and reading the registry.

Event Details

Product:  Windows Operating System 
Event ID: 6161
Source: Microsoft-Windows-PrintSpooler  
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: MSG_PRINT_ON_PROC_FAILED_EX 
Message:  The document %1, owned by %2, failed to print on printer %3. Try to print the document again, or restart the print spooler.   

Data type: %4. Size of the spool file in bytes: %5. Number of bytes printed: %6. Total number of pages in the document: %7. Number of pages printed: %8. Client computer: %9. Win32 error code returned by the print processor: %10. %11 

Diagnose

This error might be caused by one of the following conditions:

  • The printer is not reachable on the network
  • Windows cannot allocate sufficient memory
  • There was invalid or incomplete data received by the print spooler
  • A driver upgrade failed
  • There is a bad printer device driver

To diagnose the problem, use the procedures in the following sections.

The printer is not reachable on the network

To determine whether the printer is reachable on the network:

  1. In Event Viewer, examine the event and look for the following text: "Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 2250. This network connection does not exist.... " If another error code is listed, skip to the next section, "Windows cannot allocate sufficient memory."
  2. Ping the network printer or print device from the print server. If this fails, connect to other network resources from the print server to confirm that the print server network functionality is okay. If it succeeds, skip to the next section.
  3. Ping the printer from another computer. If this fails, and you cannot print to the printer from another printer on the network, see the section titled "Renew the printer IP address". Otherwise, use the procedure in the following section to continue troubleshooting.

Windows cannot allocate sufficient memory

To determine whether Windows has sufficient resources:

  1. In Event Viewer, examine the event and look for the following text: "Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 8. Not enough storage is available to process this command".
  2. If you see this error code, see the section titled "Check resource availability".
  3. If another error code is listed, use the procedure in the following section to continue troubleshooting.

There was invalid or incomplete data received by the print spooler

To determine whether the print spooler received valid data:

  1. In Event Viewer, examine the event and look for the following error code text:
    • "Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 87. The parameter is incorrect"
    • "Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 259. No more data is available"
  2. If you see either of these error codes, see the section titled "Install a new printer driver".
  3. If another error code is listed, use the procedure in the following section to continue troubleshooting.

A printer driver upgrade failed

To determine whether a printer driver upgrade failed:

  1. Open Windows Explorer, and then type %WINDIR%\system32\spool\drivers in the Address Bar.
  2. Look in each of the IA64, W32X86, and x64 folders for the presence of a folder named "3" that contains a large number of numbered folders (for example, \W32X86\3\1, \W32X86\3\2, \W32X86\3\3, and so on).
  3. If there are a large number of numbered folders inside the "3" folder, see the section titled "Move numbered folders and restart the print spooler".
  4. If the system appears to be operating normally, use the procedure in the following section to continue troubleshooting.

There is a bad printer device driver

To determine whether there is a bad printer driver:

  1. Print to a printer that uses a different printer driver. Because this problem often does not occur unless there are a lot of print jobs, you might have to test this with a large number of print jobs to determine whether the problem still occurs with another printer.
  2. If printing works on other printers, see the section titled "Install a new printer driver and possibly disable advanced printing features".
  3. If you continue to experience this error, contact Microsoft Product Support (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104695), or post a question in one of the following TechNet forums:

Resolve

To resolve this issue, use the resolution that corresponds to the cause you identified in the Diagnose section. After performing the resolution, see the Verify section to confirm that the feature is operating properly

Cause

Resolution

A printer driver upgrade failed

Move numbered folders and restart the print spooler

The printer is not reachable on the network

Renew printer IP address

Windows cannot allocate sufficient memory

Check resource availability

There is a bad printer device driver

Install a new printer driver and possibly disable advanced printing features

There was invalid or incomplete data received by the print spooler

Install a new printer driver

Move numbered folders and restart the print spooler

To resolve this issue, use the procedures in the following sections.

Move numbered folders to a temporary folder

To move numbered folders left over from a failed driver upgrade:

  1. In the %WINDIR%\system32\spool\drivers\ folder, look in each of the IA64, W32X86, and x64 folders for the presence of a folder named "3" that contains a large number of numbered folders (\W32X86\3\1, \W32X86\3\2, \W32X86\3\3, and so on).
  2. If there are a large number of numbered folders inside the "3" folder, move those folders to a temporary folder such as C:\Temp.
  3. After moving the folders, restart the Print Spooler service by using the procedure in the following section.

Restart the print spooler

To start or restart the Print Spooler service:

  1. In the Administrative Tools folder, open the Services snap-in.

  2. Locate the Print Spooler service in the list of services, and then confirm that its status is Started. If its status is not Started, select the service and then click Start on the Action menu.

    Note: You can also do this from an elevated Command Prompt window by typing the following command: net stop spooler && net start spooler

In some instances, you might receive Error 1068 – "The dependency service or group failed to start" – when attempting to start the Print Spooler. This can happen if the Print Spooler service relies on other services that are not running. To resolve this issue:

  1. In the Services snap-in, right-click Print Spooler and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Dependencies tab. The first box lists all of the system services that must be running for the print spooler to start. These are the dependencies.
  3. Make a note of each service, click OK, and then start each service that the print spooler depends on, if the service is not already started. If a particular service is not already started, right-click it, click Properties, and then confirm that the Startup type is Automatic.

Renew printer IP address

To resolve this issue:

  1. On the network printer or network printing device, use the printer's control panel to renew the printer's IP address or to choose a valid static IP address and subnet.
  2. Ping the printer or network printing device again. If you continue to have problems, replace the network cable and try using a different network switch.
  3. Retry connecting to the printer from the print server.

For additional troubleshooting assistance with the printer or network print device, contact the manufacturer of the printing device.

Check resource availability

To determine whether the computer is low on system resources such as memory, generate a System Diagnostics Report, which presents system information collected for 60 seconds

Note: To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the local Administrators group on the print server, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To collect system information for 60 seconds and generate a System Diagnostics Report:

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window. (Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.)
  2. At the command prompt, type perfmon /report and then press ENTER. Reliability and Performance Monitor will start collecting data to create the System Diagnostics Report.
  3. When the report is ready for viewing, locate the Diagnostic Results section of the report, and then check for any warnings (indicated by Warnings in the report). You can follow links to additional help on resolving warnings from this section. In addition, you can expand each category in the Basic System Checks section to see more details about why warnings appear. Also, the Performance section provides process-level details about top consumers of resources. You might need to increase the size of the paging file or add physical memory.

Install a new printer driver and possibly disable advanced printing features

To resolve this issue, do one or both of the following:

  • Install a new printer driver.
  • Disable advanced printing features.
Install a new printer driver

To install a new printer for a printer, use the following procedure. Note that client computers automatically download and install the updated printer drivers the next time they attempt to print to the printer.

Note: When installing printer drivers that are provided by the device manufacturer, follow the instructions provided with the printer driver instead of using this procedure.

  1. Right-click the printer with the driver that you want to change or update, and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Advanced tab.
  3. Select a new driver in the Driver box, or click New Driver to install a new printer driver.

To support client computers that use different processor architectures than the print server, you must install additional drivers. To add client printer drivers to the print server, click the Sharing tab in the Properties dialog box and then click Additional Drivers. For more information about this, see the "Update or change printer drivers" topic in Print Management Help, or see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104835.

Disable advanced printing features

To disable advanced printing features:

  1. Right-click the printer, and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Enable advanced printing features check box.

Install a new printer driver

To resolve this issue, install a new printer driver. You might need to contact the printer manufacturer to obtain an updated driver (that displays the Designed for Windows logo) for the specific model of printer you are using.

Note: To install a new or updated printer driver, you must be logged on to your computer as a member of the local Administrators group.

To install a new or updated printer driver:

  1. Open Printers in Control Panel.
  2. Right-click the printer for which you want to change drivers, and then click Properties.
  3. On the Advanced tab, click New Driver to install a new or updated version of the printer driver.
  4. Click Next, and then do one of the following:
    • If the new or updated driver is in the list, click the appropriate printer manufacturer and printer model.
    • If the printer driver is not in the list, or if you have received a new or updated driver from the printer manufacturer, click Have Disk. Type the path for the driver's location, and then click OK.
  5. Click Next, and then follow the instructions on the screen to finish installing the printer driver.
  6. Retry printing. If you continue to experience problems, right-click the printer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, clear the Enable advanced printing features check box, and then click OK.

Verify

Perform the following tasks to verify that you resolved the problem:

  • Print the document again.
  • If the print server logs spooler information events, look for Print Spooler Event 10 after printing, and then examine the document to confirm that it printed correctly.

Print Spooler Status (TechNet Library)

Printing Infrastructure (TechNet Library)