Hello:

This computer, loaded with Windows Vista Business edition, has been running for two or three months. No software has been installed since the system was put in place. The only system changes would be updates via our WSUS server. It's an IBM tower that's always run slow. I don't know how they can ship a PC with only a 1.6 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM with any version of Windows Vista, but they did and my boss thought it was a good deal. Other than running a little slow, there have been no other problems with this PC until last week when the Print Spooler issue arose.

I received a call from this lady who complained that she was unable to print. When I came over to look at the PC, I was surprised to see that none of her printers (all network) were listed. I rebooted and they reappeared in the list. I did a test print on one of the printers and everything looked good. I assumed a software hickup and started to get up when the Print Spoller error message appeared on the screen. I allowed Windows to search for a fix, but it found nothing. The strange part, though, is that the spooler had started again. I started doing research. About a minute and a half later, the print spooler error appeared again. I knew Microsoft didn't have a downloadable solution so all I could do was click "Cancel". I pulled up the task manager and watched the spooler restart itself. Later, again, the message reappeared. It's an endless loop.

In the Event Viewer, I can see the errors denoting the Spooler stopping, but there are no other messages preceding it that point me in a direction where I can resolve this issue.

I have googled everything I can think of, read every online document I can find, and have finally exhausted my resources. I'm only hoping now that one of you will have an answer for me.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to reinstall the printers. I didn't do that because all of these printers were installed before we put the PC in place for the lady. Still, it's the only thing left I know to try so will do that now and will repost the results when I can.

Any and all other information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Magus

Update....

Before uninstalling the printers, I thought about restoring the system to a previous date. I picked a date that was early last week. When it finished, it rebooted and took me to the logon screen. When I tried to log on, it said something about this workstation not having proper secruities to contact the domain controller. I was going to log in as the local admin, disjoin it from the domain, delete the computer account from the active directory and rejoin it to the domain, but it wouldn't take my local admin password.

I know, without a shadow of a doubt that I typed it in correctly, and I know what the password is because I'm the one who set this computer up for her. It's really strange. I tried using our last admin password but I didn't think that would work...it didn't. I tried both the old and the new with all upper and all lower case letters but that didn't help either.

I'll have to try again, but am not sure yet how long it will take for that account to unlock itself. It's the only local account on that computer so I don't know of any other way to get in.

Just great, right? I've locked myself out! Ha. I hope I don't have to rebuild this computer, but it sure is acting strange. Again, I KNOW I keyed the local admin password in correctly. Will make another post when I can.

Thanks,

Magus

Hello:

I finally managed to get into this computer by logging in with our domain admin account under "Safe Mode without Networking".

From there, I enabled the local admin account.

I installed the latest drivers for all of the printers she uses and her system seems to be running fine again. I'm not sure, how after all these weeks, it just started doing that Print Spooler stuff, but it did. Now, all of her printers (excluding a copier she prints to) are running Vista Drivers.

Thanks,

Magus