Posted by on May 19, 2009 in Tech Fixes | 1 comment

I recently installed a Canon printer driver on several laptops.  On two of them, the driver caused the printer spooler service to crash all of the time.  After searching on the web for an hour, I found the fix here.  Thanks to DevinCollier.com for pointing me in the correct direction.  Note:  As with all processes that involve editing the registry, this may cause other problems.  So, always backup before starting if you can.  On the off-chance the blog post gets pulled down:

  1. Start in safe mode
  2. Delete all files and folders in the following locations: C:WindowsSystem32SpoolPrinters and C:WindowsSystem32SpoolDriversw32×86
  3. Open RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintEnvironmentsWindows NT x86. Keep the Drivers and Print Processors subkeys and delete the rest of them.
  4. Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintMonitors. Keep the following keys: BJ Language Monitor, Local Port, PJL Language Monitor, Standard TCP/IP Port, USB Monitor. Also, if you have the Adobe PDF key, keep it as well. Delete the rest.
  5. Try restarting the Print Spooler service.
  6. Restart the machine.
  7. Reinstall the previously functioning printers, but find a different install file for the printer install that flummoxed your machine previously.

That is what worked for me.  Good luck!