Spooler crash event 7011

We are running SBS 2003 and the server has behaved for several years. Two
weeks ago, users reported that they couldn't print. I logged in and couldn't
open the printers and faxes folder. I tried to restart the print spooler and
it would not stop or restart. The only way that I could get the services up
and running properly was to reboot the server. This is now happenning every
day (although only once per day). The event logs (once the spooler has
crashed) logs event 7011 (loads of times). I haven't installed anything
recently to point to the problem. The event logs do not point to any
solution either. I have just reinstalled one printer driver - what is the
best way to troubleshoot this - do I need to remove all of the printers and
reinstall? It seems from searching the web that spooler issues are hard to
diagnose. The event 7011 logged says:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7011
Date: 10/22/2009
Time: 5:23:23 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SERVER01
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the
Spooler service.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The first thing to do is to check for jobs stuck in the print queue. At a
time when no one is printing, look in Printers and Faxes to make sure none
of the printers show jobs queued (Documents column should be all 0's).
Then, go to the spooler directory and make sure it's empty - there should be
no files in there when there are no jobs queued, and if there are any,
delete them. By default, it's C:\windows\system32\spool\printers.

You may have to stop the Print Spooler service in order to delete the files.
If it won't start, disable it and reboot the server. You should then be
able to just enable and start it once you've cleared out the files.

This is all the users, right? If it's just one workstation, do the same
things on that machine.

If that doesn't work, you can up the logging level for the spooler service -
Printers and Faxes -> File -> Server Properties. Note the current logging
levels so you can undo. Updating or reinstalling drivers would be my next
step after all of the above. (FWIW, depending on settings, a driver update
may have sneaked in on you through WSUS or MU).

"JD" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> We are running SBS 2003 and the server has behaved for several years. Two
> weeks ago, users reported that they couldn't print. I logged in and
> couldn't open the printers and faxes folder. I tried to restart the print
> spooler and it would not stop or restart. The only way that I could get
> the services up and running properly was to reboot the server. This is now
> happenning every day (although only once per day). The event logs (once
> the spooler has crashed) logs event 7011 (loads of times). I haven't
> installed anything recently to point to the problem. The event logs do not
> point to any solution either. I have just reinstalled one printer driver -
> what is the best way to troubleshoot this - do I need to remove all of the
> printers and reinstall? It seems from searching the web that spooler
> issues are hard to diagnose. The event 7011 logged says:
> Event Type: Error
> Event Source: Service Control Manager
> Event Category: None
> Event ID: 7011
> Date: 10/22/2009
> Time: 5:23:23 PM
> User: N/A
> Computer: SERVER01
> Description:
> Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the
> Spooler service.
>
> For more information, see Help and Support Center at
> http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>

thanks for your comments

I did clear out the spooler folder. Queues are clear. I have a sneaking
suspiscion that something has been updated via WSUS - I am starting to
remove printers and then add them to see if it stabilises the server.
Will up the logging to see if that shows anything up

thanks again


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> The first thing to do is to check for jobs stuck in the print queue. At a
> time when no one is printing, look in Printers and Faxes to make sure none
> of the printers show jobs queued (Documents column should be all 0's).
> Then, go to the spooler directory and make sure it's empty - there should
> be no files in there when there are no jobs queued, and if there are any,
> delete them. By default, it's C:\windows\system32\spool\printers.
>
> You may have to stop the Print Spooler service in order to delete the
> files. If it won't start, disable it and reboot the server. You should
> then be able to just enable and start it once you've cleared out the
> files.
>
> This is all the users, right? If it's just one workstation, do the same
> things on that machine.
>
> If that doesn't work, you can up the logging level for the spooler
> service - Printers and Faxes -> File -> Server Properties. Note the
> current logging levels so you can undo. Updating or reinstalling drivers
> would be my next step after all of the above. (FWIW, depending on
> settings, a driver update may have sneaked in on you through WSUS or MU).
>
> "JD" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>> We are running SBS 2003 and the server has behaved for several years. Two
>> weeks ago, users reported that they couldn't print. I logged in and
>> couldn't open the printers and faxes folder. I tried to restart the print
>> spooler and it would not stop or restart. The only way that I could get
>> the services up and running properly was to reboot the server. This is
>> now happenning every day (although only once per day). The event logs
>> (once the spooler has crashed) logs event 7011 (loads of times). I
>> haven't installed anything recently to point to the problem. The event
>> logs do not point to any solution either. I have just reinstalled one
>> printer driver - what is the best way to troubleshoot this - do I need to
>> remove all of the printers and reinstall? It seems from searching the
>> web that spooler issues are hard to diagnose. The event 7011 logged says:
>> Event Type: Error
>> Event Source: Service Control Manager
>> Event Category: None
>> Event ID: 7011
>> Date: 10/22/2009
>> Time: 5:23:23 PM
>> User: N/A
>> Computer: SERVER01
>> Description:
>> Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the
>> Spooler service.
>>
>> For more information, see Help and Support Center at
>> http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>>
>