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unusual spool 32 error

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by wordmaster1

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I am running win98 SE on an AMD 1900 computer. I have a HP officejet 710 hooked to LPT1 and an Epson Photo 870 hooked to the USB port.

These printers have been in this configuration for some time and have been working fine. Friday, I started having booting problems.

The computer would fire up to the background screen then hang before any icons came up. After about 5-10 minutes an error box pops up saying that Spool32 has caused an invalid page fault in module xxx. Sometimes it is module unknown and sometimes it is either an Epson or HP dll, not always the same one.

After cliking to "close" the icons come up and most things work OK. My "printers" folder, however is empty.

I tried re-installing the printers, but that did not do any good. I have been through the normal spool32 errors like "in Kernel" errors, etc. I have replaced the spool32.exe file from the windoze disk as well as a bunch more .dll files. Nothing changes.

I have cleared everything out and clean booted, nothing changes. I have uninstalled the Norton program that can cause a spool problem, nothing changes. I am not running a Novell, or any other network. Both printers are local.

Any help would be appreciated

10 replies

by dmiles

The error message is saying that something is interfering with this scheme.
The next time you get the message, look carefully at the first line in the error box, specifically at the line beginning, "SPOOL32 caused a . . .," because there are several Spool32 error triggers.

If the message indicates that the Spool error came about in your printer - if your printer's name or its abbreviation are listed in the error message - reinstall your printer driver. Better yet, go to the Web site maintained by the printer's manufacturer and download an updated driver.

Does the error finger Spool32.exe itself? Then the Spool32.exe file has been clobbered and you need to get a new one from your Windows CD.

You might also want to clear out some space on your hard drive and then defragment the drive. You might be getting the error because the Spool utility is having a hard time finding enough space on the drive for the spool file - especially if you are trying to print big files or a massive amount of information off the Internet.

It is also a good bet to clean out the C:\Windows\Temp folder. If it gets too full it can cause the error message.
Finally, also check your Spool directory. Close any pending print jobs, then open Windows Explorer. Go to Windows/Spool/Printers. Delete any files you see in the Printers folder.

by wordmaster1

I have tried everything you mentioned. There is plenty of room on the drives. In addition to scandisking and defragging, I have run Norton Windoctor, Adaware, and Spybot as well as virus checking all drives.

The latest message, "in module" changes as mentioned is:

SPOOL32 caused an invalid page fault in
module at 0000:01b61180.
Registers:
EAX=8210d0f8 CS=017f EIP=01b61180 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=8210d098 SS=0187 ESP=021bff9c EBP=021bffcc
ECX=e3f5f710 DS=0187 ESI=00000008 FS=2747
EDX=8210d0f8 ES=0187 EDI=821182ac GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:

Stack dump:
bff88f20 01b60000 821182ac 00000008 8210d098 00000007 021bffa4 021bfdcc ffffffff bffc05b4 bff79050 00000000 021bffec bff869ef 01b61180 01b60000

This time it was "in module unknown"

by pierrejamme

What I have done in the past is install a Millenium version of spoolss.dll on Win98 computers, using SFC. This effectively stops the errors, but also errs out when doing a Windows update so you have to revert back to the win98 version for updating. I have a two available directorys on the network, one for Stdspool and one for MEspool so I can revert quickly with SFC if doing a Windows Update.
Millenium version may be difficult to find, because I think they only sold three or four copies, but I have one I can send if you cannot find.

by matite

I had the same problem with an Epson Stylus Color 740 printer... it appeared after installing Norton Antivirus 2004.

To fix it add the directory:
"C:\Windows\spool\Printers"
to the "Exceptions" list in Norton Antivirus.

I have also used this fix on Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition.

I know this is not an ideal solution as a virus could potentialy hide in the printer spool dir... but it works. :)

by wordmaster1

Thank all of you for your help and your answers. However, I finally ran across a mention of a dll file in Mozilla that had caused other printer problems. I upgraded to the new version of Mozill and the spool problem disappeared

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