I have an Epson Stylus CX5400 that quits working on my eMachines W2646 XP SP2 Home Edition pc every so often. Usually it is some problem with Epson's own ink that causes the problem and I have to keep replacing the ink cartridges.
This time, the pc decided it no longer would recognize that the printer is there. I have repeatedly re-installed the dang thing only to again delete it. It keeps telling me that it cannot print until a printer is installed and do I want to install one? And then it says it cannot install as the print spooler is not in service. I tried following the instruction from this site (http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/FAQPrinting.htm) by using the Command Prompt window and typing the command:
"net start spooler"
which did not solve my problem. I also went to Epsons site to get the most recent driver. I am totally stumped.
Please help me.

Sounds like a corrupt driver...Try opening Printers and Faxes, Delete the Epson(s), then go to File, Server Properties. Click the Drivers tab and remove all the epson drivers. A reboot wouldn't hurt at this point, then add the printer again using the driver you downloaded.

My Printer and Faxes folder shows empty and the File - Server Properties cannot display anything because "Print Spooler is not running" so I cannot delete the epson drivers.
Trying to add a printer thru the "add a printer" link or using the epson cd doesn't work.
Where would these drivers be kept on the pc? Maybe I can just delete them there?

Print Spooler should start automatically on boot up. Try this; right click on My Computer and left click Manage. In the left pane expand Services and Applications, then click on Services; now on the right pane scroll down to Print Spooler and double click on it. Make sure the Startup Type is set to Automatic and the then click on Start.

I tried all of the fixes that I could find using a Google search to solve the same problem and thus far nothing has worked. I'm on the verge of just saying the hell with it and back-up everything I need and reinstall windows.

I get the same message whenever I try to add a printer: "Operation could not be completed. Print spooler service is not running." However, I look in services and see that it is. I go to the command prompt tna stop the service: "net stop spooler" and then restart: "net start service" and it says that it has been sucessfully restarted.

I have edited the registry and removed all driver files, rebooted, and let windows find the printer when I plug in the usb cable. It tries to install but gets an error saying that a problem was encountered during installation which may result in a problem printing. And it does! There is no printer installed.

I've deleted the drivers 3 times now. I've even excluded the RPC loading from Data Execution Prevention as 1 person suggested.

Nothing has worked. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!!!

I was in a similar position, but not identical. I couldn't even find the spooler to try to start it. Nothing anyone suggested helped and I was also on the point of re-installing Windows and afraid I'd never find half the install discs and programs to get running again. But I finally solved the problem by "restoring" to an earlier date. I tried one a week before the problem started; then a restore to a month before. I can't describe my amazement when this actually cured the problem: I was so certain nothing would work by then!

Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/System Restore (upper left panel)/Restore My Computer to an earlier time... etc

Hope it works for you like it did for me... Tom

Tom,

Hope I'm doing this right! First time novice and all that.

Good suggestion. I have tried to restore a few days back and then a few days before that with no luck, however, if I go back a whole month or so (which I wouldn't have tried as I was using the printer less than a week ago) and that works it will certainly make the task alot easier than the hassle of time and effort involved in a reformat/reinstall.

Thanks for your reply. I'll go give it a whirl and let you know what my results are. It has been a great learning experience all and all. I've been to places in Windows that I've never seen before and I intend to go back. I'm studying for my MCP and the real world experience pays off much more dividends than stupid practice tests. I susspect I'm going to learn lots from this forum; I'm glad I stumbled across it.

I'll be back!

Alan

Hi Tom,

Well, I tried as you suggested and restored Windows back to July 20 and that didn't clear the problem. I tried an earlier date, July 3 and that was of no help either.

I can't go back any earlier as July 3 was the earliest date possible. Window will not let me go back any further than that.

So, I guess it's time to back up everything current. Get all the saved progress files off my computer, list all the programs and reload Windows once again. This will be the third time for this computer. Last September I had a Hard Drive failure.

Thanks for your help. Normally, that probably would have done the trick but I believe there may be other issues. I'm getting other strange error messages about bad memory locations.

I'll check back in when I have this all fixed.

Cheers,

Alan

Ross,

Restoring to a month back did not solve my problem so I'm forced to reinstall WinXP. Hope you had better luck.

Alan

This error occurs because the Spooler service has not been started or has stopped working. To start the Spooler service, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 2. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
3. Double-click the Printer Spooler service, and then change the startup type to Automatic. This sets the Spooler service to start automatically when you restart the computer.
4. If you want to start the spooler service immediately, click the Start button under the Service Status field.