Print Spooler Stops Scheduling Print Jobs

The Print Spooler service may stop scheduling print jobs to specific Simple Port Monitor (SPM) ports. Although incoming jobs are queuing into the spooler, print jobs may not start. Note that this symptom occurs 49.7 days after you start the Print Spooler service.

This problem is port specific. For example, if a particular port stops scheduling jobs, it is possible to create a new port to the same device and to switch the hanging print queue to this new port. In this scenario, jobs scheduled and despooled in a normal manner. When you stop and start the Print Spooler service, jobs are scheduled on ports that have stopped responding (hung ports).

This problem may occur because incoming jobs are not scheduled when the system tick counter comes around after 49.7 days.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language. The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

To work around this problem, stop the Print Spooler service, and then restart the Print Spooler service.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

For additional information about how to obtain a hotfix for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about how to install multiple hotfixes with only one reboot, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: