BleepingComputer.com: Windows XP Printer Server/RPC server problems

RPC server and Printer Spooler problems
Hi i'm running windows xp professional edition.

i had to wipe my system after a nightmare virus infected my machine. my friend then reloaded xp pro from scratch. its all been working fine but i can't reload my printer onto the machine.

first i got error messages saying 'printer spooler service not running please restart computer to start service'. so i had a look in the services area and restarted the spooler service manually. i then tried to install again and got the same message. so i looked up solutions on the net that included clearing all the printer drivers from the computer and then restarting the computer with the services i needed (RPC server and Printer Spooler) set to automatic. i started the installation again and got the same message.

this time i went down the corrupted files route and replaced the spoolss.dll, spoolsv.exe, winspool.drv and winspool.exe files in the win32 system with fresh new ones off the installation disk. (I can't access winspool.drv as its part of winlogin.)ran the pirinter installation again and this time i got an 'RPC server unavailable' error. i again checked the RPC server and it was running in the services window. also all of its dependents are working fine so it must therefore be running. I tried again this time it said 'Remote Procedure Call unavailable'. By the way the DCOM server is already working.

Every now and then i get a script error when restarting the spooler from services as well:
An error has occured in the script on this page
Line:1
Char:1
error:unexpected error
Code:0
URL:res//C:\\windows\system32\mmcndmgr.dll/views.htm

I've ran virus checks, malware checks, registry cleaners (ad-aware, AVG8.0, RegCure, MalwareBytes, Registry Booster, Spybot S&D) everything you can think of to locate any kind of problem. I did find something called win32.backdoor.bedienks after an adaware scan and it took a couple of attempts to get rid of it. But its gone now.

So far nothing is working. i cannot install any type of printer and therefore i can't reinstall my scanner either as its part of the same installation. if i get past the printer spooler problem i just end up with an RPC server problem. I've checked out all the threads on here and i've already done everything that is suggested. it seems mad to have to reinstall the whole of XP just for one tiny Win32 system.

Sorry its a bit long but i've been working on this problem for months now and it just ain't working so any help would be greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by bex boo: 08 January 2009 - 01:03 PM

When your friend reinstalled Windows did they install all the hardware drivers?

hi, he installed it from a genuine windows CD. he's a genius with computers so i doubt he would have missed anything important. i just had to reinstall all my original software. unfortunately he can't figure out what is up either. other than using some kind of boot disk, he ran out of ideas. do you know how i could check if its all ok?

This post has been edited by bex boo: 08 January 2009 - 06:34 PM

Check your devices in Device Manager (Start > Run > type "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter). Look for any "!", "?" or "X" symbols.

that all looks good, no !,? or X

You might want to try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919750

i followed it to the T except that my clean spoolsv.exe was from a source on my hard drive (it was copied straight from the installation disk and sent via e-mail). the printer spooler is still failing. instead of running an installation i'm just checking the system event viewer. if its any help it says there that its an unexpected error, that the printer service has terminated unexpectedly and will restart. it logs event ID 7031.


i have also followed the instructions on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324757 but that didn't work either

This post has been edited by bex boo: 08 January 2009 - 07:40 PM