Tracking print-related application failures back to a print driver name

Print drivers can cause failures in the Windows Print Spooler, the PaperCut Print Provider service, and other applications that interact with print components. These issues may present as application crashes (for example, “<application> has stopped working”) or services unexpectedly stopping. A common way to investigate this is by reviewing Windows Event Logs to identify the component responsible for the failure.

How to identify the binary causing the crash

1. Open Event Viewer by selecting Start → Server Manager → Tools → Event Viewer
2. Navigate to: Windows Logs → Application
3. Right-click Application and select Filter Current Log…
   • Set Event sources to: Application Error
4. Review events with Event ID 1000

Look for events where the faulting application is one of the following

• spoolsv.exe (Print Spooler)
• pc-print.exe (PaperCut Print Provider)
• printisolationhost.exe
• splwow64.exe
• Or another application interacting with printing (such as a web browser or office application).

Each event will include a Faulting module name. This is key to identifying whether a print driver is involved. If the failure is driver-related, the module name will typically reference a .dll associated with a print driver.

Note: Ignore common system modules such as ntdll.dll and kernel32.dll. These are often referenced but do not directly link back to the print driver.

Example:

• Faulting module name: MyTestPrintDriver.dll
• Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\spoolsv.exe

In this case, the print driver binary is the likely cause of the crash.

How to identify the driver

Once you have identified the faulting module (DLL), you can map it to the installed print driver using PowerShell.

1. Open PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Run the following command (be sure to replace MyTestPrintDriver with the binary name identified in your Event Viewer, keeping the asterisks for wildcards).

   # Replace the value below with the faulting DLL name (no need to include .dll if unsure)
   $search = "MyTestPrintDriver"
   
   Get-PrinterDriver | Where-Object {
       $_.ConfigFile -like "*$search*" -or
       ([string]$_.DependentFiles) -like "*$search*" -or
       $_.Monitor -like "*$search*"
   } | Select-Object Name, Manufacturer, DriverVersion
   

   This command queries the installed drivers and returns the print driver associated with the identified binary.

Identify impacted printers

With the driver name confirmed, you can:

• Review which print queues are configured to use this driver.
• Identify which devices or users may be affected.
• Correlate this information with the timing of your system or application failures.

Steps to resolve

Once a problematic driver has been identified, you can evaluate the following steps to resolve the issue

• Update the driver: Check the printer manufacturer’s website or Windows Update for an updated, stable version of the driver.
• Switch to the PaperCut Global Driver: If a stable vendor-specific driver is unavailable, consider switching the print queue to the PaperCut Global PostScript Driver. This alternative driver can resolve application and browser crashes where a vendor driver (such as a PCL6 driver) causes conflicts, and natively supports both x64 and ARM64 architectures.
• Ensure architecture compatibility (ARM64 clients): Standard x64 print drivers cannot be used by Windows ARM64 clients, as the ARM64 printer spooler requires architecture-specific drivers. If you have ARM64-powered clients (such as Microsoft Surface devices), make sure you deploy native ARM64 drivers or use the PaperCut Global PostScript Driver.
• Use a vendor universal driver: Consider switching to a vendor-supported universal print driver instead of a model-specific driver.
• Avoid legacy drivers: Avoid legacy or discontinued drivers, particularly on newer operating systems.

If issues persist, you can also:

• Temporarily isolate affected print queues to limit the impact of spooler crashes.
• Monitor system behaviour after making driver changes.

We also recommend having a look at our article Improving Windows Print Spooler stability for some specific suggestions on how to isolate or mitigate buggy print drivers.