I think I solved the problem: KB832219 "Users cannot print after you
install a service pack, update rollup, or printer hotfix on a server in
Windows 2000"
When I first saw this I dismissed it because of the statement:
"This is a one-time parsing operation and does not occur after the
parsed binary .bud files are successfully regenerated."
But that statement is FALSE for me.
While using sysinternal's filemon.exe to see if I could glean anything
about what was happening*, I noticed the .bud files being generated
over and over at various times. And I first assumed this was simply
because I was stopping and starting the spooler.
But anyways, to make a VERY LONG story short, I deleted the registery
key mentioned in KB832219
(HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\PostSPUpgrade) and then
after restarting the spooler a preliminary test results in my being
able to print a test page.
<RANT>
Now, what's ****ed about this is previous to my 11 Automatic Updates
(AU's) printing was fine. After those 11 AU's printing stopped. I had
installed SP2 a friggin year or two ago.
To review each AU via MS's Security Bulletins to see what the updates
did (their explanations of some of the updates were useless) results in
hours of navigating MS technet webpages to locate which files got
updated.
(Turns out though that one just needs to review the file lists in the
registry keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Windows 2000\.)
But since the files updated by these AU's were a myriad maze a twisty
little dlls all different but certainly all or perhaps mostly
interdependent I figured I'd just un-install each AU until my print
spooler started working... WRONG!
After each un-install and reboot the system started--it seemed to
me--to boot slower and slower each time. After about the sixth
un-install and reboot the system would go into MS Spasm Mode--the HDD
led would stay on for several minutes during and immediately after the
booting.. just grinding, and grinding and grinding away the HDD
goes....
And then, the system would not complete the login process! The screen
would remain blank as I waited and waited and waited. Fifteen minutes I
waited. Well, I reset the machine (turned it off/on actually because PC
Mfgs these days think that Windows never crashes and do not use reset
buttons and more) and booted into Last Known Good configurations
whatever that does! Which worked.
So, my thinking is that perhaps the un-install of one of the AU's just
did not remove that registry key mentioned in KB832219? Or perhaps if I
kept un-installing the rest of the AU's one pf them would have
eventually?
But this damn Windows 2000 box is so FRAGILE! Some many things can--and
do--go wrong which can--and do--result in the box being 100% useless
and I have to restore previous setups.
</RANT>
