Fix 0X00000877 NERR_DataTypeInvalid Print Processor Error

What 0X00000877 actually means

0X00000877 is NERR_DataTypeInvalid. It's a network management error code, not a Win32 one, which is why you won't find it in most printer troubleshooting docs. The spooler handed a print job to a print processor, and that processor looked at the job's datatype string — RAW, EMF, TEXT, XPS_PASS, whatever — and said no. It doesn't know how to render that datatype.

The reason step-by-step printer wizards don't help here is that they assume the spooler is the problem. It usually isn't. What's actually happening is a mismatch between what the application is submitting and what the print processor is registered to handle. Fix the mismatch, error goes away.

Typical triggers: a generic PostScript driver installed on a queue that ships PCL jobs, a print processor DLL swapped out by a third-party print management tool, or an app sending RAW data to a queue whose processor only speaks EMF. I've seen this most with label printers — Zebra and Brother QL units — where the vendor print processor gets replaced with winprint after a driver update.

Cause 1: Wrong print processor bound to the queue

This is by far the most common. Every printer queue has a print processor registered in the registry, and it needs to match what your applications are sending. The default is winprint with datatype RAW. Third-party tools — PaperCut, Printix, vendor driver bundles — sometimes change this to their own processor, and if that processor chokes on a datatype it doesn't expect, you get 0X00000877.

Check what's bound right now:

wmic printer get Name,PrintProcessor,DriverName,PortName /format:list

Or in PowerShell, which is cleaner:

Get-Printer | Select-Object Name,PrintProcessor,DriverName,PortName | Format-Table -AutoSize

If PrintProcessor isn't winprint and you don't need the custom one, change it back. In the printer's properties, go to the Advanced tab, click Print Processor, and set it to winprint with datatype RAW. Confirm, then restart the spooler:

net stop spooler
net start spooler

The queue name has to match exactly. If the printer is shared as HP-LaserJet-M404 and the app is targeting \\server\HP_M404, Windows may create a second auto-created queue with different defaults. Check Get-Printer output for duplicates — I've cleaned up servers with six auto-created copies of the same physical printer, all pointing at different processors.

Cause 2: Driver/application datatype mismatch

The print processor supports a defined list of datatypes. winprint handles RAW, RAW [FF appended], RAW [FF auto], NT EMF 1.003, NT EMF 1.006, NT EMF 1.007, NT EMF 1.008, and TEXT. If an app sends XPS_PASS or a vendor-specific string like ZEBRA_EPL to a queue whose processor doesn't list it, you get 0X00000877.

The classic real-world case: a line-of-business app writes raw ZPL directly to the printer using the Windows spooler API with datatype RAW, but the driver installed is a PostScript universal driver that registered the queue with an EMF processor path. The app then either fails outright or, worse, prints blank pages and logs 0X00000877 asynchronously in the event log.

Fix depends on who's wrong:

• If the app is legacy and only speaks one datatype, install the correct vendor driver (ZPL, EPL, PCL, whatever the device natively consumes). Don't try to make a PostScript driver accept ZPL. It won't.
• If the driver is correct but the app is misconfigured, change the app's print method to use the Windows GDI path (datatype NT EMF) instead of raw passthrough.
• If you can't change either, add a second queue on the same port with a generic text-only driver, and point the app at that. Ugly, but it works and it isolates the problem.

You can see what datatype a job is submitting by watching the spool folder. Jobs land as .SPL (data) and .SHD (shadow header) pairs. The shadow file is binary but you can grep the strings:

strings "C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.SHD" | findstr /i "RAW EMF XPS TEXT"

If you see XPS_PASS and your processor is winprint, that's your answer — the app is using the XPS print path and the processor can't render it.

Cause 3: Corrupted or hijacked print processor registry keys

Less common, but it happens after botched driver uninstalls. The print processor list lives under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors

Each subkey is a processor name, and inside there's a Driver REG_SZ value pointing to the DLL (usually winprint.dll in System32). If a third-party uninstaller deletes the DLL but leaves the registry key, or vice versa, the spooler will fail to load the processor and any job routed to it returns 0X00000877 — even ones with a perfectly valid datatype.

Check both sides:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors" /s

Then verify the DLL exists:

dir "C:\Windows\System32\winprint.dll"

If the key exists but the DLL is missing, that's the bug. The cleanest fix is to remove the orphaned key and re-add winprint cleanly. Easiest path: remove the printer, remove the driver from Print Management, reboot, then reinstall. The spooler rebuilds the processor list from the driver INF on install.

One caveat — if you have a print management tool that installed its own processor (PaperCut's pcprint, ThinPrint, etc.), don't nuke those keys. They're load-bearing. Only remove entries where the referenced DLL is genuinely missing.

Quick-reference summary

If none of this clears it, grab a spooler trace with tracelog -start spooler -guid {...} — but 90% of the time it's cause 1. Check the processor binding first. It takes thirty seconds and saves an hour.