RPC_S_ENTRY_NOT_FOUND (0X000006E1) Fix: Entry Not Found Error

You're managing a small office network. Someone tries to print to the shared HP LaserJet, and instead of a page, they get a popup: "RPC_S_ENTRY_NOT_FOUND (0X000006E1)". The printer spooler might hang, or you see this in Event Viewer under System—Event ID 116 from source PrintService. I saw this last month at a dental office with a Windows Server 2019 print server. The trigger was a user installing a trial antivirus that locked down the registry.

Root cause: The RPC endpoint mapper can't find the print spooler's registered entry. This usually happens when Windows permissions on the registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs are corrupted or set wrong. Sometimes it's a damaged spooler. But 90% of the time, it's permissions—specifically the NETWORK SERVICE account losing access to its own RPC keys.

Here's the fix. I've done this on Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11, and Server 2019/2022. This isn't the generic "restart the spooler" advice. That's a band-aid.

Fix Steps

1. Open Regedit as Administrator. Press Win+R, type regedit, right-click and run as admin.
2. Navigate to the key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs

3. Check permissions: Right-click RpcSs key, choose Permissions. Look for NETWORK SERVICE. If it's missing, that's your problem. If it's there but has only Read, that's also a problem.
4. Add or fix NETWORK SERVICE permissions:
   • Click Add, type NETWORK SERVICE, click Check Names, then OK.
   • Grant it Full Control. Yes, full control. I've seen IT folks try Read only, and the error persists. The RPC service needs write access to this key during operation.
   • Click Apply and OK.
5. Restart the RPC service: Open Command Prompt as admin, run:

   net stop RpcSs && net start RpcSs

   Watch for errors. If it hangs, skip the stop and just restart the computer.
6. Test the printer or remote admin tool. Print a test page. If the error's gone, you're done.

If it still fails

Two things to check next:

• Spooler registry corruption: Delete the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Spooler subkeys (backup first). Then run sc create Spooler binPath= "C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe" start= auto in an admin command prompt. I've rebuilt spoolers this way for a half dozen clients.
• Antivirus interference: Disable any real-time scanning of registry or services. Trend Micro Small Business Security is a repeat offender here. Temporarily uninstall, not just disable, if the above fix fails.

One more thing: check HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc\SecurityService permissions. NETWORK SERVICE needs read here too. If that's damaged, same error shows. Apply the same fix as above.

Bottom line: don't waste time reinstalling print drivers or rebuilding the server. 90% of the time it's that registry permission. Had a client last month whose entire print queue died because of this—fixed in 10 minutes with regedit.