Troubleshooting Printer Issue on HP s3120 with Vista Home Premium

[Q_Goest]

My daughter's computer is wasting way too much of my time! I can't seem to connect a printer to it. The computer is an HP s3120 with Vista "Home Premium". I'm trying to connect an HP Photosmart C6280 printer to it. The drivers are available on the net and I've downloaded and installed.

When I try to "Add Printer" I get an error message saying:

Windows can't open Add Printer. The local print spooler service is not running. Please restart the spooler or restart the machine.

Sure enough, the spooler isn't running. So I restart the spooler and verify it's operating from Task Manager. Then go back and try and add printer. The next error message is:

Windows can't open Add Printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006be).

As soon as that happens, the spooler is shut down and trying to add printer a third time goes back to the first error message.

There was a Lexmark printer (X1150) connected to this computer originally, and there were some drivers still on from that machine. There was no uninstall program to remove them so I deleted them. That may have nothing to do with this problem as the HP printer had worked fine for a while when I first installed it.

Any thoughts? What can I check here? I've downloaded all the HP drivers and it looks like it's ok, but I still can't add a printer... :(

 

[DaveC426913]

What other devices do you have running?

I was unable to get my camera to download while my print spooler was running.

 

[slider142]

Since you simply deleted the files of the older printer, it sounds like you just need to clean the printer driver references out of the registry. Uninstall the HP printer for now, and then follow the instructions here. In particular, the bottom of the page has instructions specifically for the way Lexmark print drivers change the print spooler dependencies, which may cause it to fail to start when the Lexmark drivers are not present.

 

[DaveC426913]

Since you simply deleted the files of the older printer, it sounds like you just need to clean the printer driver references out of the registry. Uninstall the HP printer for now, and then follow the instructions here. In particular, the bottom of the page has instructions specifically for the way Lexmark print drivers change the print spooler dependencies, which may cause it to fail to start when the Lexmark drivers are not present.

Unrelated:

Does this have anything to do with why I see "LEX" apps running when I look in my task manager? I haven't had a Lexmark printer in, like, forever, but these apps seem to be essential.

 

[slider142]

Unrelated:

Does this have anything to do with why I see "LEX" apps running when I look in my task manager? I haven't had a Lexmark printer in, like, forever, but these apps seem to be essential.

That may indeed be the case. However, it is difficult to tell just from the name of the app (one reference comes up as a trojan downloader!). You can use Spybot-Search & Destroy in Advanced mode to enable/disable your startup entries with additional library information about entries that have been documented. If it is still unlisted, you can use Autoruns to list all startup entries for all processes/drivers/services/dlls on your computer, which will include publisher information for each entry, if the executable has been digitally signed.
You can use either tool to simply disable the startup entry and see if your computer operates properly after a restart. If the computer behaves fine with the entry disabled, you can go back in and delete the unnecessary entry.

 

[Q_Goest]

What other devices do you have running?

I was unable to get my camera to download while my print spooler was running.

Only other devices might be the wireless keyboard and mouse.

 

[Q_Goest]

Since you simply deleted the files of the older printer, it sounds like you just need to clean the printer driver references out of the registry. Uninstall the HP printer for now, and then follow the instructions here. In particular, the bottom of the page has instructions specifically for the way Lexmark print drivers change the print spooler dependencies, which may cause it to fail to start when the Lexmark drivers are not present.

Thanks slider. I tried downloading the microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools but an error comes up saying it isn't compatible (with Vista).

I'll try and clean up the print spooler per steps 6 through 14.

 

[Q_Goest]

Hey Slider,
Thanks for the help. I got to http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm#LexmarkDriver" and it says to delete all the sub-keys inside Version-2 and Version-3, but not these keys themselves.

Attached is a screen shot of the various files under the folder "Version-3" and also the sub folder "Microsoft XPS Document Writer".

So which are the keys and which are sub-keys?

 

[slider142]

Each "folder" in the regedit program is a key; they are directing you to delete the entire key of any printer other than the Microsoft Fax Driver or XPS writer (these are standard windows printer drivers and should not have been affected).

 

[Q_Goest]

Thanks slider. Sorry for being so stupid, but does that mean I should delete all four of these (shown in attachment "Version3.doc" above)?

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Directory REG_SZ 3
MajorVersion REG_DWORD 0x...
MinorVerions REG_DWORD 0x...

 

[DaveC426913]

Thanks slider. Sorry for being so stupid, but does that mean I should delete all four of these (shown in attachment "Version3.doc" above)?

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Directory REG_SZ 3
MajorVersion REG_DWORD 0x...
MinorVerions REG_DWORD 0x...

I'd be very careful how you answer, slider. Editing the registry can be hazardous. In the hands of a rookie, one mistake could pooch the system. But you know this.

I'd suggest this fals in the same cautionary category as giving medical advice online.

 

[slider142]

Thanks slider. Sorry for being so stupid, but does that mean I should delete all four of these (shown in attachment "Version3.doc" above)?

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Directory REG_SZ 3
MajorVersion REG_DWORD 0x...
MinorVerions REG_DWORD 0x...

Since all you appear to have installed is the default Microsoft XPS document printer (and hopefully this is not the culprit), leave it alone. Skip to step 10, and especially follow the instructions for the print spooler dependency near the end.

 

[Q_Goest]

Hi slider. Thanks so much for all your help on this. I ran the command, "sc config spooler depend= RPCSS" and it popped open a window for about 3 milliseconds and closed it. I'm assuming it did something.

I reloaded all the drivers for the printer but I'm still getting the same error messages as before.

I think my next step is to try the printer on my own computer which has Windows XP. Hopefully that will work and prove it's not the printer or drivers, it's just the computer (or operating system). I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

 

[Q_Goest]

Quicky update. I moved the printer to my computer which has Windows XP. I downloaded the drivers off the website and it started right up, no problem. My daughter's computer that has Windows Vista however, can't hook up to it (via wireless network). The computer simply can't add a printer. Period. Very annoying! lol

The symptoms haven't changed.

I put a folder on my daughter's desktop (Vista machine) that is networked to my machine (XP). Now she can do homework on her machine and drop the file into this network folder, and print it from the XP machine. Anyway, point being that the windows Vista machine definitely recognizes the network and should be able to recognize printers on it, but it refuses to add a printer.

If anyone else has some suggestions I'm all ears. Let's try it!