Add printer wizard does not work 1

[twomblml]

New install of XP pro. When clicking on Add Printer the
add printer wizard does not work and previously installed
printers are not displayed. I have reapplied SP1 without
any change. XP box is in a NT network no Active Directory
involved. There was a similar issue in Win2k Article
Q271248 but I did not have any stray dll's. Any
suggestions are greatly appreciated at this point!

Thanks

-Matt

 

[gpalmer711]

Bill Castner reciently posted the following

Some services are not running that need to run.
It is also possible this is a permissions issue, but I think not. I think it is a service issue. Lately there have been a lot of complaints of service failures after antivirus and specific worm removal methods have been done for workstations and servers.

Black Viper's site has a quick registry edit that can be downloaded to set the default state of all services to their original:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Reboot after applying.

If you do a "Keyword Search" here there is additional advice to be found if the print spooler does not restart, or the Remote Procedure Call (rpc) service does not start after this step.

Greg Palmer

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Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[twomblml]

Thanks for the suggestions. I went to Black Viper's page and followed his instructions and reset services back to their defaults with no change. I have also been down the road with the printer spooler and rpc service. Both start with no issues. I am logged in as local admin.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

-Matt

 

[twomblml]

This is killing me! :-( Anyone else seen this or have any suggestions?

Thanks

-Frustrated Matt

 

[gpalmer711]

Are you getting any errors in your event log relating to the printer spooler or rpc service?

Greg Palmer

----------------------------------------
Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[bcastner]

1. Permissions issue?

To install or to modify a local printer, you must have either of the following privileges:
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group.
You must be a member of the Power Users group and have the Load/Unload Device Drivers privilege, which is a Group Policy setting.

NOTE: To set this privilege, click Computer Configuration, click Windows Settings, click Security Settings, click Local Policies, and then click User Rights Assignment. By default, only administrators have this privilege. Power Users can obtain the same level of privilege to install or modify a local printer as they had under Microsoft Windows 2000 if the administrator explicitly grants this privilege to them.
If a user who does not have the proper privileges attempts to add a local printer, the option to add a local printer is dimmed in the Add Printer Wizard.

2. IPX/SPX Used as transport protocol

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291738&Product=winxp

3. Print Spooler Service not running.

 

[bcastner]

4. Server Service not running.

 

[deggie1]

The disappearing installed printers and inability to add new printers in the Add Printer Wizard is not confined to Windows XP. I have the same problem with Win 2000 Pro. After searching the Internet for a solution, I can across Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 271248 found at

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271248&Product=win2000,

which describes the problem as extra dll files which may have been added by third-party software to the root Winnt folder. Read the article for instructions on removing the dll files.
The solution did not work for me, so I am still trying to find out how to repair the printer subsystem without resorting to a complete re-install of Win 2000.

 

[sherry2002]

Have you tried "chkdsk/f" first as administrator in the DOS prompt? It fixes our systems when we have a wired printer issue.

 

[twomblml]

OMG!!!! I could kiss you right now!

I have been dealing with this issue since October...It is finally solved. Kudos to sherry for pointing me down the right road. I ran the chekdsk /f and I had a Entry point error CM_Get_Device_Interface_List_ExW with the CFGMGR32.DLL. So I did some more digging and ran the SFC /scannow and it must have fixed more than just that .DLL file because now I have printers! YAYYYYY!

Thanks Sherry!

-Matt

 

[deggie1]

One of the problems associtated with the lost printers in Print Manager was the inability to print from Web pages or screen captures. The error message reported insufficient memory while trying to print these pages, but that was not the problem. Printing was OK from MS Office applications. I found that re-installing Windows 2000 SP4 restored the corrupted dlls and now I am able to install new printers and see the existing ones. I have also been able to print web pages again.