Cannot add printer on W2K workstation 1

[mdcr]

I have been trying to add several printers to a W2K machine but when I get to the Add Printer wizard and select "network printer" then search the network for a printer, it never shows any choices. Also, when I go to Network Neighborhood and double-click on the server that is sharing all of the printers, it just sits and shows the hourglass, nothing else. I have restarted the machine, also stopped and started the printer spooler on the machine (and the server), but nothing is happening with this....Any ideas? Thanks...

 

[Kurtie]

Have you got all the rights of an administrator ?
Are the shares accessable to domain users ?
I think its probably a policy problem.
Have you tried typing the name \\servername\sharename in the textbox instead of searching for it?
Kurtie

 

[pbxman]

You in a domain or workgroup? Can you ping the printername, or map it via:
net use LPT1: \\servername\sharename /persistent:no
?

can you browse other machines with shared devices no problem? Eventlog errors? It might be a browser-election issue as well. pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[GCSGEEK]

I have the same problem as mdcr. I have a Win2K machine, and I cannot print to a specific printer that everyone else can print and see on the network. He can see a couple of HP printers shared out by a couple of users but not the main printer that everyone prints too. I tried browsing the network, I come up empty. I tried typing the name of the printer and the correct path and still nothing. The other users use Win2k and 98 and XP and they all print fine. The error I get is "Could Not Connect To The Printer. You Either Entered A Printer That Was Incorrect Or Specified A Printer That Is No Longer Connected." Now he can print to the HP Printers shared out by the other users, so that’s the weird part. He is logged in with full Admin rights, so that’s not a problem. Any Ideas (besides going out and buying him his own printer)?


Chris

 

[mdcr]

Well, it turned out that the next day, after having done as much as I could think of (rebooting both machines and printers, stopping and restarting services on both machines, disabling and enabling connections, etc), I restarted the machine, and the printer was able to be added. I can't explain it, but it was a problem that only affected that one computer, no others, and restarting it didn't change the situation.....Thanks for the tips for next time...

 

[pbxman]

Glad it's solved - now im 99% sure after seeing your recent post...browser election problem is what it was. To explain how that all works would fill a book, but basically nothing takes place immediately, and roles need time to get sorted-out especially in a mixed environment. Every computer (especially Win2K) wants to be "king", and maintain the browse-list, and it can take a long time for all those conflicts to get sorted out because eventually Win2K will win. pbxman
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[GCSGEEK]

I guess I will give rebooting another try then too.

 

[cimberdog]

We've run across this problem on all our machines that came in with Windows 2000 preinstalled. Check Microsoft's KB article Q158356 - they say it is a damaged or missing ntprint.inf file in %systemRoot%\Inf folder.

Once we reinstalled W2K over the top of itself, the problem was resolved. Incidentally, just applying service packs did not resolve the problem.