Windows 7 - Printers missing/Restart Print Spooler

[ttraider]

I am starting to encounter more of this problem in win7.
Sometimes when I am ready to print, the network printers disappeared into thin air. Restarting the PC sometimes fix the problem but most of the time I have to restart the print spooler. There are several others in the organization having the same problem. I know one of them have a local printer and and it has the same problem. Most of us have 3 or 4 printers setup in our devices and printers, and everyone of those printers disappeared. When you try to re-install the printer, then the print spooler error comes up. Not sure if I want to reload win7 OS again.
Have searched the MS knowledge base but restarting print spooler is not an option everytime. Sometimes I can restart the print spooler and the printers will show up. As soon as I print, the printers disappear. Had to restart it several times before it will work.

Thanks,
frustrated.

 

[stduc]

Are you certain you have the correct printer drivers? The drivers may have become corrupted in some way. It might help to completely re-install the drivers. Ensure you have the correct drivers and know where to install them from.

Delete the printers and then as an admin user go to Control Panel and then

1.System and Security
2.Administrative Tools
3.Print Management
4.Printer Servers
5.%Computer Name%
6 Drivers

Then right click each troublesome printer and select 'remove driver package'

Then re-install the printers from scratch.

 

[BadBigBen]

you may be better off adding those printers as LOCAL PRINTERS not as a NETWORK PRINTER...

1. Go to "Printers"
2. click "Add Printer"
3. "Add a Local Printer"
4. "Create a New Port"
5. use the "Local Port" option
6. at "Enter a Port Name" enter: \\IP OF PRINTER\ (or \\computername\printername)

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[ttraider]

Yes, I have re-install all the printer drivers and they are the latest printer drivers. There are several computers with the same configurations, and only a couple of them have these problems. Once in awhile a couple of them will have this error, but after a reboot, it would work just fine after that.

Never tried loading it a a local printer. Thanks, I'll try that method.

 

[DKHM2]

I don't know the setup of your netowrk, but I notice you started at least one thread in Windows Server 2003, so I'm assuming that's what your network printers are attached to / shared from. There was a known issue with Windows XP and Win2003 similar to this that you should know about:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885

Since the hotfix is only for XP, then if you decide this is a similar enough issue, you'll have to call MS to ask for a Win7 specific hotfix.

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support#tab0

 

[linney]

This is an old XP Post but it will offer some behind the scene information concerning the workings of Printers and the Print Spooler.

Stopping of the Print Spooler
thread779-686557