Wireless printer driver issue - Lexmark X6690

[SteveNapper]

Dear All,

I recently purchased a Lexmark Wireless printer X6690. All works wonderfully 'till I re boot when I lose the task bar / start menu for 20 - 30 mins. I believe that it may be some sort of wirless network issue, in that the printer is trying to connect before the laptop connects to the network.
Is there some way I can PERMAMENTLY take it out of the start up, or schedule AFTER the network is up and running? Am running XP (obviously) on a Dell lap top using the Dell wireless manager. Have seen a lesser forum where this sort of thing was suggested, but it was a temp measure!

Happy New Year to you all, and thanks in advance for your help.

Steve Napper

 

[BadBigBen]

This is probably due to Network Crawling enabled...

When Windows starts it will search for network devices and halts any other activity (e.g. Explorer.exe) until done...

you can shorten the time by using static IP's and by turning off the network crawling...

Here is a step by step tutorial for XP, read the manual on how to set static IP on the printer...

How to set up a static IP address on a Windows XP computer

http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm

How to turn off network crawling:

copy the following into the editor (notepad) then save it out onto the Desktop as nonetcrawling.reg and double click it and answer YES when prompted to integrate into the Registry...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoNetCrawling"=dword:00000001

if you want to undo it in the future, change the DWORD value to 00000000 instead of the 00000001 ...

post back if it helped or not...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[SteveNapper]

Ben,

At work at mo, and troublesome printer / pc at home, so will try this eve and let you know.

Many thanks for the detailed help

Steve

 

[SteveNapper]

Hi, me again.

Didn't seem to work. Tried all that you said and no joy. Turned the wirless off on the laptop (offending computer) so that there was no IP issue as it was stand alone and still same symptons.

Did try 'logging off' then back on again and it worked fine, but when re booted the problem came back. This may be of little consequence, but ....

Any one else had similiar issues / work with Lexmark / aware of the bug? Have emailed lexmark yesterday, but even their web site requests two days to come back to you!

Thanks in advance - and the last post was very, very informative and helpful, just that I was wrong and it's not a network issue?

Steve Napper

 

[BadBigBen]

It still might be a network issue, as I've looked a bit into the problem (never know when it may come in handy, work wise)...

now, is that lexmark set as STANDARD or DEFAULT printer? if yes, try this as a workaround:

if you have a local printer set it as default, then when you want to print to the lexmark choose it instead of the default...

if you do not have a local printer, to try the above, you can set a FilePrinter...

Select "Start -> Printers and Faxes"
Under "Printer Tasks" (sidebar), select "Add a printer" (if you don't have the sidebar, select "File -> Add Printer")
Click "Next" at the "Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard" screen.

On the "Local or Network Printer" screen, select "Local printer attached to this computer" and uncheck "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer" then click "Next".

On the "Select a Printer Port" screen, select "Use the following port" and select "FILE: (Print to File)" from the drop-down list then click "Next".

On the "Install Printer Software screen", select "Generic" in the left window (Manufacturer) and "Generic / Text Only" in the right window (Printers), then click "Next".

On the "Name Your Printer" screen leave the default name ("Generic / Text Only"), or change it to whatever name you prefer. Select "Yes" to use this printer as your default printer.

On the "Printer Sharing" screen, go with the default choice "Do not share this printer".

After you are done, open the “Printers” folder, right-click on the printer that was formerly the default printer, and click “Set as default”.

Try it and if it does not help then you can always reverse the steps...

keep us posted...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

What is the Event Viewer telling you, are there any errors appearing in there?

When you open up Printer and Faxes, how many Printers do you have listed in there, are there any duplicates?

Instead of using the Dell Wireless Manager, can you set your Network up to allow Windows to manage the Wireless connections?

Have a look at the last few comments at the end of this thread which are relevant to Wireless connections.

Vista to XP?
thread779-1520465

 

[SteveNapper]

Hi guys(and girls), finally got hold of Lexmark technical support who directed me here:

ftp://ftp.lexmark.com/driver/inkjet_drivers/slowboot/32bit/

Downloaded the approriate file for my printer, it went into command prompt 'mode' stopped spooler several times, and all seems to be fine now.

Previously (last night) did make windows manage network, but didn't really help the issue - think it's speeded the pc up generally, but that could just be wishful thinking! All I can say is it worked like a dream and I'm now back up and running!! Thanks for all your help, and I've no doubt I'll be back on again soon - hoping I can help some one else one of these days!

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad you got it, and all is running fine... and definitely thank you for posting what fixed the issue, this will help others who face a similar problem...

You are welcome anytime, to help others and to give help to others.

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."