Vista Printing Issue

the_Grinch

I have a user at work who I am unable to add a printer to. I have the printer listed in active directory, installed the driver, but every time I try to add it I get the error "Windows cannot preform the Operation". The weird thing is I was able to add the printer to my Vista machine even though I got that error. Permissions wise, the everyone group is on the printer. Any ideas?

blargoe

Print spooler service running?

Agent6376

A couple of things that may help:
-Use the Run as Administrator option

Is the printer shared off of a server, or does it have a static IP?
-If it's shared, try creating a local port with the name of the path of the UNC path of the printer.

You may want to try ninjaing the port.
Install the printer as a local printer, then once the installation is complete, just manually add and then switch the port over to the location of the printer.

Good luck!

skrpune

Does the error look anything like this:
Screenshot.JPG

I have this error happening at work, semi-randomly. Haven't quite figured it out, but it could be a conflicting driver/service (apparently Lexmark is infamous for having driver services that muck up things for other printers/manufacturers). I brought in my laptop from home test out issues folks were having connecting to printers, and that's where I snagged that screenshot from. I have yet to find the root cause though.

Just out of curiosity - is it a laptop that you're having this issue with?

jibbajabba

skrpune wrote: »

Does the error look anything like this:
Screenshot.JPG

I have this error happening at work, semi-randomly. Haven't quite figured it out, but it could be a conflicting driver/service (apparently Lexmark is infamous for having driver services that muck up things for other printers/manufacturers). I brought in my laptop from home test out issues folks were having connecting to printers, and that's where I snagged that screenshot from. I have yet to find the root cause though.

Just out of curiosity - is it a laptop that you're having this issue with?

Had the same error .. couldn't get it fixed. After I upgraded to Windows 7 it started working again .. random ...

skrpune

Gomjaba wrote: »

Had the same error .. couldn't get it fixed. After I upgraded to Windows 7 it started working again .. random ...

Here's the weird part - it's only certain printers that will throw up that error on certain machiens. And they're all the same model printer, at least in my case, and the issue happens willy-nilly on different laptops with no logic that I can find. I know it's not a network access issue because we can SEE the printers and it's just when the printer drivers are getting installed via \\servername\printername that we get the error. If I add the printer via IP address, VOILA, it works. Strange.

It could very well just be what a coworker of mine thought: funky-arse glitch due to how Windows handles drivers, for which his technical term is cluster-****.

Grinch - are you able to connect to the printer via IP address at all?

Agent6376

Lexmark printers (and Dell since they're pretty much the same thing) make thousands of technicians cry each night. Depending on what model of printer you're attempting to install for the Lexmark, there's a reg hack that disables bi-directional printing that usually gets smb printing going.

/endhijack

the_Grinch

I added it via IP. The issue was I didn't know how to get the IP address since it was a usb printer that was attached to an HP Jetdirect 175x. But then I read about the Jetdirect and found out all I had to do was hit the button to print the ip address. Problem solved printer added. Thanks for all the help!