Printer problem, this is weird!

Okay, I've got 2 printers in a room. Both networked.

When I try to install either of them, I get an Error;

Printer driver was not installed. Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

Thing is, there are no files or printers previously installed.
When I click OK on that error, I lose half of the stuff in Control Panel and most of my icons get all messed up.

Plus I lose nearly all the information in System32.

I have been through stuff online to see if anyone else has this problem, but none of them have worked for me.

Anyone else had this problem?

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Comments

MAC_Addy

They're IP printers and I'm installing them through Windows.

Add a printer.
Local Printer...
Create a new port.
Add IP address and then select driver.

tiersten

jamie.english wrote: »

Plus I lose nearly all the information in System32.

What do you mean you lose nearly all the information in system32? All the files get deleted?

MAC_Addy

Sounds very weird. They're not deleted, once you restart they'll come back.

tiersten

jamie.english wrote: »

Sounds very weird. They're not deleted, once you restart they'll come back.

This happening on any other machine or just 1?

Hyper-Me

If 2 printers are in a room, and noone is there to hear them print, do they actually print?

Kaminsky

Driver sounds bogus. Is it the one that came with the printer ?

Bokeh

I had something similar with one of my remote users yesterday. They called and said they lost all their printers (they move from office to office a lot). I had them reboot before I logged in, and same issue.

I went to reinstall the printer, and was told I couldn't since print spooler was not running. I checked, it was off. Restarted service and rebooted computer. All the printers came back up after that.

MAC_Addy

Yep. turns out it was the newer printer driver was the messing up.

Seems to be working now.

Got another printer problem though, when I print a test page, it prints a blank document, test page and then 2 more blank pages. Tried changing the drivers. And I've even searched the internet to file really old drivers. still happening.

Kaminsky

You configured it not to print header pages, printer usage reports etc. Just print what it's sent.

Have you tried printing "This is a test" from notepad ? That's always a good clue.