Installing a Printer

[OX-27]

Is there anyone able to help me resolve a problem?

A work colleague asked me to install a printer on to his laptop, however this has so far proved to be impossible.

IBM thinkpad 500MHz, 128 Mb RAM running XP Pro, Lexmark Z45 USB printer.

I have downloaded the latest driver from the Lexmark website for XP, and extracted it to its own folder on the C drive, but when the install starts I receive a “Question” indicating that the print spooler is not running, it advises me to click “yes” to start the print spooler (whatever that is). I have clicked yes but nothing happens.

I then tried through the control panel to install the printer, but whenever I select the “Add Printer” an error message saying “Unable to complete operation” appears.

This is the first time I’ve had difficulty installing a printer on to any system. Is there an easy-fix for this problem as I don’t know what to do next?

Any help would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.

[Tonic Please]

Simple to start with, but more often than not around here its the simplest thing which is the problem. All plugged in tightly? Turned on? Fuse not buggered? The right port being used?? Any conflicts in device manager ?

Good to know these are covered before getting more complicated.

Dan.

[rustle]

Print Spooler...

Desktop/right-click "my computer" then "manage" then "services"

Look for Print Spooler in the list of services, make sure it is not "disabled" and that it is, infact, running.

[Conan the Librarian]

Another option might be to delete the printer with its current software installation and start again. Same advice as previous posts - make sure that everything is connected as per the instructions and you should be ok. Sometimes things happen cleanly on the second try ( but often they don't!)

Just one thought... Go to the Lexmark site and download the latest drivers. Am I alone in wondering whether SP2 might have a hand in this somewhere?

good luck,

CTL

[OX-27]

Good news – managed to sort the problem by running the XP repair console that put back a few files which I assume were missing; and didn’t lose any data either. At one point I thought I was going to have to format the drive, so backed up just in case.

Rustle – a good tip there, as the administrative tools folder was empty, I was wondering how to start the print spooler – as it happened, it wouldn’t start anyway – hence using the repair console.

Thanks to you all for your input – my credibility is still intact and colleague is well chuffed