Cannot access printers

[Peace Church]

On Vista (Home Basic and Buriness versions) I lose all access to printers
periodically causing all Office programs to hang. The problem seems to
happen when a secutiry update is installed or a new application is installed.
The fix is to either go back to a restore point prior to the noted install
or to disable startup items. The problem is definitely associated with a
startup item but I cannot determine the cause for the conflict.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

On Vista (Home Basic and Buriness versions) I lose all access to printers
periodically causing all Office programs to hang. The problem seems to
happen when a secutiry update is installed or a new application is installed.
The fix is to either go back to a restore point prior to the noted install
or to disable startup items. The problem is definitely associated with a
startup item but I cannot determine the cause for the conflict.

See my thread "Print Errors in Vista".

It appears that all apps do not access printers the same way.

After adding a PDF printer, then flip flopping around the default printer,
things seem to be working now.

Maybe this hack will help u?

 

[Peace Church]

I don't agree with your assessment. Here is more information. When this
problem occurs I cannot even open Printers in Control Panel. The system
hangs forever trying to open Printers so there is no way to even test
printing from Notepad, or any other application. Often the cure is restore
to the previous day's restore point when the only thing that has happened
during the night is an automatic Microsoft update (like a security update).

Ed

 

[Peace Church]

When the problem surfaces I cannot even access Printers in Control Panel so I
cannot change defaults. There is no way to access any printer operation at
all. I either have to do a restore to a previous day or start disabling
startup items (that were not causing problems earlier) to get running again
and have the ability to access printer functions to start making changes.

It is a horrible problem to troubleshoot because of the total loss of access
to any printer function.

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

On the Business version, can you open printmanagement.msc?

I'm assuming you have access to the admin accounts on the machines affected.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Peace Church]

I do have admin rights and I will open printmanagement.msc when the problem
resurfaces--which it will. I have Business on one Dell and Home Basic on
another Dell. Both have the same problem (which is periodic). I updated a
printer driver last night for one of my Dell all-in-one printers (928). The
driver clearly indicates that it is Vista compatible. I was under the
assumption that the previous driver was also Vista compatible (Dell sent it
with one of my Vista purchases).

Even if the root cause is a Vista compatible driver issue, and I am not
convinced it is at this point, Vista should not fail as it does where there
is no way to access Printers in Control Panel. Solving that problem is
nearly impossible for most consumers unless they know how to do a restore
point.