printers disappear and spooler stops

[Guest]

I am having problems with printing from my laptop using any installed
application. My Epson Printer keeps on coming and going from Printers and
Faxes, when it is there and i try and look at the properties for it i get
some messages saying that the print spooler service is not running, (if i
restart the service I can get the properties for a few seconds), and some
saying that a DLL or other component is missing.
My Windows is up to date with its patches and fixes as of today

I have tried clearing out all printer drivers
I have tried reloadin the latest driver (downloaded today from Epson)
I have tried the registry changes suggested on this forum, in fact i have
tried everything i can find on this forum about printing / spooler problems.
I print to a print server on my home network and have removed and reloaded
all software related to the print server.
I have tried disabling Norton internet security.

No hardware has changed and no new software has been installed since the
last time I printed ok a few days ago

PLEASE HELP.....

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Does it work correctly if you connect it directly to a USB port on one of
the PCs on your network.... to try to eliminate the print server as the
problem.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Cari.

Already tried this and printer works ok from at least two other PC's on
network to print server and as a directly connected printer but not from my
laptop....

 

[Guest]

Since my last post I have noticed that the language button (EN) on the taks
bar sometimes flashes and sometimes disappears. not sure if this is relevent

 

[Guest]

Its ok i have fixed the problem. Luckly my laptop has a recovery feature, it
reinstalled windows and all is ok now.

Thanks