Win XP Home Fax printer

[Guest]

I had to do a system restore after a power failure caused a system loss.
Everything appears to be working fine at this stage, except Win Xp fax
printer. When trying to send a document to the fax printer, a Fax Note pops
up on the monitor with the message: "The fax printer cannot be accessed.
Make sure it is setup correctly." Have done that, but no luck. Also tried
through control panel, add/remove windows components to rectify, no luck.
The fax facility has been operational since we got the PC ± 2 years ago.
After the restore, NO updates would install, but I have managed to have that
problem solved this morning and had 81 updates finally installed. BUT the
FAX still won't work! I cannot find a solution from existing queries and
answers. The PC came with Windows XP Home pre-installed. Thanks for your
kind assistance.

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

It is likely you have security data base corruption as documented here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884018/EN-US/
You cannot add a Windows component in Windows XP

You can either:

1. Get the hotfix mentioned in the KB article and install it. Microsoft
usually waives any charges for support calls to get supported hotfixes
listed in Knowledge Base articles.

2. Try this procedure using the Esentutl.exe utility mentioned in the KB
article to recover from security database corruption:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00270202
HP and Compaq Notebook PCs: Unable to Install Windows XP Fax Software

I can report that the Esentutl utility has corrected the problem in a number
of cases, HOWEVER, note that Microsoft does NOT recommend that you use the
utility and would prefer you try the hotfix.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
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