L
Leroy
I found out the hard way that deleting existing printers
from the system can lead to some serious problems.
Apparently, in the process, one can delete critical
dependencies that cause XP to get real stupid and make
installing new printers impossible. Microsoft, does a
poor job in offering users practical solutions in solving
most problems. I do give them credit, however, for
leading users on extremely well thought out wild goose
chases when searching for solutions on their support
website. I discovered through other information sources
that what I did when I deleted the old printers was that
the process deleted references to critical system files
that form what are refered to as "dependancies," i.e., XP
being unable to locate other files that it needs to
perform the requested task of adding a new printer.
Fortunately, I discovered that the missing file was still
intact, but hiding in another location on my HD in a
folder called "LastGood." XP has a feature
called, "Administative Tools\Services." Apparently, a
service called, "Spooler" was not running due to the
missing file refered to earlier. Without the file this
service could not, and would not run until the missing
file was recopied back to the original
folder, "system32." Afterwards, I was able to install new
printers again. However, even though I installed
a "signed" print driver the printer still has trouble
reliably printing under XP Pro. The printer is a USB
Lexmark Z25 inkjet printer and I have several tried
different settings to correct the problem, but still no
luck. Hope this information helps someone else and I'm
open to suggestions on what I should try next to corret
my current problem. Signed: a future Apple customer LOL.
from the system can lead to some serious problems.
Apparently, in the process, one can delete critical
dependencies that cause XP to get real stupid and make
installing new printers impossible. Microsoft, does a
poor job in offering users practical solutions in solving
most problems. I do give them credit, however, for
leading users on extremely well thought out wild goose
chases when searching for solutions on their support
website. I discovered through other information sources
that what I did when I deleted the old printers was that
the process deleted references to critical system files
that form what are refered to as "dependancies," i.e., XP
being unable to locate other files that it needs to
perform the requested task of adding a new printer.
Fortunately, I discovered that the missing file was still
intact, but hiding in another location on my HD in a
folder called "LastGood." XP has a feature
called, "Administative Tools\Services." Apparently, a
service called, "Spooler" was not running due to the
missing file refered to earlier. Without the file this
service could not, and would not run until the missing
file was recopied back to the original
folder, "system32." Afterwards, I was able to install new
printers again. However, even though I installed
a "signed" print driver the printer still has trouble
reliably printing under XP Pro. The printer is a USB
Lexmark Z25 inkjet printer and I have several tried
different settings to correct the problem, but still no
luck. Hope this information helps someone else and I'm
open to suggestions on what I should try next to corret
my current problem. Signed: a future Apple customer LOL.