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Unable to install printer on Windows 2003 Standard Server SP2

Proposed Unable to install printer on Windows 2003 Standard Server SP2

  • Thursday, January 12, 2012 7:30 PM
     
     
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    When trying to install a network printer (working on all workstations) error comes up "Unable to install printer. Either printer name was typed incorrectly or printer has lost its connection to the server..." Printer still works on all workstations (4 XP, Windows 7 and Vista Pro). Printer does show up in the Printers and Faxes folder but as "HP LaserJet 3050 Series PCL 6,0" When clicked warning message comes "Operation could not be completed either printer name was typed incorrectly or printer has lost its connection to the server..."

    Attempts for fix:

    1) remove all printers and drivers, reboot and re-install

    2) remove all ports used (except XPS Document), remove all drivers, reboot and re-install

    3) remove all registry keys of printers (and all printers), reboot, re-install

    4) ensure all updates are completed

    5) tried direct usb connect, after removal of all printers/drivers and rebooting

    Printer HP laster jet 3055. Print Spooler is confirmed Running and all dependent Services are running.

    Issue started when trying to add a printer connected to a computer (shared) Brother MF7340 for remote desktop use through Windows 7 Pro. Printers in "Local Resource" when using Remote Desktop for anyone do not work and show up as "Printer Name 0,4" or anther number instead of the 4. Once the Print Spooler is restarted "HP LaserJet 3050 Series PCL 6,0" dissapears.

     

     

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  • Friday, January 13, 2012 4:13 PM
    Answerer
     
     
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    The "printername,n" indicates the printer is in a deleting state.  Normally this indicates an outstanding reference count to the device.  Until the reference count drops to 0, the spooler will not delete the device.  On spooler restart, the spooler cleans out any "zombie" printers.

    The print UI components normally hide these since one cannot use the device and thus the error. Not sure what is going on in your case.  Are you adding a printer that is shared on another machine or are you adding a network port on each client machine in order to print directly to the device that has a network cable attached?

    If network port, are you using Standard TCP/IP Port or some other network port?

    Alan Morris Windows Printing Team
    • Marked As Answer by Bruce-LiuModerator Monday, January 16, 2012 6:28 AM
    • Unmarked As Answer by cp210 Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:35 PM
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  • Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:35 PM
     
     
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    Thanks for the quick reply Alan. The printer I am trying to add is on a network using a Standard TCP/IP Port. This is a basic printer installation (or at least I thought it was). The installation finds drivers and seems to go normally until the final step where I get the error "Unable to Install Printer. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server. For more information, click Help." The printer appears as a "zombie" printer  which cannot be connected to. The registry has information on the printer. Once I restart the print spool the printer disappears. This installation worked on 4 other machines smoothly with no issues. I have tried adding a shared printer as well just to see if the it's the TCP/IP Port settings as the issue but the shared printer gives exactly the same error. I only have one guess left, in terms of a potential problem. A corruption in one of the dll files in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 or \3 folder (or a missing file removed during the uninstall of the Brother printer which seemed to have caused the original issue.
     
  • Wednesday, January 18, 2012 2:24 AM
    Answerer
     
     
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    Can you add a printer that is not using an HP driver?  Just a fake printer for now. 

    I've seen this failure with HP drivers when their installer crashes and deletes the printer that was just added. 

    Alan Morris Windows Printing Team
     
  • Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:41 PM
     
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    Hello  cp210,

    According to your previous post you are using shared printer, In that case try to rename your printer shared name from printer propertise from Computer which have connected directly from printer with usb.

    Then try to stop then start print spool services.

    After all try to install your print driver.

     

    Note:- All process should be administrator users or group of member.

    Rakesh Kumar
    • Proposed As Answer by Rakesh9310 Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:41 PM
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  • Wednesday, January 18, 2012 11:54 PM
     
     
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    Unfortunately I cannot add any physical printer (HP, Brother, Lexmark etc.) through add a printer wizard or through HP or other software. Same failure seems to occur. I was able to a PDF printer however which was interesting (cute PDF). It seems to be working well as a workaround for now.

     

    I appreciate any suggestion as I feel like i've been staring at this problem for too long now so I'm out of ideas.

     
  • Wednesday, January 18, 2012 11:57 PM
     
     
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    Hi Rakesh, thanks for the info, however it's not just a shared printer. Basically the printer is networked (Laser jet 3055). I've tried to use direct connect - USB, network - TCP/IP settings, and also tried to use it as a shared printer. I have tried a Brother and a Lexmark printer (USB only) and both failed. I have also tried connecting another shared printer, all to no avail. I am logged in as the administrator and run all processes as administrator.

     

    Thanks for the feedback and keep the ideas coming as so far this is the most puzzling issue i have ever come across.

     

     
  • Monday, January 23, 2012 9:30 PM
     
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    Hello Dear,

    first when you try to install printer by using direct connect to USB, therefor don't use TCP/IT port do not setting TCP/IP for printer,

    Then try to test page from the same computer in which hardware has installed,

    If working with this computer then try to shared over network, And install driver on network computer by access Print server like \\192.168.xxx.xxx

    [Note:- If you connect printer to computer with LAN cable then try to use Two LAN card and setting with them by using Gateway settings]

    Rakesh Kumar
    • Proposed As Answer by Rakesh9310 Monday, January 23, 2012 9:32 PM
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  • Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:32 PM
     
     
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    Hi Rakesh,

    I appreciate the answer, but whether trying by USB or Network the issue is the printer won't install - the installation process does not complete. At this point I've given up on this issue and will recover the system to a previous backup that had the system working correctly.

    Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, but at this time I have given up on the issue.

     

    Calin

     
  • Tuesday, January 08, 2013 11:39 AM
     
     
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    Hi Calin,

    Did you ever get a solution for this? I have a similar problem happening on 2 machines. I can install the shared printer, however once the dialog box (that shows the print jobs in the queue )is closed, if I try and open this again i get an error "Printer xxx does not exist on the computer. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specidied printer has lost its connection to the server."

    So far I have tried a system restore to before Christmas, so see if anything had changed on the machine - no difference.

    I have created a new user profile on the PC - no difference.

    If the user logs into another machine he can install the print queue fine, it just seems to be a problem on his and a colleagues machine?

    I did find a forum from 2009 that said installing Win XP SP3 caused this problem, but the machines have had this installed before they were given to the users, and the print queue has not changed and has worked successfully before-hand!

    It's got to be something specific to the PC as the print queue works from other machines, the problem is finding what has caused this! The 2 machines this is happening on are not identical either (one has Office 2003, the other has Office 2010 for example), which doesn't help!

    Thanks

    Jeff

     
  • Tuesday, January 08, 2013 6:49 PM
     
     
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    Hi Jeff,

    Unfortunately I have not found a solution for this, however I found a workaround that seems to work (for now). Installing the PS driver on the server should give ability to print from the machine. For me it seems the issue started when trying to install a Brother printer (PCL6). I believe the issue is with an update as I've tried to recover an old backup (over 1 year) and everything worked for a few days, but all of a sudden once I've done an update (security only) everything went haywire. The Brother printer was attached (through a remote connection).

    I suspect some PCL drivers and an update are causing the whole thing to come apart.

    Good luck and let me know if somehow a solution is found for this...

    Calin