Networked Printer Errors

[GM86]

I have a network with 8 machines with various OS and two printers. One machine running windows 7 32bit all of a sudden cannot print.

The printers couldn't be seen and when in control panel to add a printer the error message came "windows cannot connect to the printer. the local print spooler service is not running. please restart the spooler or restart the machine"

Under administrator tools I restarted the print spooler. The network printers shown up under devices and printers but when I tried to use them they where unavailable. I went back into the devices and printers, they had gone.

I restarted the print spooler, they re-appeared but where still unavailable. I tried to delete the printers so I could start again adding a new printer but they could not be deleted as access is denied (though i am administrator on the machine)

I tried to add a new printer and got as far as "use existing port" but the "create a new port" was greyed out and this is what I used to install the printers on the other machines.

I'm pretty stuck right now, I have 2 printers in devices neither of which are availalbe. I cannot remove them and cannot add more.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Uhtred]

Are these computers on a domain? Has the print spooler stopped again? Sounds like a dodgy driver perhaps, you could try to remove the driver for the printer using the print management mmc snap in.

 

[GM86]

Thanks for the reply Uhtred.

The computers are not on a domain. The print spooler does stop itself yes. How would I go about removing the driver for the print spool? I have the drivers for the two printers ready to re-install.

Thanks again

 

[Uhtred]

I think if you go to control pannel>Administrative Tools>print management you can remove the drivers from there.