One machine can't install network printers

Vertigo

Vertigo

Vertigo

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
16,522
Got a bizarre one here.

All my printers are shared via one 2012R2 DC and they work flawlessly. Every machine in the building can connect to them and print.

Except one new laptop.

This machine gets to the "Finishing installation..." message then throws the "Windows cannot connect to the printer 0x00000002" error.

This makes no sense at all. It's just this machine, no others and regardless of what user is logged in (even tried the domain admin). I know there's nothing wrong with permissions or drivers as it works fine on all other machines.

Anyone got any ideas? :(
 
The only drivers in there are for the built-in standard printers, there's nothing for any of the network ones I'm trying to add.
 
Drive mappings have gone too now - this is nuts. Gonna try removing it from the domain and re-joining. (Clutching at straws much?)
 
My bad on the printer mappings - they're still working fine.

Can't add the printer to save my life, nothing works. Have absolutely no idea what's wrong with this machine.
 
I saw something similar with Trend Worry Free anti-virus (although it wasn't at fault). I had used up all of the licenses and the extra grace licenses. The last PC I installed wasn't licensed properly and wouldn't pick up the settings policy, so ran with default settings. The default settings had a feature called Behaviour Monitoring which watches parts of the system like the registry and startup settings for spyware making changes. It took me a while to work out why printer drivers were only half installed. Just an idea.
 
Thanks but there's nothing like that at work here - it's a totally clean machine, no firewalls installed/active at all.

Everything else works, it has full access to servers, drives map correctly by group policy, just the printers won't install at all.
 
Just a stupid sanity check - Windows 7 should be ok with the built-in type 4 drivers from 2012 R2 shouldn't it? I don't need to add any additional drivers for the client to download?
 
Well when I configured the printers on the new DC, it's used the built-in Type 4 drivers for all of them.

I'm now wondering whether these are what's causing the problems on Windows 7 clients. Whilst all existing machines are working fine, they'd have already had drivers installed for these printers from when they were on the old 2003 DC so perhaps they've just re-used those?

Checking on an existing machine which works, the drivers are indeed Type 3 ones, not Type 4.

This raises the questions of whether the Type 4 drivers should work at all on Windows 7 clients and, if not, how do I add Type 3 ones? I've tried manually adding the Type 3 driver for one of the printers to the errant machine but the printer still won't connect. Do I need to add the Type 3 driver to the server?
 
What printer brand and what is type 3 and 4?

When changing from windows xp to windows 7 in a domain envinroment with network printers on a windows printer server. I have to actually go download windows 7 drivers and add them to the print server. Then when the printer gets added it should add the correct drivers based on the OS and the 32/64bit.

One thing you could try is download drivers and add the printer to the client pc over tcpip port directly and use the OS printers. This bypasses the print server, this can see if there is a driver issue on the print server.

Some printer drivers support all version in one like the hp universal printer driver. For that usually it doesn't matter what OS the printer is being added on.
 
Yeah it's an HP one.

I don't think it's a driver issue. I've tried removing all drivers from the client and then trying again. It correctly finds and installs the point and click compatibility driver (Windows x64) but then fails afterward.

It does look like a permissions issue, that it literally can't connect to the shared printer but that makes no sense at all.
 
Had this a few times at work.

It's an aggressive way but it works without rebuilding the machine.


Safe mode:

Go into C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ and remove the (failed) installed driver (You will have to match it up to the server hosted driver.)

C:\Windows\System32\spool\prtprocs\
Clear out the content of this directory if the files match the creator of the printer (EG: HP, Cannon, Xerox)

C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\
Clear out the content of this directory
 
Cheers will look at those.

It's the server, not the client. I've just installed a totally fresh VM with Win7, connected to the domain and got the same issue.

Something is obviously wrong with the printers on the server. It's weird that existing machines can connect and print fine, obviously something about already having drivers for them installed from the previous server.
 
Felix said:
I had a similar issue, not the same error. Solution was to log into the server and edit the registry.

https://www.lewisroberts.com/2011/09/08/windows-cannot-connect-to-the-printer-0x0000007e/

IIRC I deleted the whole copyfiles key rather than just BIDI.
Click to expand...

No joy I'm afraid, there is no CopyFiles\BIDI key at all.

GDL said:
Had this a few times at work.

It's an aggressive way but it works without rebuilding the machine.
Click to expand...

As I said above, I've built a brand new VM with Win7 and it still happens so it's patently a server issue, not client.
 
I've just tried watching the spooler service with Process Monitor whilst trying to add a printer. One thing that jumps out is I'm seeing a lot of "NAME NOT FOUND" errors concerning the C:\Windows\CSC\v2.0.6\namespace\... folder. Not sure if this is normal or indicative of the problem. I can't access this folder at all myself and don't really want to take ownership or change permissions on it without good reason.
 
Grrrrr, found it!

Bloody spaces in the printer names. Seriously Microsoft?! You allow spaces when configuring printers on the server, publish them in AD and browse them without any problems but it throws a wobbler when trying to install them.

Beyond belief.

Anyway, thanks for the help everyone :)
 
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