Printers Disappear in Printers and Faxes

[ChehZaad]

We have a small network running with Windows 2003 and several Client computers with Windows XP Service Pack 3. Everything is working fine except one computer which keeps losing the printer. Rest all computers can access the printer comfortably except this one system. We are not able to see it anywhere in Printers and Faxes.

I checked the services as well, Print Spooler is running and working fine. I Even tried restarting the Spooler service but I am not able to disable or stop spooler. Our IT guy even tried making a batch file to restart spooler service until the problem gets solved but that too doesn’t seems to be working. Any idea what could have been wrong and how can I fix the same?

Please help.

[Domi.nick]

There could be two reasons for the same. First either the user having corrupt profile or Corrupt drivers. Hence you should first try to uninstall the drivers and install the most recent version. better download it from Manufacturer's official websites instead of taking it from Windows Updates.

If still it wont work then simply create a new user profile. That will fix the problem.

[ChehZaad]

Thank you very much for the help Domi, we tried creating new profile and installing new latest drivers but no success. Still the problem exists. I guess the problem is somewhere with the system's local (USB) Seiko 4450 Smart label printer since that is the only printer the user has ? What do you say about this?

[Scott2580]

Its neither Driver nor user nor port problem. Issue is with the Spooler service. You should try to restart it anyhow. Did you tried doing this:

• Click Start Button, Program Files, Accessories. Open Command Prompt. Type the following and hit Enter:
• Type: net start spooler
• Go back and look in the Control Panel, under Printers & Faxes. They should have re-appeared now!