Printer Communication Not Available error

[jcclark33]

I get a "communication not available" error whenever I try to print to my
printer which is connected via USB. I have tried disabling the firewall
(Norton), turning off auto-protect (norton), unplugging printer from
computer, unplugging printer from power, and re-installing. Nothing seems to
work. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

And the make and model of printer is.......?
Do other USB devices all work OK?
Have you tried another USB cable?

[jcclark33]

I tried another USB cable and different ports. All of the ports work fine
with other USB equipment.

I have a Dell A962 All-in-one printer. I even downloaded the latest drivers
from their website. They are baffled also.

[coastal207]

I have a similar issue... I even bought a new printer and the issue is the same! From a HP to a Kodak. The usb port makes the sound detecting a device and device disconnected. The printer dialogs show that the printer(s) are available and installed but whenever you try a print dialog, (the drivers are new) they sit in a print status window near the clock, they are not paused and they say printing. I have gone thru the trouble to start any services which are manual start or which were disabled. nothing. I ran system config and verified anything is not starting when booting. nothing found.

I can get into each printers supplied software and I can get to the dialogs on each for maintenance areas (if they were not connected you can't get to these dialogs) and when either printer is attempted to print a test page I recieve a printer communication error.