Lost BOTH Printers and can't reinstall

[chuckpass]

The other day I went to print a Word doc and a message popped up saying there were no printers installed. I have two printers an old HP Deskjet 820Cse and a Canon i900D. Both were gone. No programs related to the printers, no printers listed under printers and fax in Control panel, nothing. I tried restoring settings from a date I last remembered printing and nothing changed. I tried re-installing the printers but when I clicked "add printer" it said it could not complete the task. I checked logs and found a print spooler error on 4/29, saw the same error 4/30 and then an error 5/1 saying could not find file. Otherwise I am at a loss. I do not have sp2 installed and have considered doing this. Suggestions?

[ultra_classic]

Greetings chuckpass,
Have you done any updating of files from Microsoft recently? Have you done any registry editing lately? It sounds like a file got accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Open 'Control Panel'>Add Remove Programs and see if either printer is listed
here. They should be if you installed them.

Go into services and restart the printer spool service.

Click Start>Run>'services.msc' without quotes by typing it in,then click o.k.
Sevices Opens:
Scroll down to 'print spooler' and right click 'restart'
Right click again, click 'properties' check 'startup type' choose 'automatic',
click 'apply' then reboot.

The below URL might help you with the 'Unable to complete task error"
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q314876

Post back and let us know what you find. We will try to assist further if necessary.

Not to change the subject but I was unable to get my HP Deskjet 870cse to install or run when I bought WIN XP...tried to update the drivers at HP site...no luck. Tried to have XP emulate 98SE...no luck, had to use a 'restore point' when I tried this trick.
I guess the Software and drivers were not written to include XP. Result...gave away a printer.
Bought a Canon i950 USB to replace it and have had no problems.
Now here is a weird thing....I was able to install my HP LaserJet 6P/6MP without any
difficulty and it was older than the 870...never been able to figure that out.

Best of luck,
ultra_classic

[chuckpass]

Originally Posted by ultra_classic

Greetings chuckpass,
Have you done any updating of files from Microsoft recently? Have you done any registry editing lately? It sounds like a file got accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Open 'Control Panel'>Add Remove Programs and see if either printer is listed
here. They should be if you installed them.

Go into services and restart the printer spool service.

Click Start>Run>'services.msc' without quotes by typing it in,then click o.k.
Sevices Opens:
Scroll down to 'print spooler' and right click 'restart'
Right click again, click 'properties' check 'startup type' choose 'automatic',
click 'apply' then reboot.

The below URL might help you with the 'Unable to complete task error"
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q314876

Post back and let us know what you find. We will try to assist further if necessary.

Not to change the subject but I was unable to get my HP Deskjet 870cse to install or run when I bought WIN XP...tried to update the drivers at HP site...no luck. Tried to have XP emulate 98SE...no luck, had to use a 'restore point' when I tried this trick.
I guess the Software and drivers were not written to include XP. Result...gave away a printer.
Bought a Canon i950 USB to replace it and have had no problems.
Now here is a weird thing....I was able to install my HP LaserJet 6P/6MP without any
difficulty and it was older than the 870...never been able to figure that out.

Best of luck,
ultra_classic

Hi ultra_classic
You got me in the right track. I tried unchecking/re-checking print spooler service and reboot, but it did not fix the problem. FYI - there were no printers listed in Printers and faxes. Your question about updates got me thinking though. I run a program called Xotspy that scans registry and files for "bad guys." I quizzed my family about any error messages they might have seen and when. This led me to ID the problem started either 4/30 or 5/1. So I tried restoring the Xoftspy log file from 5/1 and it fixed the problem. For some reason, Xoftspy had removed all traces of both printers.

On your unrelated subject. When I upgraded from Win ME to XP, XPs scan of my PC said the 820 Cse was "incompatible with Win XP." I was going to buy another printer anyway so I just ignored that message. When I finished the upgrade and started trying various programs/accessories to see if they still worked, the 820 worked fine.
Thanks for your assist, still haven't heard back from Microsoft after two full days!