Vista - To SP2 or not SP2

[mikeglover]

Having issues with a laptop that has Vista SP1 on it. Basically it keeps losing it's network printers and you have to remove and add again in order for them to work. Very annoying.

 

Can anyone tell me what SP2 for Vista is like? Does it cause more trouble in general or does it fix things?

[kmount]

From personal experience SP2 for Vista was like the second edition for Windows 98! Definitely worth a try ...

 

Usual caveats though, take a back up etc.

[CyberNerd]

well, at least you couldn't make it any worse

[Michael]

It does fix a lot of problems, but start again from scratch. I wouldn't install SP2 on an existing setup.

 

Install Vista SP2 > Applications > Restore Data

[ZeroHour]

I have installed sp2 on several existing setups and its always been okay and improved things a little.

[AngryTechnician]

I installed Vista SP2 via WSUS on an entire network of Vista machines (150+) without incident. I can't agree with the advice not to install on an existing setup - we did just that, and quite simply experienced no issues that would suggest it was a bad idea.

 

That said, there's no guarantee it will fix the problem you've described...

[mikeglover]

Thanks all for the advice. I went ahead and installed it and so far it's ok. Still hasn't sorted out my printer problem but I've ended up fixing it another way.

[kmount]

Ctrl + alt + backhand?

[mikeglover]

hehehe nah.

 

Have a KONICA MINOLTA Magicolor 5430DL on Windows 2003 Server.

Windows Vista can't connect to it, saying 'printer spooler is not working on server' but if you connect directly to the printer via TCP/IP and using a Windows Vista driver not Windows 2003. It works.

[nashbridges]

hehehe nah.

 

Have a KONICA MINOLTA Magicolor 5430DL on Windows 2003 Server.

Windows Vista can't connect to it, saying 'printer spooler is not working on server' but if you connect directly to the printer via TCP/IP and using a Windows Vista driver not Windows 2003. It works.

 

That's because they're using two different ports to send traffic to the printer. Either check the firewall or check your router, since most home devices will drop netbios traffic outside of a local network.

[Oops_my_bad]

hehehe nah.

 

Have a KONICA MINOLTA Magicolor 5430DL on Windows 2003 Server.

Windows Vista can't connect to it, saying 'printer spooler is not working on server' but if you connect directly to the printer via TCP/IP and using a Windows Vista driver not Windows 2003. It works.

 

I had the same issue with a couple of these Konicas we had (thankfully we are all HP now), this was XP as well. Think it's just cr*ppy drivers TBH but had to do a similar workaround