Can't connect to Printer(s)

[Fleetwood]

Hi all,

 

Title might be a bit misleading but I'll try and explain this as best as I can! I'm still new to getting involved with networks (College course had a 2-month unit on networks, which involved our lecturer talking about wavelengths and planets. Good times.) so I may be a bit rubbish at making sense of this!

 

We've just setup our new laptop trolley with Windows 7, however we're still on an XP/2003 network. Due to the printer being a fairly old one now (HP CP2025) we couldn't seem to get the Windows 7 drivers to load on our server. We took one of the PC's from our Suite and set that up with Windows 7 on the domain as a print server for the laptops. They installed fine when we setup the image on each laptop and finished setting them up. However, our Students can't connect to the printers. They can connect to the PC (Run -> \\PCNAME) just fine but when we attempt to add them we get a "0x000005" error - when I try running a PrintUI script, it asks for credentials - I type them in correctly, and I get a "0x0000052e" error. It's one printer, but two 'devices' - MonoLaserJet & ColourLaserJet. We're a small Primary School, hence the need for only one printer!

 

I've tried looking up this error and the ones that have been given solutions haven't worked for us yet. I'm asking here since my NM is a contractor for various schools, so he's only here Monday & Thursday mornings. We've not got long until we break for Summer Holidays and upgrade to Server 2008 R2 anyway, but it'd be nice to still get this fixed since the laptops are used very frequently. My NM doesn't believe it's a permissions issue since he's looked at all the places he reckons it'd be at. I've had a look as well but as said I'm on the learning ladder for working with networks so I may have missed a lot of places to look at!

 

I'm sorry for this being such a big post, as said I'm still getting to grips with getting experience with networks - this is my first ever full-time job, came straight out of college into it so I'm still learning if I've missed out any information you need to help with suggestions, let me know and I can try and get it for you!

 

Thanks. T.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Fleetwood

[ricki]

HI

 

Have you logged onto the computer as an administrator to allow it to install the driver and then oked it.

 

You can also do this through group policy.

 

 

Deploy printers by using Group Policy

Change Driver Installation Security for Printers Deployed Using Group Policy

 

Richard

[Fleetwood]

Hi Richard,

 

Thanks for your post! Do you mean have I logged in as an Admin on the laptop to install the printers? If so, yes. We did that for every single laptop after we deployed the image onto them (We deployed the image we created, then did a manual process of each laptop of installing printers, adding Sophos, adding it to the domain etc.) - if you mean the computer we're using as a print server, it's always logged in as Administrator (it's literally just a Windows 7 desktop client on our domain that has the printers installed, which we then share on the network - this was our workaround since Windows Server 2003 didn't recognise the win7 drivers for our printer - as I mentioned, it's an old printer)

 

As for Group Policy, my NM doesn't use GPP's at his own preference. Whether it's because he doesn't like using them or there's a more technical reason for it I don't know, but obviously since it's 'his' network I can't really go against his preferences and add Group Policies into the field.

[m25man]

Are your laptops Win7 32 or 64 bit?

The printer drivers are specific to the OS and a 64bit client sending to a 32 bit spooler without the right drivers leads to all sorts of problems.

You will need to ensure that compatible drivers are installed on clients and printservers or even print directly from client to printer to avoid issues.

[twin--turbo]

Windows Server 2003 didn't recognise the win7 drivers for our printer - as I mentioned, it's an old printer

 

This does not make sense? if it's an old printer then there should be an XP/2k3 driver available.

 

Rob

[Fleetwood]

The laptops are 64-bit. I took a look at the computer we're using and it's infact a 32-bit. Also went and checked system32\spool\drivers, which is where our print drivers are (shared as print$) with the following folders:

 

color, IA64, w32x86, x64 - the folders IA64 and x64 are empty. The drivers installed just fine when we setup the laptops though, they printed fine too (we sent test pages) - I should point out that Staff and Students use one mandatory profile. Staff.V2 works fine, they can print with the printers, but Student.V2 can't - it may well be a permission problem but the permissions are setup the exact same.

 

@twin--turbo: To clarify, when trying to put the printer drivers for W7 onto our server, the laptops couldn't connect to it/locate the driver - even when we 'browsed' to the exact folder. This is why we had to setup a standalone W7 PC and install them on there to use it as a 'liason' for the laptops to connect to - sorry for not making much sense, please bare with me - networks aren't my speciality at-present. It's not XP/2K3 that I need.

------

In a nutshell: Printers installed fine on laptops. Teachers can access the printers and use them, Students can't. Asks for login, I use correct details and it returns a 0x000005(2e) error.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Fleetwood

[ricki]

Hi Richard,

 

Thanks for your post! Do you mean have I logged in as an Admin on the laptop to install the printers? If so, yes. We did that for every single laptop after we deployed the image onto them (We deployed the image we created, then did a manual process of each laptop of installing printers, adding Sophos, adding it to the domain etc.) - if you mean the computer we're using as a print server, it's always logged in as Administrator (it's literally just a Windows 7 desktop client on our domain that has the printers installed, which we then share on the network - this was our workaround since Windows Server 2003 didn't recognise the win7 drivers for our printer - as I mentioned, it's an old printer)

 

 

 

As for Group Policy, my NM doesn't use GPP's at his own preference. Whether it's because he doesn't like using them or there's a more technical reason for it I don't know, but obviously since it's 'his' network I can't really go against his preferences and add Group Policies into the field.

 

If you have not set up all the policies correctly in group policy the printer will try to deploy but the driver will not install as the user does not have admin rights. Log the computer on with a domain admin account and the computer will ask if you wish to install the drivers. Say yes to this and then the drivers will be on the machine and the group policy will then apply. Then check you have all the group policies in place for the drivers to deploy. Instead of deploying the printers manually. Create a ou in users and computers in the correct place and place the relevent computers in each ou. We do it by room number but it depend on how your organisation is set up.

 

Then create a group policy in each say room ou and put the settings in to deploy the printers that you require. This works well for windows 7 and xp but you have to deploy a program on xp machines for the printers to be applied. This might give you a start.

 

Deploying Printers With Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 R2

 

Richard

[januttall]

windows server 2003 wont diverge drivers for anything above XP tho if you get 2003 R2 it does i had the same problem including the 32 64 bit versions best way is to log on to each machine and manually add it tho this adds the driver the printer still needs adding to each user account in my experience. all this is now fixed tho as i upgraded to Server 2008 r2. if your trying to manage windows 7 properly it mite be worth upgrading as support for XP end's in april i think.