No printers appearing in 'Devices' - Windows 7. Causing Microsoft Programs to hang.

[WMTech]

This is an on-going mystery which I have been unable to solve as yet - [Win 2008 R2 Server] network with Windows 7 clients.

When various MS applications are launched (e.g. Microsoft Word) and also 'Smart Notebook' program, they hang at the start-up screen. Whenever this happens I have noticed that no printers are apparent in 'Devices' (via Control Panel). This appears to be an intermittent problem.

I am assuming that the reason for these applications hanging is that one of the first thing these programs do is look for printers? As no printers are visible, then the applications hang? I have tried various 'fix-its' for this ongoing (intermittent) problem - such as a Microsoft Repair Tool (downloaded from their site) and also applying a Group Policy Update force. It maybe that the printers do not 'refresh' properly when the network refreshes at on-going intervals.

Often I have been able to get the printers to 'come back' by stopping the print spooler and then restarting (on the client). Once the printers are visible then it seems I am able to launch the programs normally. This is my first post to Edugeek so any help would be appreciated. Thank You.

[AJWhite1970]

Sounds like one of the numerous spooler bugs in Win7 SP1. I would start by installing most of these:-

 

List of print related hotfixes post SP1 for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. - The troubleshooters and problem solvers... - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

 

I have the following installed site wide and all my printer quirks disappeared.

 

KB2769359-x86, KB2647753-v2-x86, KB2616332-x86, KB2616471-x86, KB2636963-v2-x86, KB2737353-v2-x86

 

Andrew

[Duke5A]

I would bet it is a problem with one if the printer drivers. What happens if you try to print of a test page from every printer installed on the system? For me it was a HP P1606 driver that was causing a very similar issue.

[penfold]

Got this problem on WinXp clients and as others have said it was related to a driver issue. I updated the to a universal driver on the server but as the old driver was present on the client I had to remove it as it was still causing print spool errors for users. Problem drivers for me seemed to be Kyocera KX ones.

[WMTech]

Thank You for this!

 

Got this problem on WinXp clients and as others have said it was related to a driver issue. I updated the to a universal driver on the server but as the old driver was present on the client I had to remove it as it was still causing print spool errors for users. Problem drivers for me seemed to be Kyocera KX ones.