Printers stop working

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dobberhd
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Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I've tried all of my google-fu and cannot solve a major issue on my school's network. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

During the past two months or so printers suddenly stopped working on some computers. In the MS Office programs a message pops up after trying to print that says: "Windows can't print due to a problem with the printer setup." Other programs send the job but it never prints. It doesn't matter if it is a network or usb printer. All printers stop working.

On one of them I was able to get it fixed using the printer troubleshooter. It didn't work on the other five or so. I've tried:

deleting all printers and reinstalling
different drivers
an hp program to fix printers

My guess is that there is a ms update that is wrecking things or a virus, but I've found nothing. Any ideas?
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GreenGoo
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by GreenGoo »

Do they work on stand alone systems?

I know HP in particular are often not secure and susceptible to hacks both large and small. The kind of hacks kids in school might play with if bored.

Can you factory reset a printer and see if that changes anything?

Are you noticing anything weird, like odd messages in their LCD display?
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

Thanks for the response.

So far it is happening only faculty/staff machines. It happens to all printers, regardless of brand. Many are HP, but most are not.
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I don't think factory resetting will do anything, since most of the computers still are able to print to them.
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

It could be a port conflict on the computers, where something else grabs the port that the printer normally uses. You could try and change the printer port, if there's more than one port available. Are these computers running Win 10?
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

Yes, Windows 10.

Most of the printers are set up directly with tcp ports. I'll tinker around with the port settings today, but I don't know much about them. When I tried deleting and reinstalling the printers, nothing worked. As I look at the port settings, what do I look for? It does make sense that something else has taken a port and that is why all of the printers stopped working at the same time, but I don't know where to look for the other things that are using ports.
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

The first part is easy. Check to see which port the printer is using - in Devices and Printers > Printer properties (in Win 7, Ports is separate tab in the properties window; presumably it's similar in Win 10).

First simple test could be to just change the port in printer properties - if there's more than one TCP/IP port available in the list, and one of them is currently checked, uncheck it and pick the other one. Or if it's a USB printer, it might have ports USB0001 and USB0002 available.

Reboot the PC after making the change (I wouldn't trust it to pick up a port change without a reboot...) Keep your fingers crossed that it works :) 'Cause if it doesn't, it's much trickier to try and match printer ports with the actual open ports on the machine - where you run "netstat -an" in the command line window and check to see which port is listening and which one is in use.
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I tried changing the port a number of times already. I can ping the printer just fine, but the print jobs always fail.

When I go to the printer properties port tab it has the correct ip address, Raw, Port 9100, SNMP Status Enabled, community name: public, snmp device index: 1

Does that all sound right?
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

Since this same problem exists when trying to print to all of the printers on my network, this is a windows issue? How could all of the ports get messed up at the same time?
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

Not sure - maybe some new network device was hooked up, with the new drivers pushed out to all PCs on the network, and that device driver grabbed the port?

So if you open a cmd window (as administrator) and run "netstat -an" and look for that port - what does it say?
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

When I do that nothing comes up as ":9100" after any of the listings.

Is that the way it works?
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

dobberhd wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 11:50 am I tried changing the port a number of times already. I can ping the printer just fine, but the print jobs always fail.

When I go to the printer properties port tab it has the correct ip address, Raw, Port 9100, SNMP Status Enabled, community name: public, snmp device index: 1

Does that all sound right?
Actually, that doesn't sound right - are you in Configure Port menu? You are not trying to configure the existing port, you are trying to make it use a different one. Port 9100 is the port on the *printer* - not on the PC, it won't show up in netstat.

I was thinking more in terms of either checking a box next to a different available port on the Ports tab, or adding a new port so you know that nothing else can possibly be using it (something like this Youtube video, I couldn't find any better screenshots).
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Pyperkub
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Pyperkub »

If it's Office 2010, there may be a hotfix:
Assume that you have some slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 that you want to print to a large size (for example, poster size). However, when you send the slides to a plotter or a printer, you receive the following error message:
Windows cannot print due to a problem with the current printer setup. Try one or more of the following:
*Check the printer by printing a test page from Windows
*Make sure the printer is turned on and online
*Reinstall the printer driver
Resolution
To resolve this issue, apply the following hotfix package:
2760388 Description of the Office 2010 hotfix package (Gfx-x-none.msp): October 30, 2012
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dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

Thanks for the replies. I will try them out tomorrow at school.
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Kasey Chang
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Kasey Chang »

Do the print jobs show up in the print queue?

If this happens across multiple computers, it's either a Windows issue or a network issue.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by GreenGoo »

He said the print job gets sent but not printed, so I assumed the job showed up in the queue.

I've had problems with whatever custom software came with the printer, usually involving an uninstall/reinstall and/or reboot. This was a problem on the individual computers and not the printer itself.

Clearly this doesn't help as you've done these things.
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Kasey Chang
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Kasey Chang »

Just because it showed up in the queue doesn't mean the printer got it. I've had instances where the printer had a jam or such and just the queue just got stuck. I think there was another case where the network connectivity got disrupted (the router choked after like a month without rebooting)
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dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I brought one of the affected computers and a printer home so I could troubleshoot it at home in air conditioning. Issues remain even though the network has changed.

My home computers can see the printer I brought from school, be added as printers, and print.

The affected computer cannot print via network or usb to my printer that I keep at home. But it can print via google cloud print to my printer at home.

I tried using a new port as suggested. I've used Printmanagement.msc to delete all of the tcp/ip printer ports. I've reinstalled it many times using a couple of different drivers.

I've watched the print que as I tried printing and nothing showed up even for a split second.

I'm assuming I would continue to have all of the same issues if I tried doing it with different printers, since none of the printers from any brand worked at school.

So it must be a windows problem, but my only solution right now is reformatting and reinstalling windows. Any other suggestions before I do it? I'd rather not since this problem still might pop up on other computers.
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Kasey Chang
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Kasey Chang »

Does sending the stuff directly to the port works vs. using the spooler?

I'd also go into the queue and delete any files there.


https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 24bb3dc8b7
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dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I tried printing directly instead of through the spooler, and no change.

I've also deleted the que in the spooler and no change.

I still get the message: "Windows can't print due to a problem with the printer setup" when trying to print from Word.

When I try to print anywhere else, nothing happens. It doesn't show in the que or put up an error message.
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

This is a long shot but if you are an admin on that PC, see if you can turn off UAC. It's not supposed to interfere with printing but it does (in both Win 7 and Win 10).
dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

I saw that in one of my google searches a few days ago. I tried it and nothing.
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Kasey Chang
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Kasey Chang »

dobberhd wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 10:58 am I still get the message: "Windows can't print due to a problem with the printer setup" when trying to print from Word.

When I try to print anywhere else, nothing happens. It doesn't show in the que or put up an error message.
Okay, does the printer "self-test" (i.e. "print a test page from windows") work?

I think you said the printer works, obviously you can trigger the onboard self-test, just to go through the list.

It may be time to nuke windows, or at least enough fo the registry to reset the entire printing subsystem.
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dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

When I click 'print test page' in the printer properties, I get the message:

Test page failed to print. Would you like to view the print troubleshooter for assistance? Unable to create print job.

The troubleshooter then says it couldn't identify the problem.

I tried using CCleaner to cleanup the registry, but it had no effect. Is there something else I can try with the registry?

I'm starting to think that it is not a printer setup problem but something else.
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gilraen
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by gilraen »

dobberhd wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 11:32 am When I click 'print test page' in the printer properties, I get the message:

Test page failed to print. Would you like to view the print troubleshooter for assistance? Unable to create print job.
That sounds more like a permissions issue - likely on the Temp folder - except you said the computer could print to Google cloud, not sure if that process is different.
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Anonymous Bosch
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Not sure what OS you're running, but if you're on Windows 7, try this Microsoft Fixit for Printing. Or try using the Printer Troubleshooter for Windows 10.
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dobberhd
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Re: Printers stop working

Post by dobberhd »

OKay, I got it working. Or at least one of the computers. I found this and it worked:

Note: For Printers/Scanners:

If you fail installing or you can not uninstall or install for any reasons, Then follow this below:


Unplug Printer USB or disconnect any Wireless Connections.

Uninstall any Printer software if you can.

Restart PC


Go to:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\Services
And stop Print Spooler or Spooler Service.


Go to:

C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64

And Delete everything inside it.


Go to:

C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\W32X86\3

And Delete everything inside it.

**Note: if it is not Folder 3 and is Folder 4, then Delete everything inside of 4.

Start the Spooler Service (Running)

Restart PC

ALWAYS install using the driver and software for the printer or for any device or software, that is for the Windows Operating System/Platform it is designed for by using Compatibility Mode to install.
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