Printers keep going missing in Control Panel

[sarah_louise]

I am losing access to the USB connected Printer.
No printers show in control panel.
Add printer does not run.
I can get them back by RUN _net start spooler and everything is OK but next re-boot same problem.
System Restore makes no difference
Win XP SP3 OS.

Any ideas please ?

[jason.p]

Have you tried re-installing printer software?

[sarah_louise]

Thanks for the suggestion Yes I did that.
It was caused by installing a free PDF software program called PrimoPDF.
The installed failed at Print Driver not installed on this software..
This then caused the print spooler not running on startup.
for my other printers.
I have finally solved the problem. I went to Microsoft into the newsgroup forums, and got the answer
Briefly :
Go to start - my computer - c drive - Windows folder - system32 folder - spool folder - printers folder. Then delete the contents of the Printers folder.
Close that, then go to Start - Control Panel - Admin tools - Services - Scroll down to "Print Spooler" and open it and click on "start" go to dependencies and change from Manual to Automatic.
This solved my problem for me.
Hope it helps others by putting it on AB
.

Key Search words PRINTER SPOOLER STARTUP MSCONFIG

[johnpol78]

after running the print spooler services.
connect the printer to the computer and on the power button.

installed the printer driver .
print the test page from the printer .

again try to print the document from the printer

[sarah_louise]

Thanks all is OK now.