[Ksiaze]

I'am trying to install a printer on my friend's machine, but I still have getting message: Printer Driver Was Not Installed. Operation Could Not Be Completed". No matter which model, just general for all printers. Most funny is that computer recognize the printer, but won't install drivers.
I found similar problem in other forum, but no answer.

Hello,
I'm not able to add a printer driver using the standard printer wizard or otherwise. I get the generic message, "Printer driver was not installed. Operation could not be completed." I'm logged on as administrator, the spooler is running, I've installed SP2, and this problem exists for all the printers I have tried.
It doesn't seem to matter which model I try to install. One is an HP 4500DN, another is an HP 5si. I have the latest drivers and have tried downloading the latest drivers, but I still get the message.
Dave

Any idea what's wrong? I have some experience, but I'v never seen this kind of problem before.

As I know computer was cleaned from viruses. I guess some trojans made a huge disorder in this system.

When I scanned a disc with "chkdsk /r" command I recognized two partitions (systems?), I mean C:\Windows, and D:\MiniNT.

What is MiniNT? I read this problem can occur also if there is two systems on the disc.

I have no more ideas, maybe somebody has more xperience in this area?

I will appreciate for any help.

Matt

[1069]

Hi,

You can sometimes get this error message if you try to install an older driver on XP.

Is this the case?

Which O/S are you using and which Printer?

[Ksiaze]

System: Windows XP Home Edition.
Printer: Lexmark X21.
But...look, I wrote: "No matter which model, just general for all printers."
Dave wrote too: "It doesn't seem to matter which model I try to install."
I guess it's system error. But what's the reason?

[1069]

Hi,

I can find no reference for an X21 on the Lexmark site. Could it be X215?

If so the drivers for XP are available here

Try downloding and installing this one if it is the X215 that you have..

When you install the drivers the usual method is to leave the USB cable out until the drivers are installed then, after the installation process has completed, plug in the USB cable and let Windows find the new hardware.

Does this help?

[Ksiaze]

1069 are you serious or you are joking? It was first thing I'v done. Did you read me carefully? I CAN NOT INSTALL ANY PRINTER. I don't need a priner for installing any driver. You shoul know I can install any driver for any printer without printer. I think system just lost some files (dll?) responsible for intalling printer's driver. I want to know, if any of you had this problem before and know what is the shortest way to repair it.

Got it?

[1069]

1069 are you serious or you are joking

I CAN NOT INSTALL ANY PRINTER

This is the equivalent of shouting - but I assume that you are aware of that!

Got it?

This is no way to ask for assistance - I suggest that you wait for somebody else or fix it yourself.

[Ksiaze]

Nope.

This is the way how I'am trying to EXPLAIN my problem, because you didn't understand.

Don't be so iritate. You have no answer, it's happen.

I found few resolves, unfortunatelly no one works.

Seems, I have more experience than you. Thank's anyway, you tryed.

I always have appreciation for this forum.

[rschader]

Did you also perhaps get an error message stating:
Cannot create a file that already exists.

This is what is happening to me on XP Pro SP2 with latest updates as of last week. We swapped a couple identical HP printers from my system and another one, but after rebooting the already installed drivers refused to work. So I eventually removed the printer driver, uninstalled the Hp software side, rebooted and ran into that issue with the latest download from HP. Wanting to rule out other issues, I then tried to add a Generic / Text-only Microsoft printer to a FILE: port and I get the exact same errors. I can still print all I want to the other working networked printers, but since many of them are the same HP model, I am limited in what I can still print to.

If anyone else out there reads this, do you know of some way I can get a log file of the installation attempt to try and find out what file it cannot create because it already exists?

[xlhrider1200]

Try the solution at the bottom of this page. I had one user out of 400 after a relocation to a new building and new print server have the described problem and this solution worked. http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/f...85401+28353475

[rschader]

Do you know if I rename that folder c:\windows\system32\spools\drivers\w32x86 what will happen to my existing printer setups that have no problems? I don't want to lose them also and have to re-install all of them. I have some rather special ones that would be hard to replace (like a printer that prints to tiff files using ghostscript)

[lesley pengelly]

Just a quick note to thank you so much. I spent endless amounts of time speaking to tech support at Canon - to no avail. I had tried renaming the MP530 segment of W32x86, but still couldn't install the printer. After Canon tech support told me to re-install XP, I followed your advice. The drivers installed without problems, and you have saved me so many hours of work reformatting the computer, getting it back on the network, and setting up the industry specific software which we use.

THANK YOU, SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.

[AT&B]

I tried renaming the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 directory (from a safe mode command prompt boot), then tried to install a printer driver. It does not work for me. Renaming does disable (at least) the hp officejet 6200 series of printers. Naming the directory back and rebooting restores the printers (as far as I can tell). I did notice one thing however, the directory still has leftovers from the HP 3740 installation that had caused me problems in the past (a directory named hpdeskjet_37404f2e). I have, to the best of my knowledge uninstalled this driver, but I think it may be still causing me this problem. Therefore I did a search on my computer for 3740 and found 27 entries with many of them being obviously from this installation. I have deleted the hpdeskjet_3740f2e directory ... still no luck. I am going to try reinstallation and uninstallation of the 3740, but I am not very hopeful of either getting it installed (after all that is the problem) or that it will get rid of everything like it should.

[AT&B]

I tried renaming the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 directory (from a safe mode command prompt boot), then tried to install a printer driver. It does not work for me. Renaming does disable (at least) the hp officejet 6200 series of printers. Naming the directory back and rebooting restores the printers (as far as I can tell). I did notice one thing however, the directory still has leftovers from the HP 3740 installation that had caused me problems in the past (a directory named hpdeskjet_37404f2e). I have, to the best of my knowledge uninstalled this driver, but I think it may be still causing me this problem. Therefore I did a search on my computer for 3740 and found 27 entries with many of them being obviously from this installation. I have deleted the hpdeskjet_3740f2e directory ... still no luck. I am going to try reinstallation and uninstallation of the 3740, but I am not very hopeful of either getting it installed (after all that is the problem) or that it will get rid of everything like it should.

[AT&B]

Well I figured it out. I had bad sectors on my harddrive in (at least) sp2.cab and driver.cab. Did a chkdsk (it is in the properties - tools of the hard drive), and a reinstall of the cab files and I can now install printers again.