printers dissappearing in Windows 2000

All of my printers keep dissappearing! If I restart my machine, they come back, and I can print to any printer (local or network). But after a period of time (20 or 30 minutes), I'll send a document to print and it never prints. Then when I open the printers window (to view the queue), the only icon is the "Add Printer" icon. If I click on Add Printer, I get an error message saying:

"Printer operation cannot continue due to lack of resources. The print subsystem is unavailable."

No new software or hardware have been installed. Any ideas on how to fix this? Will reinstalling Windows correct this?

Thank you.

 

I've got the same basic problem going on too! I've tried uninstalling the printers and editing the registry as the Microsoft forum said and several other things and I still loose all my printers after 1 or 2 prints. What have you tried so far?

 

I installed Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 and that seems to have fixed the problem. Hopefully it helps for you.

 

I already have SP4 installed, but I might try and re-install it, just to see if that works. Thanks for the thoughts, let me know if yours still ends up belly up!