Reinstalling a printer/software

muffler

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. A few days ago I wanted to print something and the BrotherMFC-6490CW printer wouldnt work. Its a wireless setup btw. I have another PC connected wirelessly to the printer and while it give a bit of bother at the same time I was able to tweak the settings a bit and its working fine now.

The PC Im currently on is a Dell XPS using a Vista OS. When I go to the control panel and look under printers there's nothing there. I have tried to reinstall using the original disc but Im getting all sorts of errors - see screengrabs below.

Before trying to reinstall the software I tried uninstalling what was already there (no printers showing in Control panel at this point) and I got some sort of message that the link was broken/removed or something like that. I had also ran a couple of "PC maintenance programmes" a few days earlier so I'm not sure if that caused the problem.

Im not into all this technical stuff but I think the problem, or one problem anyhow, might be the wireless settings but that's just me. So can anyone offer up any ideas or solutions?

Thanks in advance.

mordeith

muffler wrote: »

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. A few days ago I wanted to print something and the BrotherMFC-6490CW printer wouldnt work. Its a wireless setup btw. I have another PC connected wirelessly to the printer and while it give a bit of bother at the same time I was able to tweak the settings a bit and its working fine now.

The PC Im currently on is a Dell XPS using a Vista OS. When I go to the control panel and look under printers there's nothing there. I have tried to reinstall using the original disc but Im getting all sorts of errors - see screengrabs below.

Before trying to reinstall the software I tried uninstalling what was already there (no printers showing in Control panel at this point) and I got some sort of message that the link was broken/removed or something like that. I had also ran a couple of "PC maintenance programmes" a few days earlier so I'm not sure if that caused the problem.

Im not into all this technical stuff but I think the problem, or one problem anyhow, might be the wireless settings but that's just me. So can anyone offer up any ideas or solutions?

Thanks in advance.

Try this:
start>control panel>administrative Tools>Services>
scroll down to print spooler>right click it>click properties>
make sure you are on the general tab>go down to startup type and make sure its on automatic>then hit apply>then click the start button under the service status>apply again>hit OK.
now exit all of the services and administrative tools and go to where your printer and faxes are located and now try to install a printer or try to print.

muffler

mordeith wrote: »

Try this:
start>control panel>administrative Tools>Services>
scroll down to print spooler>right click it>click properties>
make sure you are on the general tab>go down to startup type and make sure its on automatic>then hit apply>then click the start button under the service status>apply again>hit OK.
now exit all of the services and administrative tools and go to where your printer and faxes are located and now try to install a printer or try to print.

Got as far as the bolded bit and got this error message

muffler

Any other ideas folks?

PropJoe10

The print spooler shouldnt be failing to start like that, run a full malware scan with Malwarebytes, reboot and see if you can restart it then.

muffler

PropJoe10 wrote: »

The print spooler shouldnt be failing to start like that, run a full malware scan with Malwarebytes, reboot and see if you can restart it then.

Done that and just got the same error message as posted above.

This was what I was seeing before I clicked on "Start"

PropJoe10

I take no responsibility for how good or reputable this program is, but I came across this, which claims to be able to fix the print spooler service:

http://www.helpcomp.com/help/pc/fix-Print-Spooler.php?keyword=print%20spooler&c1=b&c=11749074999&p=1t1&gclid=COfArc_Sj70CFeFe2wodOjYAAg

Might be worth a try, other than that, you might have to reinstall Vista I'd say

muffler

PropJoe10 wrote: »

I take no responsibility for how good or reputable this program is, but I came across this, which claims to be able to fix the print spooler service:

http://www.helpcomp.com/help/pc/fix-Print-Spooler.php?keyword=print%20spooler&c1=b&c=11749074999&p=1t1&gclid=COfArc_Sj70CFeFe2wodOjYAAg

Might be worth a try, other than that, you might have to reinstall Vista I'd say

Many thanks. I downloaded and ran it and like most of these items it detected xxx errors but wants €33 almost to get an activation key.

PropJoe10

Ah balls, sorry, thought it was freeware. I'd say you might have to try a Vista reinstall in that case. Very strange problem, especially if you cant even restart the spooler. Try this thread:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/print-spooler-error-1068-the-dependency-service-or/399f0ba6-ee10-43b7-a51b-b30bebb56cd9

muffler

There's a fair bit of reading there so I'll get a look at it a little later. Im not too technically minded regarding the workings of PCs so I can see a lot of issues arising sadly.

Just for the record the other PC I have connected to the printer wasnt working Sunday night so did a factory reset of the printer and it worked. But the following day it stopped again. I got one of the young lads here to enter the network or WAP key (whatever its called) about an hour ago and it took about 10 minutes he tells me to recognise it. I'll see if its working now shortly. At least the printer is showing up on it when looking through the Control panel > printers.

Maybe the problem has something to do with the wireless card (sorry if thats the wrong wording) built into the printer.

PropJoe10

muffler wrote: »

There's a fair bit of reading there so I'll get a look at it a little later. Im not too technically minded regarding the workings of PCs so I can see a lot of issues arising sadly.

Just for the record the other PC I have connected to the printer wasnt working Sunday night so did a factory reset of the printer and it worked. But the following day it stopped again. I got one of the young lads here to enter the network or WAP key (whatever its called) about an hour ago and it took about 10 minutes he tells me to recognise it. I'll see if its working now shortly. At least the printer is showing up on it when looking through the Control panel > printers.

Maybe the problem has something to do with the wireless card (sorry if thats the wrong wording) built into the printer.

Just make sure the printer is set up on a static IP address, because if its not, it'll pick up a different IP address every time its rebooted (or the router is rebooted) and will lose its connection to the PC. On a Brother printer, you need to go into network settings and set it to static rather than dynamic or DHCP. It'll then keep the same IP address at all times, which will allow the PC to stay connected.

Good luck with fixing the other issue, let us know if you need any more help (Not that I've provided much! )

muffler

Just a wee update on this and perhaps it may help someone else.

Tried a couple of different things and nothing worked but I stopped short of deleting registry entries etc as was suggested on a couple of sites I had googled. I finally got the matter resolved within a couple of minutes having followed these steps.

In Services.msc, right-click Print Spooler and click Properties.

Click the Dependencies tab.

The first box lists the services that must be running for Print Spooler to start.

Note each service and click OK.

Start each service upon which Print Spooler is dependent if it is not already started.

If not, right-click the service and choose Properties and select Automatic.

The above was taken from here

Happy days but having prepared myself for the worse (reinstall Vista) Im off now to ask another question about that in a separate thread.