Cannot install ANY printer drivers!

[EricB]

ok when you get done with that and if it still don't work, do what I said please, after you back up your data. I have an idea of what happened, but I not going to say it becuase I don't feel like arguing with people who won't agree with me

A boot sector virus will limit certain funtions of your computer and reformatting with windows tools won't work even if you do a fix/mbr, because there are certain areas of the mbr that MS don't want you to reach

 

[Inaris]

You have to be Poweruser or Admin rights to install. Also, several things to answer...

Did you install XP overtop of Win2k? Has the machine ever worked the way it should?
is file and printer sharing enabled on your machine? This should be found in the network properties of the NIC you are using.
If it is boot sector, and you have another drive, you can move all your needed data off, and wipe the boot sector to clean it up, then start rebuilding. If you have done a true reinstall, delete the partition tables and install/format new, that would do it too. You can go get another drive, like 10gb and just load XP on it, then use that as your boot disk, and slave the other, so it's not booting. At that point, you can move the data you need to and reformat the disk later.
The printer issue is an interesting one, which I have seen only once before (simular). I have to remember what I did to correct it though....

 

[Tryforceful]

Thank you for all the replies, everyone. Here's where I am:

Yes, I have administrator access and networking works fine, even accessing the other printers - but it asks for drivers on THIS computer to run the remote printers, and that's where I get stuck. The printer spool service is running, and I tried restarting the spool and then installing - no go.

Even before checking the CMOS, I tried the "dir > lpt1" at the command prompt and it print without problems. In my BIOS setup I have the options of {disabled, 378, 278, 3BC} for the Parallel Port Address, and {normal, bi-directional, EPP, ECP} for the Mode. I had it set to 378 and bi-directional, and it worked, so I don't think its the port. Also, in checking Device Manager and Registry I can see that the computer senses that the HP is connected, as it has tried to assign it "lpt1.4," whatever 1.4 is. I tried "dir > lpt1.4" for the hell of it and that worked too. Though I'm at wits end over here, I think juicekrew is right -- it's not the hardware. I've had this printer for a while with this machine, under win2k, etc., and it's worked fine before.

juicekrew, as far as the HP driver link you sent me: it ends up telling me that the driver is included with the Windows XP setup files, which I know it is, and not giving me an option to download it separately from the site. Besides that, I'm convinced that the installer itself or the windows installation is at fault here, maybe with registry entries(?), as trying to install proper XP drivers for other printers won't work either. The install stalls at the end of the wizard.

Now in terms of this boot sector stuff. I had my win2k booting from a second 40GB drive ( D: ) and wanted to move all my files onto the primary drive (160GB, C: ) so I could eventually remove D:. So I installed WinXP on C: maybe a week or two ago, which hadn't been booting before, and cut-and-pasted all my D: files, including the D:\WINNT folder for win2k, onto C:. I didn't do a "true reinstall," but I installed it on this disk which to my recollection never booted before. If it's true that I have this boot sector virus, I would have needed to get it on the C: drive's XP installation in these past two weeks or so, right? ...


In any case, if at all possible I'd like to not have to reinstall everything for the 3rd time. Is there some way to scan for a boot sector virus before I take any action? I have avast! antivirus software, and my BIOS even supports boot virus protection, but I'm not sure if I ever had it enabled :-D... Or, should I install XP on the D: drive and see if I can install printers then?

Thank you again for all your guidance,

Tryforceful

 

[EricB]

you might have issue on the way that you copied your files to the other drive. you should have use a specific tool to do it like partition magic, max blast or something like that. you might not have all of your files there. there are some files that you can't copy and paste

 

[Tryforceful]

could that have caused this error? technically I didn't have any system files on the D: drive that i needed to copy over for winXP to work, at least to my knowledge. I copied the WINNT folder for the heck of it, but I had an error with some of my D: drive's others folders (ones I didn't copy over), so I didn't want to use partitionmagic to move the entire partition over (plus I wouldnt've had enough space left on my C: ). I'd think the folder error on D: wouldn't be related to this... but maybe it is? It basically was a virus/spyware program that left undeletable files that took up too much space, so I moved everything else to C, and then wiped the D:.

 

[EricB]

could that have caused this error? technically I didn't have any system files on the D: drive that i needed to copy over for winXP to work, at least to my knowledge. I copied the WINNT folder for the heck of it, but I had an error with some of my D: drive's others folders (ones I didn't copy over), so I didn't want to use partitionmagic to move the entire partition over (plus I wouldnt've had enough space left on my C: ). I'd think the folder error on D: wouldn't be related to this... but maybe it is? It basically was a virus/spyware program that left undeletable files that took up too much space, so I moved everything else to C, and then wiped the D:.

1.yes
2. if I were you I would copy only my important data files (not systems and program files as they might be corrupted) while scanning those file with something like avast

then install a fresh copy of xp on the 40 gig and copies those files back

 

[Tryforceful]

Ok then I'll do that, however is it necessary that I reinstall onto the 40 GB? If I can move all my important files from the 160 onto, say, my networked Mac which has a big hard drive, and then wipe the C completely and move them back that way? See I would like to get this 40 out of there, so I can put a bigger one in eventually, maybe even get another 160 right away and stripe RAID them together. Will that work?

 

[EricB]

Ok then I'll do that, however is it necessary that I reinstall onto the 40 GB? If I can move all my important files from the 160 onto, say, my networked Mac which has a big hard drive, and then wipe the C completely and move them back that way? See I would like to get this 40 out of there, so I can put a bigger one in eventually, maybe even get another 160 right away and stripe RAID them together. Will that work?

Yes. if I were you I would partition that 160 gig to 1 30gig (OS) and 1 130 (My Documents). this way if something happen in the OS (virus, corruption) it is fairly easy to reinstall wondows, but you keep your data

http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56137&highlight=how+to+keep+windows+fast+2+years