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Default printer dissapears RRS feed

  • General discussion

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    I have recently found that since installing one care, my default printer goes away and when I print it says no printers are installed. I have to go back and set the one I want as default again. I do not use one care for printer sharing, rather share the printer on my desktop (32bit) to my network (pretty much my 64bit laptop) I never had this issue until I installed one care.

     

    I used the printer sharing feature in 1C, but as I remember,  I did not like it. ( I think it doubled my printers for some reason.

     

    Anyone had this issue? Anyone know how to make the default printer stick?

     

    Thanks

    Wednesday, May 28, 2008 12:13 AM

All replies

  • I moved your post to the Firewall topic, since the problem is not with the Printer Sharing functionality in OneCare, but rather Windows Printer Sharing.

    I assume that the problem occurs on the 64 bit laptop which is set to use the printer that is attached to the desktop PC. Is OneCare installed on both PCs? Open OneCare and click on Change Settings. On the Firewall tab, click on "Configure Firewall." Is the network shown as "home or work" on both PCs? If not, click Change location to make it so.

    Click on Advanced Settings on the Configure Firewall window.

    On the Ports and Protocols tab, place a check mark next to both entries for File and Printer Sharing at the top of the list.

    On the Network Connections tab, are there multiple active connections shown?

     

    Note that you would not be able to use the Printer Sharing feature of OneCare in your environment as you have a 32 bit host and a 64 bit machine, so drivers would not be available for this feature to work. Manually sharing should, however, work fine.

     

    When you find that no printers are found, are you able to "find" the printer manually on the laptop and use it?

     

    -steve

     

     

    Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:13 AM
    Moderator
  •  

    Steve,

     

    I checked everything you asked to check, all looks fine.

    I do share mannually due to the mixed enviroment in my network. I do share the default printer on the desktop with my Windows Home Server, but I don't print from that as much, so not sure if it happens to it as well.

     

    The default printer dissapears from the host (32bit desktop) when it happens. It may take a few days or so for this to happen. I can't remember if the printer itself dissapears or just the default printer setting (the checkmark) goes away.

     

    I will wait for it to happen again and reply then.

     

    Thanks

    Friday, May 30, 2008 6:55 PM
  • If the printer disappears from the host desktop machine itself, meaning that you don't even have it available on the host, I would look at a cabling issue (I assume it is USB - maybe it is connected to a hub? If so, try connecting the printer directly to the PC) or even a driver problem.

    -steve

     

    Friday, May 30, 2008 11:36 PM
    Moderator
  • it did it again. it switched the default printer to another printer (microsoft XPS printer) the Epson printer is still there, just not set as default. What would make it switch default printers like that? I have had it switch to no default printer as well.

     

    It has the patest driver and connected drictly to the machine (no hub)

    Monday, June 2, 2008 12:06 AM
  • Not having experienced anything like it, I can only assume that at some point the Epson is becoming unavailable and Windows is compensating by selecting another printer as the default. However, when you then view the printers after noticing it, the printer is once again available. That's only a guess on my part.

    How is the printer attached? Is it plugged into a hub? try plugging the USB cable directly into the back of the PC or use a powered USB hub.

    -steve

     

    Monday, June 2, 2008 1:22 AM
    Moderator
  • It is attached to the machine direct, no hub. I will try to move to another USB port, reload driver and such and see if it happens again. Like I said before, it only started when I put One Care on the desktop. I was running One Care on the Laptop for about 3 months before I put it on the desktop.

     

    Thanks for your insight

    Monday, June 2, 2008 2:01 AM
  • Very mysterious! Let me know if the problem goes away after the port change and/or the driver update.

    -steve

     

    Monday, June 2, 2008 8:55 AM
    Moderator