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Troubleshoot Printer Problems



When you try to connect to a shared printer in Windows Vista, you receive the following error message: Windows cannot connect to the printer. The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers. You experience this behaviour if the following conditions are true:
  • You use the Windows Point and Print feature to connect to the shared printer.
  • The shared printer uses a kernel mode printer driver.
    
 
   


When you use the Add Printer Driver wizard to update a printer driver in Windows Vista, the driver installation fails. Or, the printer does not work correctly.
    


When you try to install a network printer on a Windows Vista-based computer, you may receive the following error message:

Windows cannot connect to the printer.
Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000000d).


On a client that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you try to connect to a print queue that is hosted on Windows Server 2003, on Windows XP, or on Windows 2000 Server. When you do this, the connection to the printer cannot be established.

Additionally, the "Point and Print" feature throws one of the following error messages, depending on your situation.

When you use an administrator account:

Connect to Printer
-----------------------------
Windows cannot connect to the printer.
Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006be).
Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server.
For more information, click Help.

When you use a user account:

Connect to Printer
-----------------------------
Windows cannot connect to the printer.
Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006be).
You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer.
    


After you upgrade a computer from Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista, printers that were installed in Windows XP no longer appear to be installed.

This issue occurs because of a difference in the design of printing functionality between Windows XP and Windows Vista. Because of this design difference, Windows Vista removes installed printer drivers from the local settings during the upgrade operation. When you upgrade Windows XP to Windows Vista, Windows Vista records the connection information only for point-and-print printers.


When you try to install a printer by using the Web Point and Print feature on a Windows Vista-based computer, you may receive the following error message:

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

This problem occurs when you try to install an Internet Print Protocol (IPP) printer from a Windows Vista-based print server and if the following conditions are true:
  • You are logged in with a user account that is localized for a language locale that uses a non-Latin character set.
  • The Windows Vista installation is localized for a language locale that uses a non-Latin character set.
Additionally, the installation does not finish.
    


You try to install a shared printer when you have User Account Control (UAC) turned off in Windows Vista. However, you may receive an error message that resembles one of the following.

Message one
Windows cannot connect to the printer.

Message two
The specified Print Monitor is unknown.

This problem occurs after you click Install driver in the Printers dialog box. This problem may occur if the printer driver has a language monitor as part of the driver package.


Consider the following scenario:
  • You have a universal serial bus (USB) multifunction device. This device performs printing and scanning. Or, it performs printing, scanning, and copying.
  • You connect this device to a Windows Vista-based computer.
  • You restart the computer one time or multiple times.
When you open the Printers item in Control Panel in this scenario, you experience the following symptoms:
  • In the list of installed printers, there is a second instance of the printer object for this device.
  • The original instance of the printer object is set as the default printer. However, the original instance of the printer object does not communicate with the multifunction printer device.
Therefore, this instance of the printer object does not work as expected.
    


Consider the following scenario. You use a Windows Vista-based computer to print documents on a shared printer that is hosted by a Windows Server 2008-based print server or by a Windows Server 2003-based print server. Additionally, one of the following conditions is true:
  • An administrator installed an additional printer on the print server.
  • An administrator updated a printer driver for another printer on the print server.
  • System files that are used directly by the printer drivers, such as unidrv.dll or pscript5.dll, are updated on the print server.
In this scenario, you receive the following message:

To use \\Print_Server\Printer, you need to install the printer driver on your computer and then restart the print job. If you do not recognise or trust the name and location of the printer, do not install the driver.

Also, Driver Update Needed is displayed in the Status field in the Printers folder in Control Panel. If you click Install driver, and you have administrator user rights, you can continue to print.


Consider the following scenario:
  • You are running a Windows Vista-based computer.
  • You use the Plug and Play service to install a Web Services for Devices (WSD) printer.
  • The installation process fails, or it is cancelled. However, a WSD-only port is created.
When you try to use the Plug and Play service to install the same WSD printer again in this scenario, you receive the following error message:

Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000643).
    


When you try to connect a Windows Vista-based computer to a network printer whose name is not a valid Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path, the connection fails. This problem affects some third-party printers. If a third-party printer provider does not use a UNC path to name a printer, you cannot connect the computer to the printer.
    


Consider the following scenario:
  • You have a Windows Vista-based computer that has an XPS printer driver installed.
  • On this computer, you print a slide presentation from Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, from Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, or from Microsoft PowerPoint 2002.
In this scenario, certain colours in graphics objects in the slide presentation may not be printed as expected.

Also, this problem may occur in any application that uses a Graphics Device Interface (GDI)-to-XPS conversion process.


On a computer that runs a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, you install a shared printer. In a Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, you select this shared printer in the Print dialog box to print the document. Then, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

Microsoft Office Word
Word has encountered a problem
Show Help

Therefore, you cannot use this shared computer to print the document.
    


In Windows Vista, when you right-click a shared colour printer and then click Properties, an access violation occurs in the Explorer.exe process.
    


You install a "Web Services on Devices" (WSD)-based printer on a computer that is running Windows Vista. After you do this, you put the computer to sleep, and then you wake it from sleep. However, when you view the Printers item in Control Panel, the status of the WSD-based printer appears as Offline. You expect the printer to resume online when you wake the computer from sleep.


Consider the following scenario:
  • You print multiple documents on a Windows Vista-based computer.
  • The printer is a Bluetooth printer that uses the Hardcopy Cable Replacement Profile (HCRP) protocol.
  • More than one print job is in the print queue.
In this scenario, the second print job and all successive print jobs may fail.
    


You perform one of the following operations on a Windows Vista-based computer:
  • Connect to a shared printer on the network, and then run the "Common Scenario Stress with IO" test in Driver Test Manager (DTM).
  • Print to a shared printer on the network.
  • Perform a power management operation.
For example, you put the computer to sleep or into hibernation. Or, you wake the computer from sleep or from hibernation. In this scenario, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following:

*** STOP: 0x0000009F (param1, param2, param3, param4)
DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
    


Consider the following scenario. You use a computer that is running a 32-bit edition of Windows Vista to remotely install a printer driver on a 64-bit computer that is acting as a print server. Or, you use a computer that is running a 64-bit edition of Windows Vista to remotely install a printer driver on a 32-bit computer that is acting as a print server. In this scenario, you receive one or more of the following error messages:

Error message 1
The Selected driver must be installed remotely from an x64 computer running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.

Error message 2
Unable to find a core driver package that is required by the printer driver package.


Consider the following scenario. A shared printer is hosted on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer. On a Windows Vista-based client computer, you use the "Point and Print" feature to connect to this printer. In this scenario, the printer does not work correctly.
    


When you connect a universal serial bus (USB) printer to a Windows Vista-based computer for the first time, you receive the following error message:

A device driver was not installed correctly
    


In Windows Vista, you may receive the following error message when you try to automatically install a printer that has an unknown printer driver:

STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005)
    


When you try to print a Web page on a "Web Services for Devices (WSD)" printer in Windows Vista, the Web page may not be printed as expected. This problem may occur if the URL for the Web page contains certain special characters, such as an ampersand (&).


In Windows Vista, when you restart a printer after you change its device configuration, the changes are not applied until the Print Spooler service restarts. For example, the changes are not applied until the computer restarts. This problem occurs if the printer driver is based on Web Services on Devices (WSD). This problem occurs only if you make the changes while the printer is turned off.
    


You print a Microsoft Word document that contains a table on a computer that is running Windows Vista. If the table border consists of dots or of dashes, the table border is printed as a solid line instead of as dots or dashes.
    


In Microsoft Windows Vista, you use booklet mode to print a document that contains an embedded encapsulated PostScript (EPS) graphics file. In this scenario, the file does not print correctly. Additionally, you may receive the following error message on the printout:

ERROR: undefined
OFFENDING COMMAND: pp_clip
    


When you try to print content that includes a bitmap on a Windows Vista-based computer, you may receive the following Stop error message:

Stop 0x00000001 (Parameter1, Parameter2, Parameter3, Parameter4)

This problem occurs if Windows Vista copies the bitmap from a user mode printer driver (UMPD).


When you print a document that contains both vertical fonts and non-vertical fonts in Windows Vista, the document does not print correctly on a PostScript printer. For example, some printed characters may be broken up.
    


In Windows Vista or in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), when you try to access the files on a memory card in a networked printer's built-in memory card reader, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

\\IP_Address\memory_card refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.

You cannot print the files that are stored on the memory card. When this problem occurs, you may be able to use Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Live Photo Gallery to open the files on the memory card. However, you cannot save a file to the memory card by using a different name.

The memory card reader may support any of the following memory cards in addition to other memory cards:
  • CompactFlash Type I
  • CompactFlash Type II
  • IBM Microdrive
  • Memory Stick
  • Secure Digital MultiMediaCard (MMC)
  • xD Picture Card
    


Consider the following scenario. You try to print an .xps document in Windows Vista or in Windows XP by using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer. Or, you try to print to a Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW) printer. In this scenario, you receive the following error message in the Web browser while the printer is spooling:

An error occurred in the application you were using

You can try the following:

Restart the application
Click the "More Information" button below for details about this error.


When you view certain underlined Japanese characters in Windows Vista, the characters appear as expected. However, when you print these characters, the underlined part of the character is not printed.