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Empty printer folder in Control Panel.

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by tetsmuyai

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I would like to know the cause and possible solution to my problem. I have a laptop with Windows ME installed. At times I can not print and an error message appears stating that I have no printer connected (which is not true, I do have printers installed). When I check my printers folder in the control panel I find it empty. Upon restarting my laptop and local printer as well, I check the printers folder again to find it not empty. This recurrs as often as 2 to 3 times a day.

2 replies

by pchandiman

It may be due to a corrupt or incompatable printer driver/software. Check the printer's manufacturer web site for the latest driver. Then uninstall the current driver and reinstall the updated driver (or same driver your using if it is the latest).

by budthegrey

This will happen if the spooler service exits unexpectedly. In Win2K it's called spoolsv, and can be restarted via the control panel or the computer management console. I don't know what it's called in WinME -- I want to say 'SPOOL32', but I'm notsure.

Usually, this is a driver issue, so look first for updated drivers for your printers. other suggestions:

If you have more than one printer, try thinning the herd to just one and see if the problem persists.

Perhaps setting the printer(s) to 'print directly to the printer' will help.

If it's a parallel printer, check the port settings in the BIOS. Often changing from either EPP/ECP to the other solves problems.

HTH

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