Windows 7 Printers repeatedly dissapearing, control panel for printers hangs....

cdc

New Member
I have a brand new dell, with factory installed Win7.

Used migration tool to copy over old files and settings from old computer. Installed open office and firefox... nothing else.

Installed 3 network printers, using the drivers provided automatically. 2 are newer Dell printers, one is an old Dot Matrix.

These are all at an office I am supporting remotely, so I dont have the specifics with me right now.

All of the printers disappear each day after reboot. Opening up the printers in control panel fails...box basically hangs...nothing ever appears. Reboots do nothing. Cannot re-add printers from network by "connecting". Cannot print to printers, or open printers.

I got the printers to reappear after much tinkering, but did not do anything that obviously should have made any difference. I was contemplating reinstalling Win7, so I put the cd in and started the process, but stopped before getting past copying files. The printers worked for the remainder of that day, but disappeared the morning.

Is there anything obvious I need to know here? This is the first Win7 system I have worked on.
Thanks!
 
Hi, I reinstalled win7, and still have the problems. I have discovered that the printers will also go away overnight, if the computer is left on.

after a reboot, but before attempting to print anything, if I open up devices and printers...the printers are discovered and printing will work. If any printer is used before the devices and printers is opened, the process will hang, and requires a reboot of the computer to clear up the hung process (I can kill the app that was printing, but clearly something is hung..print spooler or something in the background).

I turned off win firewall, and turned off the powersave for the network adapter.

When the printers are disappearing...the rest of the network is still visible, and we can touch the print server. Internet works fine.

It seems that something to do with the printers themselves (we have 3) something in Win 7 is going to sleep, and is only awakened by opening up the devices and printers window before attempting any printing.

Any ideas? Please?

Thanks
 
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