Can't remove a printer?

Well I am stumped. I have a pritner that I can't remove. Here is the error message:

Printer cannot be removed. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server. For more information, click help.

I clicked help an there was no help for removing this printer.

The printer name is: HP on Loni
Loni was my wifes PC on our 3 station network. Her Loni died and I gave her mine pc. Now the printer that was connected through the network to my pc is connected to LPT1. and therre is a printer there that does not exist. How do I get rid of this printer?
Ron

 

It might allow removal in a normal way if you boot to safe mode.

Otherwise, if you are comfortable editing the registry, start~run~regedt32 and search for the network printer name. Remove each entry you find. Probably an excellent idea to back up your registry before you start just in case.

 

In SAFE mode there are no printers listed at all. ???
When I did a search for the printer in the registry it was not found. ???

Thanks for trying.

 

Not listed in safe mode - good. That means it is gone.

Not in the registry - puzzling. I'd have expected at least a display entry in there somewhere causing the thing to show up in your printers folder.

If it isn't causing problems, probably best to just ignore it. Otherwise, you might want to try a reliable registry cleaning program. RegScrubXP is probably about the best and does a great but safe job on the default settings. Unfortunately the site that hosts it is down for reorg and moving right now and you probably can't get the app until after April 1. But when you can get it, it is free.

 

Hi OLDSALTY

If your impatient for RegScrubXP, you can download it at WebAttack . Tried the link and it works.

 

I dealt with this exact problem last week only we had three printers that were undeleteable. Safe mode didnt show them and a search of the registry didnt find them the first time.

Then I searched the registry again this time highlighting the first group of reg. keys and it found the offending printers. After backing up the registry I deleted the three groups of entrys that showed the undeleteable printers names and BINGO! Restarted the machine and all was right with the world again.

B4 you change anything in the registry back it up.

 

First Thanks for trying everyone.
Newt & Dennis L : Thanks, I d/l'd RegScrubXP and it cleaned up 79 errors but the printer remains.
William : I tried the search on each group of Reg.keys several times, I even shortened the string and still it does not appear.


??????
What Next?

 

Dang - more and more puzzling.

Are you using regedit or regedt32 to search your registry?

Also, just for a test, create a new user account and then shutdown/restart and log on with it. Lets see if the phantom printer is tied somehow to the one user account or to the PC.

 

Newt : As to regedit or regedit32, I used both. I created a new user and the printer was still there. The printer name is "HP on LONI ". So I get this idea to search for part of the name "LONI ". I found an entry that looked like this without the quotes, ",, , LONI,HP ". I saved the key to a reg file and then deleted it. Rebooted and the printer was gone. I was searching for the printer "HP on LONI" at first. So this is put to rest.
Thanks to ALL

 

Just for the record, regedit was rewritten for XP, incorporating the features of regedt32. Regedt32 no longer exists as a program ... it's just a shortcut to regedit.

The best registry search tool I've found is Registry Detective, from PC Mag. It finds, and lists, all instances of the searched-for item in a matter of seconds. Simply highlight the desired listing and either select Regedit from the toolbar or right-click and select it from the menu. Piece of cake.

Jim

 

OLDSALTY - great. Glad you got it gone.

JSS3rd - on my XP-pro SP1

C:\WINDOWS\regedit.exe (131 KB, 8/29/2002 3:41:28 AM)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\regedt32.exe (4 KB, 8/23/2001 8:00:00 AM)

So not a normal shortcut but they do both seem to start the same app and the file size of regedt32 is way too small. Thanks for that.

Don't know if I'd ever have noticed. Too much of the day spent on 2K systems where the apps are for sure not the same.