Resolved HP Inkjet Printer no longer accessible by all Users

Hi everyone,

I listed this under Hardware but it may actually be an XP issue. Let's first see what happens here in the more physical realm.

My venerable HP Deskjet 5550 printer has ceased working with any User except me (I have XP Pro). All other Users are limited accounts and have had access for years until recently. When trying to print on one of the other User accounts, the power light blinks (as it should) for a few seconds (spooling?)but then just returns to standby without doing anything more.

This is concerning only one local computer. It is not networked.

Oh, in April I had a bout with Antispyware Soft malware and succesfully purged it. I don't know if that is related but I would be remiss in not mentioning it.

I just removed the HP software and reinstalled it to no benefit.

Searching has found a few discussions of checking Permissions via Security Tabs here and there. Though I have XP Pro, I seem to be lacking those tabs. Is that related to the option to allow the fast switching of user logons?

Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy Father's Day!

Lar

 

The Event Viewer does log an Error which says:

"The document http://www.google.com owned by Alli failed to print on printer hp deskjet 5550 series. Data type: NT EMF 1.008. Size of the spool file in bytes: 1638400. Number of bytes printed: 0. Total number of pages in the document: 1. Number of pages printed: 0. Client machine: \\BLOCKFAMILY. Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 5 (0x5). "


Here is a pic of the Error Properties window:

 

Hi Pete,

No luck on the new limited user acct. Since Windows does show an attempt to print, I would logically guess that it has something to do with the spooling function not being accessible.

Lar

 

Pete, thanks for the suggestion. That got me to the Security tabs. It all looked good to me. I posted an image of the tab. Do you agree?

I also clicked off spooling and chose to print directly to the printer. A longer process but the other printers work now. That is a work around but I would prefer a resolution as I prefer to use the Simple File Sharing option. I just wonder, why now.

 

What happens to the printing request after you press PRINT and it heads off to the spooler dept??

Even though the Permissions for EVERONE grants them all users the right to Print (but it fails everytime), I added separate entries for each limited acct user for their own right to Print. It did not help, either.

 

The error description from the Event Viewer (see above in message #2) does have a spool file size so I assume that that means that it is getting spooled. So, it seems to fail in the transition from the app to to XP.

Is an Add/Remove uninstall of the HP app adequate or could there be some relevant residual elements that should have been manually removed prior to reinstallation?

I added Full Control permission with inheritance for EVERYONE for the Windows directory (incl System and System32 folders, of course) to see if that would solve, or at least, indicate the source of the problem but, after rebooting, there was no change of behavior.

Pete, thanks for moving the thread! Lar

 

I tried the Print Directly option and it did work!! Printing is delayed and I would rather spool as I often stack up the queue to print. So, I continue to search for an answer.

 

Since I added Permissions to Windows with inheritance, it should be fine but I will ck when I get home later today.

 

Yep, they both have full control.

 

Well, Pete, looks like this forum wasn't much better. Thanks for tryin'. I went on the HP forum and got zip response there.

 

Hi Pete, everything that I have read on this seems to keep saying "Permissions ". As mentioned earlier, I have opened up permissions for System and System32 to Full Control for Everyone (limited users) with no benefit.

One search item mentioned the Service called Print Spooler. Going there I found a reference to a spoolsvc.exe file in System32. So, I stopped, then restarted the Service, went to the Security panel of that file and checked Full Control for all entities. Rebooted and viola'. It now works for all limited users.

For the moment, things look good. I doubt that it was the Stop/Restart as I do that everytime I shutdown or reboot, but who knows?

PS.... I rarely give up.