Printer Wizard won't add printer

I have a network of one win 2000 pro with HP 722c printer local, one win 98 SE with local Epson A/L 1600, both shared. Adding 3rd machine win 2000 pro.

Tried to move Epson to 3rd machine but Printer wizard says "unable to install Printer, Operation could not be completed ". And won't add it.

The Found New Hardware Wizard says it found the Epson 1600 but then "An error occurred during the installation of the device, cannot complete this function. "

Similar messages are displayed when I try to install the HP 722c which is already working on the other win 2000. It is like this printer wizard is broken. I reinstalled win 2000 but nothing changed. At this point, I can not add a printer whether it is local or on the network. The other 2 machines are continuing to work fine. Any suggestions?

 

Yes, I'm signed on as admin. And the HP printer on the other win 2000 is setup so that everyone can print.

 

Try setting up a generic/text-only printer and have it print to a file rather than a physical port. If that works, try setting your Epson up as generic/text only to the proper port and see if you can print a text file to it.

Post back.

 

OK, logged in as administrator, set up generic text only to a file, not shared and let it set as default, asked it to print a page in the wizard. Then said finish. I saw it load drivers then got the same message "unable to install printer" "operation could not be complelted. "

 

An update.
Finding no solution to my printer situation, The only thing I could think to do was start over--------------so,
I reformated my hard drive and reinstalled Win 2000. The printers are now working. The reinstall without formating the hard drive, had no effect.

 

Thanks for posting back.

I think you chose the best option. If the generic text printer wouldn't install, you had some very basic problems with the OS load and I suspect other problems would have surfaced.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you but fish came first this weekend since we are getting close to the end of any warm weather for the winter and the water called.