Vista - Add Printer Wizard issue

After I upgraded my notebook to Vista from XP, I cannot add printers to the
system. Before install, all printers where listed, but after install,
nothing. Not even the document printer from MS Office. When I try to add my
network printer, I get a "Local Print Spooler not started" message and when I
manullay start that service, i receive an "error 0x000006be" when I try to
re-install my network printer. I know that it is not a printer driver issue.
Does any one have any fixes or know where I can find a fix. Cannot find
anything in the MS Knowledgebases. Thanks.

Uninstall the installed drivers first
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

If you are connecting to an HP printer which uses hpbmini.dll, the file
version must be greater than 16 as this binary checks the OS version and
terminates the spooler since the binary does not understand OS version 6.



--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Courgar824" <Courgar824@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:29140282-9E1A-4A20-9AA0-B52947ADDFE5@xxxxxx

here's the KnowledgeBase article on the HP driver AV.

Error message when you try to connect to a print queue in Windows Vista or
in Windows Server 2008: "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation
could not be completed (error 0x000006be)"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946394/en-us


--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" <alanmo@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:usyk8yFXIHA.4548@xxxxxx

Thanks for the link to the MSKB article on that installation error.

HP have a document on their website that also deals with this:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/su...01235661/c0123
5661.pdf

------------------------------------------------------------------

Print Driver Upgrade Hangs During Installation

[ .... ]

Technical Description

When updating an HP print driver from version 60.xx.yy.zz to version
61.xx.yy.zz the driver upgrade process may hang towards the end of the
process. When the hang occurs the print driver is attempting to write
some values back to the .dll, but it has not been allowed to be updated
by the Operating System. The Operating System compares the HPbmini.dll
file between the one currently installed and the one attempting to be
installed, but does not compare file versions. Rather the Operating
System makes the decision based on the date stamp of the file, and in
certain cases the older version file may have a newer date stamp than
the newer version file thus the Operating System will keep the existing
file in place.

hpbmini.dll v.1.0.0.18 1/1/06 upgrade to hpbmini.dll v.1.0.0.19 1/1/07
– upgrade successful.
hpbmini.dll v.1.0.0.18 2/7/07 upgrade to hpbmini.dll v.1.0.0.19 1/1/07
– upgrade fail.
hpcdmc32.dll v.1.0.2.32 1/1/06 upgrade to hpcdmc32.dll v.1.0.2.35
1/1/07 – upgrade successful.
hpcdmc32.dll (1.0.2.32) 2/7/07 upgrade to hpcdmc32.dll (1.0.2.35)
1/1/07 – upgrade fail.

What causes the date stamp to change? Any operation in the Operating
System that restores or updates print drivers can change the date stamp
to reflect the time and date of the file change.

Why doesn’t the Operating System look at the version number of the file
instead of the date stamp? HP has created its print driver components
with a specific schema to develop file version definitions which
generates a unique file version. This schema does not match the
Operating System Vendor’s approach to versioning these components which
then causes the Operating System to use the date stamp instead of the
version.

Future versions of HP print drivers are adopting a different method for
versioning the individual print driver components unique to HP
printers.

Solution\Workaround

The only known solution is to rename, replace or remove the file
labeled “hpbmini.dll” and/or “hpcdmc32.dll” from the
[Windows]\…\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3 directory in the Windows
operating system.

There may be other instances of these files, but they are cached by the
Operating System and not used by the print system.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm quoting this here because the URL given in the MSKB article is not
all that useful:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/...isplay=drivers

since it just takes you to the standard page for downloading drivers
and other support and if for example you put one of the printers listed
by MS such as HP Color LaserJet 3600 into the ID box it takes you the
general listing of files with no information whether they contain a new
hpbmini.dll file or not. Also the MSKB does not mention the
hpcdmc32.dll file.

FWIW

any helpful ideas on the same issue with a lexmark P4350 printer?

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: