Printer problem

[Allnatural]

This is my mother's computer. I'm going there tomorrow to try and figure out the problem. At this time I have few details, but I'm hoping to get a head start on the problem.

What I know is that the computer has trouble recognizing printers. It started with her old, Compaq-branded Lexmark. It would always prompt a driver installation at boot; the drivers had already been installed (and reinstalled) of course. Oddly enough it still (usually) worked despite a problem flag in the device manager. When it wouldn't work it would flash a message saying that the printer spooler needed to be started. I've done some googling but haven't found anything usefull concerning the message. I thought it might be caused by an old scanner she had daisy-chained with the printer, but the problem persists when the printer is directly connected to the parallel port. The scanner works fine incidently.

She purchased a new printer (don't know the brand, but probably another Lexmark) and it's apparently giving her the same problems.

Any advice? It's a Win2000 system using hardware previously in my computer. I've never had a similar problem, so I'm at a bit of a loss here.

 

[Hexidecimal]

It could very well be the fact that it is a Lexmark, I've had one, I have a friend with a Lexmark all in one setup, they have very bad drivers in my opinion, either printer I've referred to has done the same, asking for drivers on starup, on a 98 machine and an XP Home machine, you may want to try uninstalling all of the old Lexmark drivers, then clearing out any reg entries for the Lexmark, hook it straight up without the scanner, or iff possible, go USB, see if that helps, if the problem persists, you could always try Lexmarks Tech Support, if youre in the mood to listen to hold music

 

[jollyrancher]

When I was using Windows 2000 something like that happened and it was because I needed special drivers for Windows 2000. Have you checked the Lexmark support site?

 

[Remote]

I have had on or two lexmark printers still have a pretty old one that works quite nice, check lexmarks site for a driver + spool manager or whatever it's called.. I'm pretty sure such a old printer will use a stadard driver which works on all lexmarks printers so shouldn't be a problem hopefully..

 

[Allnatural]

*Update*

My mother's new printer is the Lexmark 5150 Scanner/Fax/Printer. The problems are actually unlike those with her old printer. As soon as you start installing drivers a message pops up saying that a printer could not be found. When I exit I get this message:

The installation failed because a function driver was to specified for this device instance

This is a USB printer and I've verified that the USB port is funtioning properly. If I install drivers manually via the device manager I can get the scanner and fax functions working, but not the printer. I tried adding a printer manually in the control panel, but when asked to choose the port the printer is connected to, USB isn't one of them. I have the parallel and serial ports listed, as well as a NULL: local port which the scanner/fax are listed on. If I select that port for the printer (it is just a single USB cable after all) I can add the printer but it still won't work. If I try to print something I receive a communication error. Whenever I restart the computer I receive this error:

Inkjet Printer

The required section was not found in the INF

So, we have a working scanner and fax, but a printer that can't be communicated with, which frankly makes no sense to me considering it's an all-in-one unit. I've been up and down google all day (and the Lexmark support site) but haven't found a solution.

 

[liteuser]

Hi,

Only thing i could find.

Drivers and Downloads Lexmark X5150

Edit - links removed

I had a lexmark it messed up a year ago i now have a HP all in one it works good.
Maybe you already saw this and my post wont help , Just tried to help.

 

[Allnatural]

Yup, tried the drivers provided on the website, still nothing. I have the old printer connected via the parallel port; that works. New printer connected via USB; that doesn't work, though the scanner function does. Odd. Print spooler is running, bi-directional support is enabled...

I'm at a loss. The printer itself is fine; I installed it on a different computer and it works flawlessly. It just won't print on the new computer.