Good Day
I have a serious problem on a client's computer. All I need to do is connect the laptop to a network printer, but I am having a lot of difficulty in doing so.
First the details of the laptop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit connected to network using ETH cable. Avira Professional antivirus running, firewall disabled on pc, user is member of administrators group only.
Details of the printer: Xerox Workcentre 3220, connect to network using ETH cable, but also shared on pc also running Windows 7 64-bit Professional.
I am able to ping the printer and have connected all the other pcs on the network to the printer without any troubles whatsoever. Printing, scanning - everything is working fine for the other pcs. I am also able to connect to shares from the laptop to any other pc.
So here is my issue with this specific laptop:
Firstly, when using the "Add Printer" wizard, the "Add a local printer" option is greyed out.
So I tried connecting to the printer using the"Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer" option, which seemed to be working, but during installation it gives an Access Denied error and undoes the installation.
Then I tried connecting to the share of the printer on one of the other pcs, which had the exact same result.
I then tried to modify an other printer, by firstly trying to add a new Local Port, but the I recieve the following error: "Specified port cannot be added. Access is denied."
I tried then adding the driver using the Windows Print Server, but the buttons were unavailable.
After reading on many forums, I accessed the Print Management console (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Print Management)m and tried adding the printer and ports there, but recieved an "Access Denied" error every time.
Basically whatever I tried, I recieved "Access Denied" errors. I created a new user, which is only a member of the Administrators group. Logged in with new user, without any success in connecting to the printer. I then tried adding security permisssions for "everyone" to the folder C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, as I read on another forum. I tried modifying the group policy using gpedit.msc and also using the Local Security Policy, although I could have missed some things in these two places, but basically with a quick glance, everything seemed fine. I am sure there are no virusses, etc on this laptop and as I have said all the other pcs connected to the printer very easily.
How can it be that I cant install a printer on this laptop, while I was able to do so a year or so back?
I have gotten a few suggestions that it will in the end just save me time by formatting the pc and reloading all the data and programs, but this isn't an option I really want to take. And then I have previously had issues with the "Add a local printer" option greyed out and unable to add printers, etc, but then I was able to solve the problem by creating a new user and then switching to that user - which indicated a possible user profile corruption. But in this case even that did not work.
