Network printing blues

OK, I'm having trouble printing to a networked printer and I've already weeded through all the common answers I've found on the net and still can't figure it out.

I've got a number of computers on a home LAN. Here's what I've got:

PC1: XP SP2, physically attached HP Deskjet
PC2: XP SP2, physically attached Brother laser
PC3: XP SP2, son's computer (no printer)
PC4: XP, daughter's computer (no printer)

PC1 is the trouble machine. All computers can print to the shared deskjet on PC1. All computers but PC1 can print to the laser printer on PC2. PC1 can access shared files on PC2.

When I first began to have trouble (it was well over a week ago and I'd have posted this sooner, but I got hospitalized for a week), I tried to print from PC1 to PC2 as normal and got the message: "Operation could not be completed. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server. For more information, click Help." Not surprisingly, the help was useless.

I deleted the printer driver and gave a shot at re-installing it (you know how that goes). I can't re-install now. I get a similar message.

Other things that might help figure this out: The day before I had the problem, there was a storm so I powered everything down completely. After restart, all seemed normal until I went to print. Clearly something has changed, but I don't know what to hunt down.

Secondly, on PC2, just for grins, I shared the Cute PDF printer. The bizarre thing is that PC1 now "sees" that printer, but attempts to use it produce the "Operation could not be completed" error.

Further, when viewing the computers in "My Network Places\Entire Network\Microsoft Windows Network" I see an odd discrepency between PC1 and PC2. When using PC2 and opening the entry for PC1 I see "Printers and Faxes" and "Scheduled tasks" in the tree. However, the same is not true on PC1. When looking at the tree on PC1, only the shared folders show up. However, when clicking on the entry for the networked printer, PC1 lists PC2's files and printers in the right-hand pane of Explorer. When attempting to double-click on the listed printer(s) I get the "Operation could not be completed" error.

Clearly something is only half-right in PC1's attempts to use the printer on PC2. Where do I begin to fix this? It used to work, and I did nothing specific to cancel the connection (except, as noted, trying to re-install drivers after the problem had already revealed itself).

 

I was experiencing the same problem, and like you, I couldn't find a solution to help me with my problem. I did try a support document found in Microsoft, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883789, but that didn't help very much.

However, I did pray and somehow, I was led to Uninstall and Reinstall "Client for Microsoft Networks". And now the computer that once got the message, "Operation could not be completed. Either you typed the printer name incorrectly or the printer is no longer connected to the server", wasn't there anymore. I can now install the printers as I once did.

I don't know how the problem occured, but all I can say is that God is good. He really does answer prayer.

 

Download networkmagic and use it, it really help set up you network.
http://www.networkmagic.com

 

Thanks for the information foogoo.