Corrupt main.cpl file 1

[swertel]

I installed a local printer on lpt1: and a network printer also. I can print to both printers just fine, and they appear in the print dialogue box of applications, but no icons appear in the printers folder. I've searched as much as I can through the internet: M$, HP, and google, as well as some newsgroups.

At least I can print, but I'm at wits end not being able to control the printer settings and choose a new default printer. Any direction to search next would be helpful. Anyone that may have seen this before please chime in, just so I know I'm not alone.

Please help!
--Scott

 

[pbxman]

You got an AMD system? Those are the only systems i've seen with this problem.

It's a control-panel corruption. There is a "workaround" available from MS..

You basically need to delete the main.cpl file on your system, and extract a new main.cpl out of a .cab file on your CD.

Both time's i've seen this (and it's rare)..both were on an AMD system, and happened right after a completely fresh install. Diamond Viper video cards also can cause this corruption with the inclusion of their "in-control tools".

Best bet...re-install windows. Both times this solved the main.cpl problem.

Good luck!

 

[swertel]

Yes, it is an AMD system. We've tried the re-install. As a matter of fact, we installed, had everything working, then moved the computer to the users desk where Windows would no longer boot up. Don't know what happened during the short walk from the test-bed to the desk, but something did.

After the re-install, everything worked fine except for printers.

After we delete the main.cpl and expand the one from CD, do we have to
"rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_FillCache_RunDLL"
in order to reinitialize the cpl file?
Could we just boot form CD and "repair" a windows installation? Or copy the main.cpl from another machine that is working properly?

The rest of my computer specs:
AMD T-Bird 1.3GHz
MSI K7T Turbo mobo
768M Ram
3DLabs Oxygen GVX1 video
Maxtor 20G HD (7200RPM)

 

[pbxman]

You only need to replace the file after you delete it, and then reboot the machine.