Ways to restore corrupted drivers -or- I have printer problems

[aroostook]

It may just be too early in the morning, and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, but I could swear to God there's a way to make Windoze XP rebuild its drivers by deleting some Certain Special Directory in \windows\system32. I can't for the life of me remember what it is, though.

Here's the problem: A worker here uses an Okidata ML320 for printing out forms. It worked fine until there was some hard disk corruption. I fixed that, and now the printer will only print the 1st page and nothing else. If she tries to print anything in additon after that, it'll spit out garbage.

I deleted the printer from the system and the driver out of the Server Properties, then re-installed the printer. It ran fine...until this morning, when it started exhibiting the same bad behavior again. I'm suspecting the printer driver file itself is corrupted, so I need to fix that.

Is my assumption correct? Or should I be looking at a different fix?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BadBigBen]

Have you reinstalled a fresh copy of the DRIVER?

after the corruption of the HDD, have you run SFC /SCANNOW from a runbox (CMD line)?

possible that the Spooler Service or the driver is damaged... SFC will take care of the corrupted system files, and if that does not work, I may suggest to try a REPAIR INSTALL of XP, it will reset the Hardware Registry and reinstall the drivers... after which you will have to reinstall only the HotFixes and updates for XP after SP2, and will leave the installed programs and Data intact...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

See if anything in the first thread jogs your memory?

Stopping of the Print Spooler
thread779-686557

Wierd Network Printing Problem
thread1583-1400592

 

[aroostook]

BadBigBen: Thanks for your input. Yes, I have installed NEW drivers. Yes, I've run SFC. Repair reinstall right now is not an option.

I seriously remember there's a Magic Directory that, if you delete it, Windows rebuilds its driver database.

linney: Yes! The answer is in one of those links! Thank you! I'll give it a try today.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Give this a try

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275499

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[BadBigBen]

@efreak - that covers Win95 up to WinME... No go on the NT through Vista...

@aroostook - once you tried Linney's suggestions, and you do not find a FIX then a REPAIR or FRESH install are the only options left...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[electronicsfreak]

woops didnt realize that, just did a quick search and posted lol. Should have read more, sorry about that

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[linney]

Whereas this 95 - ME, article does not work on XP or Vista, you'd be surprised how many old MSKB's do have some solution value for later operating systems.

 

[eyec]

i sometimes had problems with HP printers and had to not only unistall them but had to edit the registry to remove previous installs of the driver/printer. once i did that & re-installed the printer it cleared the problem.

might be woth a try here.

 

[aroostook]

Thanks for your input guys.

Removing everything in the 2 and 3 folders under \winnt\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 (and the rest of the instructions that went with it) seems to have helped so far. It wasn't EXACTLY the thing I was looking for.

There IS a directory in the system32 folder that, if you delete it, you can even HEAR your computer rebuild all the drivers. It forces Windows to build every driver anew, as I recall. If anyone remembers or knows what I'm talking about, I'd like to have that little trick in my arsenal if I need to use it.

Thanks again!

 

[linney]

I'd like to know too, but alas it is not something I have come across, at least not the way you describe it.

 

[BadBigBen]

C:\windows\inf\infcache.1 is the file[\b] that would need to be deleted...

if I remember right...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[aroostook]

Yes, I remember it being a cache..."infcache.1" doesn't ring a bell, though...I'll have to look into it further.

Thanks again

 

[linney]

How-to: Find “lost” Windows Vista Drivers when adding a new device

http://www.texxors.com/2007/05/09/how-to-find-lost-windows-vista-drivers-when-adding-a-new-device/