# Can't access Devices and Printers



## HellsAttack (Feb 2, 2011)

I've got a brand new Asus G53jw-A1. I took some settings from my old Asus m50vm-B1 when I bought it. Now when I try to print, the G53 is using the settings of the m50vm and gives me an error saying it can't find a computer named m50vm-B1.

I'm hooking up the G53 to a HP Deskjet 6988 via USB and it won't print or even let me go to Devices and Printers so I can delete all the printers and let Windows recognize them fresh.

I tried searching my registry for all keys "m50vm-B1" and deleted them, then restarted. It didn't help.

Any advice?


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## LagunaGTO (Jan 28, 2011)

Unplug the printer from USB.

Go to *Start*, type in *services.msc* and press enter.

Locate *Print Spooler* and restart it, then re-attempt to load *Devices and Printers*.

Remove printers. Restart. Once Windows is fully loaded, plug the printer back in.


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## HellsAttack (Feb 2, 2011)

I tried restarting and trying to access Printers and Devices and it did the same thing.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a392/codak29/Untitled-2.png

It loads 95% of the way and just hovers there as it did before.


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## w7pro (Dec 30, 2010)

Yikes. This is a little extreme, but have you tried reinstalling Windows 7? I'm really baffled as to why you can't go to the device and printers window. The only thing I could think of is to do a clean install of the OS, or maybe go into device manager, but it sounds like you tried that as well.

-- Ryan
Windows Outreach Team


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## HellsAttack (Feb 2, 2011)

Haha, I don't know if I want to reinstall the entire OS just to get printers to work. There's got to be an easier way.


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## w7pro (Dec 30, 2010)

HellsAttack said:


> Haha, I don't know if I want to reinstall the entire OS just to get printers to work. There's got to be an easier way.


Yelling might help, but realistically, it's limiting if you can't access any of the devices/printers windows. I'm also stumped, sir.


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## LagunaGTO (Jan 28, 2011)

Devices/Printers not loading means that the Print Spooler is crashing hard core due to a bad print driver most likely on your PC somewhere. We just dealt with a site at my work having this problem. Once we got the drivers cleared out, everything was running smooth.

If you stop the Print Spooler service, I'm 100% confident that Devices and Printers will open (problem is, it won't show printers).

Alright, so here is what we're going to do:

Make sure that all printers are unplugged from your PC during this time:


Click *Start*, type "*Services.msc*" (without the quotation marks) in the Search box and press *Enter.*
Double-click "*Printer Spooler*" in the Services list.
Click *Stop* and click *OK*.
Click *Start*, type "*%WINDIR%\system32\spool\printers*" in the Start Search box and press *Enter*, delete all files in this folder.
Click *Start*, type "*Services.msc*" (without the quotation marks) in the Start Search box and press *Enter*.
Double-click "*Printer Spooler*" in the Services list.
Click on *Start*. In the Startup Type list, make sure that "*Automatic*" is selected and click *OK*.
After that, head to the *Control Panel*. Go to *Administrative Tools*. Go to *Print Management*.


Expand *Print Servers*
Expand your PC
Click on *Drivers *
Delete anything related to an actual driver for this printer
Click on *Printers*
Delete the Printer if it is listed.
If you receive errors trying to remove it, let me know and we will need to do more.

If not, reboot your PC and attempt to open *Devices and Printers *again.


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