This is a technical question regarding a printer driver install for a
Hewlett Packard Printer, although it could be any printer. The
computer will not allow any printer to be added - it says, simply
"unable to create file" and then, just before the printer is added,
the installation just disappears.

This is under Windows XP Pro.  I suspect its a registry or folder
problem, or maybe a problem with the computer locking up some kind of
file. We did extensive uninstalls and cleanups to try to get this
going.

What is the solution?

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Request for Question Clarification by gregaw-ga on 24 Jul 2006 06:00 PDT

Just some basic troubleshooting steps:

1.  Download the latest driver from HP's website.
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html?pageDisplay=drivers

2.  Login as a different user.  Make sure that you have administrative rights.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783&sd=tech

3.  Uninstall any recently installed patches or software.

4.  You said it wouldn't let you install "any" printer.  Have you
tried to install a differnt printer?  If not, try hooking up and
installing a different printer if you have access to one.

Let me know if you have done all of this already or have any questions about it.

Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 24 Jul 2006 22:31 PDT

turner_rentz...

In researching this, I find one possible cause for this error being
that the file which the program is trying to write already exists,
but an error message is given vs overwriting the file.

In my experience with printer installation and removal with Windows
2000, which is very similar to XP, even when a printer is removed,
the drivers are often left intact and the registry maintains a 
record of them. They will be located in a directory like:
C:\WINNT or Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3 with the last
number reflecting a different installation. If there are no other
printers installed on the computer in question, it might be possible
to delete or temporarily move the directories in question and try
the installation again. If there are other printers installed, you
would need to ascertain which of these directories are associated
with the drivers of that/those printer(s) and make sure you don't
permanently eliminate or move those.

I currently have:

C:\WINNT or Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\2

and

C:\WINNT or Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3

but no

C:\WINNT or Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\1

and I seem to recall having needed to delete the latter in order
to successfully complete the installation of a new printer of the
same brand but different model number.

Let me know where this takes you...

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by turner_rentz-ga on 09 Aug 2006 16:08 PDT

Alright guys, we have the machine sequestered out - we ended up
actually taking the machine offline and replacing it (!!) for the fact
that the machine was behaving slowly.

I deleted the entire subdirectory cited in the post below under the \spool\
parent directory (just the levels down '1', '2' and so on).

the machine is now in that state, and I am just watching it to see if
we can zero in on the problem. It seems as though the deletion of
those directories
may have done it. I am working under the hypothesis that whatever we
do, will both speed up the machine and fix the problem so I am not
re=installing just yet as much as I am watching machine performance.

I have to make you very unhappy. I am proficient with computer
troubleshooting, but I did not manage to install an HP scanner on my
laptop. Below are a few things to consider.

1) Try installing software from the website and not from CD.

2) Clean the registry first.

3) Uninstall all other HP products.

4) Try installing a minimal version of the software. CDs usually have
multiple versions of the software. The main software for my scanner
was a hog, but the minimal other version is sufficient.

I think I have found the answer - 

There was a font that had two unprintable squares in it, in the fonts folder. 
When I deleted that font - everything speeded up like crazy. Everywhere!!

Please copy the page below and paste it to a word pad file , then
choose save as and save the file as a batch file, (name should be
given as trial.bat) double click on the saved icon,



echo off
cls

echo.

Pause 

net stop spooler
cd %systemroot%\system32\spool\prtprocs\w32x86
ren brpp2ka.dll brpp2ka_old.dll

cd \bro\spoolerpatch
setup.exe

echo.
echo.
echo.

shutdown -r -t 10 -c "Your system will now restart to complete the process"

then try ti run the driver installation utility from cd..

should work fine...