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When I try to print from my ThinkPad to a printer shared through a Windows 7 Homegroup hosted by a desktop computer, I often have to restart the Print Spooler service several times before the job will go through. In particular, this problem occurs when the desktop is in sleep mode when the print job is started and then brought out of sleep mode after the print job has been kicked off.

Both computers are running Windows 7 32-bit edition with the latest patches.

I have tried the following with no improvement:

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3 Answers 3

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You can try this on the PC hosting the printer:

  1. Click Start , click Run , type “Devmgmt.msc” (without quotes) in the search box and press enter. The Device Manager window opens.
  2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
  3. Right-click a USB Root Hub in the list, and then click Properties. The USB Root Hub Properties dialog box is displayed.
  4. Click the Power Management tab.
  5. Click to clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box, and then click OK.
  6. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each USB Root Hub in the list.
  7. On the Action menu, click Scan for hardware changes. Windows recognizes the new device.
  8. Now follow the same steps for the network adapter as well.
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  • I already wrote that the desktop can detect and print to the printer. The issue is remote connectivity.
    – Zian Choy
    May 9, 2011 at 17:53
  • @zian That's not at all what moab is saying... he is telling you these are options that stop the desktop from putting the printer to sleep you should probably read steps 1-6 and not skip directly to step 7... +1 btw moab this will probably fix his issue. May 9, 2011 at 18:01
  • I actually tried all the steps and didn't skip directly to 7. The answer doesn't fix the problem.
    – Zian Choy
    May 9, 2011 at 20:02
  • Do you have any 3rd party security software installed on either W7 PC?
    – Moab
    May 10, 2011 at 14:59
  • No, I do not. <filler>
    – Zian Choy
    Mar 17, 2012 at 3:02
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Print spooler issues are usually caused by a faulty driver, and the best way to repair them is to completely reinstall the driver, as follows:

First delete the printer. Then select any other printer and click on the Printer Server Properties link that pops up. Click the Drivers tab, and delete any instances of the printer from the list. Now reinstall the driver, ideally from the CD or a downloaded driver, as it's possible the driver on the sharing PC is also corrupt.

To install from CD you may have to install it as a local printer first (select LPT1 as the port) and then connect to the share.

If reinstalling fixes the problem, I would recommend doing the same on the sharing PC as well.

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  • This didn't fix the problem.
    – Zian Choy
    Jun 23, 2012 at 19:55
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The solution is to throw away the shared printer and buy a printer that can hook up to the network as an independent device complete with network sharing abilities.

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    While I agree with the sentiment, it would be nice if specific problem could be solved. Oct 22, 2012 at 2:59

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