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#51
Your suggestion made me find out how to open Control Panel in Windows !
It looked promising. I got as far as Printers where it said "Problem is Print spooler not running" (Which is correct).
Pressed the button Start Print Spooler. Quite a lot of activity, Then "cannot fix problem".
I'm sure this is the cause of the difficulties.
I decided to try Microsoft Support and chose Chat. The first Answers Tech (as they call them) wasn't much good and said he would have to transfer me to another department in California - I must phone this 800 number. I explained that I have a serious hearing problem and Telephone Support is always difficult. He was understanding but seemed unable to help so I gave up. I tried again and got another Answers Tech, Francis B, who seemed to understand better. When I said I thought it was a Windows 10 software problem involving Print Spooler, he said he was sure they could fix that. He asked if he could take over the computer and I agreed and signed the necessary authorisation. From then on I was connected to him for two and a half hours ! The first thing he said was to get the necessary Windows Updates including one for Windows 10 on 64 bit computers. Sounded promising. The download and installation took over an hour. he then started working on Device Manager and in short time had two of the computers showing up with full name instead of "unidentified device". He then worked on other settings and getting drivers and got them and installed them. I could see all this happening and was most encouraged. After more than two hours, he said we just need to reboot now and pressed the button. Rebooting is always slow but this time was even longer for so much had to be installed and activated. Finally I had a normal start and my normal home screen BUT nothing seemed to have changed. The printer names had disappeared in Device Manager and in the Printers screen two of the printers were there with the same notification as before "driver unavailable". Finally the screen on which we had been communicating had disappeared and the reappeared marked closed by Answers Tech. You can imagine my disappointment. The reboot seemed to have reinstalled all my old settings before his changes.
This morning I found a very nice e-mail from Windows Support saying that the contact had been perhaps terminated by the Reboot. I should click on this link to reconnect with the same Answers Tech. I waited until I thought the same people might be on duty. Alas the link did not connect me to Francis B but to someone else who was a lot less helpful. I did not want to take a lot of time telling the whole story again and I did not want someone else doing all of the same things all over again. He said it was not possible to connect me but Francis B might telephone me if he had my number. He has. So I am still waiting and hoping. Hope I am not boring all followers of this thread !
Hi again - can we start from scratch (Sorry)
Have you ever installed Kaspersky anti virus? (This has been known to cause problems.) I wonder if the print spooler won't start because your printers installation is faulty.
If you open Control Panel>Programs>Uninstall a program - can you see any HP printer software, if so click un-install.
Then select Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Device Manager and select each unidentified printer and press the delete key. (If prompted, check un-install or remove driver.
Reboot your PC and switch one of the printers on - Then open Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Device Manager select your PC name and then click on Action>Scan for Hardware Changes
What is displayed?
UKmedia
I have never used Kapersky. I use AVG and am pretty sure it is not causing trouble. I will come back after I have tried your other suggestion.
I have just now - 22 Aug - when reviewing the thread, which is now on its 6th page ! A number of other people jumped in and you dropped out. I was sorry because I thought your comparison of the registry entries for Spooler were interesting and promising. Oh and I did upgrade from W7 Professional. As you can see I have had lots of help but nothing has solved the problem. I am becoming more convinced that the Spooler is at the heart of the problem and I am wondering if The Failure Actions have something to do with it. Your Registry entry is quite different from mine although we probably both chose Restart the Service in Spooler Properties. Do you think that I could with Regit simply delete the long entry and the computer would supply another code if I picked the actions again in Properties?