Client has a peer to peer network consisting of 13 Win7 Pro (32 bit) clients and 1 Win 2008 (32 bit) server (mostly used for file sharing), upon which a Point-of-Sale application runs. One of the client systems has a shared USB chit printer (generic/text only) which was used by most of the other clients such that when a bar or food order was placed, the order would print at the chit printer for handling. All was working well and had been since October 2010 when the system was installed. All the client users are logged in as standard users. Upon updating the clients with SP1, all the clients that previously had access to the shared USB printer suddenly started to report that the printer driver needed installation and gave the option to proceed to do so. Upon electing to go ahead with the printer driver installation, it appeared to load a couple of files as indicated by the progress bar and then stopped showing error 0x000003e3 "could not connect". A removal of the USB printer from the remote clients and an attempt to (re)install results in the same sceanrio. The printer is discovered during a network search and installation does seem to start, but always results in the same error. I have also tried to install as a local printer on the Server using \\systemname\printername to no avail. The other shared printers are IP based rather than USB and instead of being shared through a client are shared through the Server. They are used as Chit printers for the same purpose as well, but no client system was needed at their locale; hence why IP based. These continue to work fine. I ended up having to install another IP based printer as a temporary fix and changed all the clients to point to that rather than the USB share and it works fine; however, it cost the use of another printer and consumed needed desk real estate that the customer would like to recover. Only after installing SP1 did the issue crop up. It seems to be a permissions issue , but even logged into the server as an admin and ensuring that all the clients are set for network/file/printer sharing in both public and private mode, the issue persists. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Larry

Does the printer still work on the machine that it's physically attached to? If so, then it's not a driver issue, more likely as you suspect a permissions issue, or firewall. You realize it's also possible to use the USB-attached printer as an IP-based printer right? Enable LPD/LPR on all the boxes and open up TCP port 515 incoming and outgoing on all the firewalls. You would then be able to connect to the printer using the same method you'd use for a regular networked printer except you'd use the Windows machine's IP for the server's address and the printer's share name for the queue.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the printer functions fine with the system to which it is physically attached. Only when I try and use a client does the issue arise. I will try the other suggestion and get back to you. It just baffles me why when it worked like a charm before it fails to now after SP1. I want to do some more experimenting, but unfortunately the client has extended operating hours and is open 7 days a week. Again thanks for the suggestion. Larry

Hi, How is it going? I would appreciate it if you could drop me a note to let me know the status of the issue. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. Best Regards Magon Liu TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I tried your suggestion. The printer connected and all appeared fine. I used the macines IP and the printer name. I disabled the firewalls for the test and intslled LPD/LPR. When I directed a printjob to the printer and then opened the "see what's printing" window, the document looked like it was going to go, but then the staus reported back "printer busy". Stopping and starting the printer spooler, canceling and retrying and rebooting the system resulted in no change. I removed the printers, removed the drivers and tried again from both the client hosting the shared printer and the client from which I wanted to use to connect to the remote printer. There are two users account on each of the client machines: "admin" with administrative privileges and POS_USER (point of sale user) with standard privileges. The network is established as "WORK" with network discovery = 'ON", printer and file sharing = "ON", public folder sharing ="OFF", Password protected sharing = "OFF". The POS_USER account is not password protected as it is the account that mutiple wait-staff use to gain access to the POS application. All systems are a part of the same workgroup and I can still see all network systems and printers. The event logs showed the job being rendered and the sandbox of 0, but gave no error, the printer simply continued to show busy. I gave up on the IP/printer name suggestion and went back to the looking at the original USB set-up (following): After reinstalling the printer to the client hosting same, there was no problem printing locally. I could connect, install and print from the remote client if I was logged on to the local machine as admin with admin priviliges. When I tried to do the same as the POS_USER with standard prvileges, the connection would take place and then want to install the driver, but it was again at this point where the driver install failed with 0x000003e3 errors. This was done from the add printer command from the Devices & Printers path, from Start using the add network printer command. I also tried changing the POS_User from a standard user to an Admin privileged user and tried. Same result, the driver would look like it would start and then fail. I then tried with a new user and admin privileges and again it failed. I was getting different error codes but these codes were not found in any of the MS submissions I tried. I also tried using the "Network" path from start and found the client hosting the printer and clicked on the System icon, it showed the printer and showed it as shared. I then right clicked and asked to connect to the printer and whereupon it asked for log-in credentials. At the time I was logged in on the remote client as a POS_USER and was unable to log in using any credentials supplied to include using the admin credentials with the remote computers name. Sharing permissions for print are enable for EVERYONE. In any event, I ran out of time as the client had to open business. I will be out for two weeks as I have another client in Ohio. They are up and running, but it is frustrating that what should be something simple with a shared USB printer over a peer to peer network is turning out to be so problematic. It was all working so well before the upgrade. What is even more interesting is that I had absolutely no problem using the same Win7 SP1 client that would not connect to the remote WIN7 SP1 client hosting the USB printer to connect to a WIndows XP machine running a USB HP laserjet. This same remote client also has the same local printer attached to it as the one that I need to connect to on the remote machne. While they are the same printer and use the same driver, the application uses them for different reasons. Local printing is not a problem. Again, thanks for any help.