hp deskjet 5550 disappeared, will not install

[BradN]

My printer has been installled and working for months, until today. I tried to print an email, and it informed me that I needed to install a printer. So, I go to the "Printers and Faxes" panel, click "Add Printer", and it says Operation could not be completed". I uninstalled the driver, to start completely over. I unplugged the printer, plugged it back in, and the "Add New Hardware" dialog comes up, and says "RPC server is unavailable". I have googled for that error, and everything I find has to do with networks, I am not on a network.

btw, it was on parallel cable, i tried to use it again, but it would not do anything, so I switched to USB.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm going to go flying off on the virus tangent this time, instead of the power-supply tangent, since there are some RPC-related exploits out there. How's your firewall and antivirus defenses, and is your Windows installation all patched up?

If you might conceivably have an RPC/DCOM exploit going on, then start by disabling System Restore. Patch the system at Windows Update if possible, and go back repeatedly until you've got all the Critical Updates. Now burn McAfee Stinger and ZoneAlarm basic to a CD. If you don't have any antivirus software, get Grisoft AVG Free Edition if you're eligible (see the license) and burn that installer and the emailed serial number onto CD as well.

Now you're armed. Restart in Safe Mode, and run Stinger on all your hard drives and partitions (by default it picks C: only). Install ZoneAlarm and Grisoft AVG, restart, update your regular antivirus definitions or your Grisoft AVG, enable Heuristics and leave no files exempt from scanning, and schedule daily virus-definition updates. A hardware cable/DSL router/firewall box is a great first line of defense between your cable/DSL modem and your computer, and they're not that expensive either.

Sorry if that seems not to have anything to do with DeskJet 5550's It's the only thing coming to mind. Anyone else?

 

[BradN]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm going to go flying off on the virus tangent this time, instead of the power-supply tangent, since there are some RPC-related exploits out there. How's your firewall and antivirus defenses, and is your Windows installation all patched up?

If you might conceivably have an RPC/DCOM exploit going on, then start by disabling System Restore. Patch the system at Windows Update if possible, and go back repeatedly until you've got all the Critical Updates. Now burn McAfee Stinger and ZoneAlarm basic to a CD. If you don't have any antivirus software, get Grisoft AVG Free Edition if you're eligible (see the license) and burn that installer and the emailed serial number onto CD as well.

Now you're armed. Restart in Safe Mode, and run Stinger on all your hard drives and partitions (by default it picks C: only). Install ZoneAlarm, restart, update your regular antivirus definitions or your Grisoft AVG, enable Heuristics and leave no files exempt from scanning, and schedule daily virus-definition updates. A hardware cable/DSL router/firewall box is a great first line of defense between your cable/DSL modem and your computer, and they're not that expensive either.

Sorry if that seems not to have anything to do with DeskJet 5550's It's the only thing coming to mind. Anyone else?

NAV and XP are both updated. NAV scans find nothing, ad-aware/spybot finds nothing. System Restore stays disabled. I don't have a firewall, but will try out ZoneAlarm. I will also try Stinger. I don't really think it is an exploit, but I will try this.

btw, thanks for the quick reply.

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing You could also look in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and see if the RPC service is set to Automatic (yes = good for your purposes).

I have a feeling I'm missing something but I wasn't able to find anything relevant at HP's site about it. Maybe I'll go hunting at Microsoft's site next... stay tuned

 

[mechBgon]

Darn, nothing relevant at Microsoft's site (searched for "hp deskjet RPC")

 

[BradN]

RPC is set to auto, and is started when i tried.

RPC locator, however, is set to manual, and when I try to start it, I get this error:

Could not start RPC Locator on local computer
Error 1069: The service did not start due to a logon failure.

I am going to try the other things in the morning, I don't really have time to fool with it at the moment.