How to Get HP and Canon Printers Working in Snow Leopard

Since two different printers of the same model behave this way on the same computer, but works good on other computers, it sound like the printer drivers and the operating system (or at least some module/service of it) are experiencing some kind of incompatibility.

I am not sure what partition configuration you have on computer or if you even think it is worth doing what I am about to suggest for a potential fast-solution; you may try to reinstall the operating system (or make a dualboot) and see if the printer will work for more than "a few days" that way.

The problem is fixed now. Below is what I did to fix it (after the steps attempted that I listed in the question).

I attempted loading the registry keys for the print spooler from a working Windows 7 machine (see comment from "WindowsAdminGuru") and rebooting the computer, but there was no evident change and I don't think that was the solving factor.

What did make a difference was twofold:

First, I followed the steps listed here to:

• Stop the print spooler (which was actually already stopped) through Windows-R -> cmd -> services.msc -> print spooler -> stop.
• Delete all files from the three directories C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86, C:\Windows\system32\spool\printers, and C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\x64, although in my case there were only files present in the third of these, x64.
• Start the print spooler (from the window which I already had open, but which was accessed through Windows-R -> cmd -> services.msc -> print spooler -> start.)

This made a change, and I was then able to download the drivers from the manufacturer and install the printer again. (The driver didn't show up in "Windows Update," which froze, but I successfully downloaded it through Google Chrome and ran the installer/setup wizard with no trouble.)

But, although I successfully got a test page printed, weird things continued to happen:

Three printers showed up in the "Printers and Devices" window, two duplicates of the printer we wanted, plus a "Fax" version of the same printer name but with a different icon. None of them worked. When I tried to print from Notepad, I got a different error and then the print spooler quit (and all the printers disappeared from the list). I'd kept services.msc open and I tried starting it, but it quit again.

On one of these tries I got error 1067. Googling that, I found and followed directions to:

• Stop the print spooler (which was already stopped)
• Remove every registry key from hkey_local_machine -> system -> currentcontrolset -> control -> print -> providers, except for "Internet Print Provider" and "LanMan Print Services" (which in my case were the only two there)
• Remove every registry key from hkey_local_machine -> system -> currentcontrolset -> control -> print -> printers. This had one entry, which was the printer we'd been having so much trouble with! I removed it.
• Restart the print spooler (from services.msc which I still had open).

Print spooler didn't die again this time.

Next I went to the "Add Printer" dialogue, which also didn't die (so far so good!) and clicked "Add local printer" (Note: The "Add network printer" option was not present at all!), then "Use an existing port," chose the standard TCP/IP port already listed that the printer was on, then received a choice:

It said that the printer driver was already installed, and I had the choice to use the installed driver, or reinstall the driver. I chose "reinstall the driver." That took several minutes.

With that completed, the printer is now working perfectly with no hitches. :)