Hi,
While home visiting, I am as usual being used as tech-support and am
attempting to fix a problem with my parents' system.
Recently, and out of the blue, they stopped being able to print to their
lexmark printer. They were advised to un-install and re-install the software.

Having un-installed all lexmark software, so with no printers currently
installed, they get the following problem:
When trying to install a printer, if the printer spooler service is running
the following error message is shown: "Operation could not be completed"
(informative, huh?)
On trying again, the following message appears: "Operation could not be
completed. The print spooler service is not running)".

In both cases, no error codes are given. The text of the message is exactly
as quoted above, in it's entirety. Not very helpful...

Through some investigation using the Computer Management tool's Services
snap-in (which I am informed is the same as services.msc), I have found that
when the print spooler has been started, and I attempt to install a printer,
I get "Operation could not be completed" and the service appears to stop
itself. However, nothing appears in any of the three logs shown in the Event
Viewer to indicate what has happened or why.

It has also been suggested that I remove any remaining dependancies on
services installed by the Lexmark software by entering the following in a
command prompt:

sc config spooler depend= RPCSS

On trying this I get the following message:

[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

However, even after this, the problem remains. This suggests that it is not
being caused by dependancy issues.

Any assistance you could give me would be greatly welcome.
Dan Hutty