Spooler open printing job fail since the uSB Share Switch is not running !

[Jeff]

When trying to print to a USB printer from a Dell inspiron 8600 today, I can't get past the error message "Spooler open printing job fail since the USB Share Switch is not running !"

Has anyone encountered this before? Windows XP Pro SP1.

Many thanks in advance.

[Jeff]

No change with SP2. Does anyone even know what the "USB Share Switch" that is not running is in this case? Some service which is supposed to run? For what purpose? At first I thought it was referring to some hardware component vs. a windows service I've not heard of before, but no, my friend says they've always connected their printer directly to the usb port via usb cable only. They were using a Dell printer with their Dell laptop, but today connected a canon and let Windows XP automatically install it when they connected it, and then started getting this error. Connecting my Epson via usb cable yielded the same error message when attempting to print - it finds the printer, installs the correct driver, but will not print anything with this spooler error message.

Does anyone know what this "USB Share Switch" that the Spooler complains about is on this system?

[Don]

Dell sells a Belkin 2X1 USB Peripheral Switch that is software-driven and allows a printer to be shared among two computers. It's small and USB-powered and would probably appear to your friends to be specific to the Dell printer.

If this is the source of the problem, you should find the Belkin software in Add or Remove Programs.

--
Don

[Jeff]

Thank you VERY much Don - that was it. I guess they had no idea they had a USB share switch attached to the Dell printer at their other home; they had been using it for 6 months but I guess never used the share swtich for sharing, etc. so it just sat there inline. Oh well, sometimes the obvious is the obvious, but I sure apprecaite you pointing me back in the right direction.