Windows cannot connect to printer. Error 7e

Trying to connect to a printer on the network, but it shows this error on every computer I tried.

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Windows cannot connect to printer. Error 0x0000007e

The printer works fine from the server where it sits, I also tried installing the driver manually on a client computer, still doesn’t work. I tried changing the driver it uses on the server, no joy either.

The solution seems to be deleting some key in the registry. I consulted with an HP print driver developer, he was the one who suggested deleting the key.

The hot fix (suggested by Microsoft) corrects an issue when the print driver changes the default file location and the spooler does not reset and loses track of where the next file is. The issue you are hitting is a setting on the printer that points to a 32bit version of a driver file which the 64 client bit machine (your client should be 64 bit) will not download.

HP does not setup the pointer to the file when installing the printer using the 64bit version of the driver on the server so they have addressed this when installing the printer on 64bit.

Here is how you do it. Connect to your server, start “regedit” and go on :

HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintPrintersNameOfYourPrinterCopyfiles

And delete the “BIDI” key, try again to install your printer, it should works.