Virus is unninstalling printer drivers - please help!

[Nedzad]

Hi,
Since one month ago my network printers are disabled and drivers deleted
several times a day! The only way for printers to work again is if I
reinstall drivers. Does anybody have this problem?
PLEASE HELP!!! It is so anoying!
Thank You in advance.
Nedzad

[Jurren Bouman]

"Nedzad" <ned...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:OdTNoP1u...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Do you have any anti-virus software installed?
if not then do an online scan at Panda:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

Do you also have a firewall installed?
If not then download a free copy of ZoneAlarm from this website:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

Remove any spyware from your computer by downloading and installing Adaware,
which you can download from this website:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

Please post back any results and with more information about your computer
like what version of Windows you're on.

--
Jurren Bouman
MVP Windows - Security

[David H. Lipman]

I know of the Bugbear generating spurious print jobs but I really have not heard of nor do
I believe there is ANY virus that deletes printers. Sounds more like a OS corruption.

Dave

"Nedzad" <ned...@juno.com> wrote in message news:OdTNoP1u...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

[Robert Moir]

Why do you think this is a virus? As David says, there is nothing in this
behaviour that is typical of a virus. Is there something else you are not
telling us that points that way?

Have you considered a virus scanner?

If you are using operating systems that keep event logs, what do those logs
say?

--
--
Rob Moir
Microsoft MVP for servers & security
Website - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk
Virtual PC 2004 FAQ - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html

[Bill Sanderson]

That's a pretty interesting symptom, and one that I can't recall ever seeing
or hearing about.

In addition to what David Lipman and Jurren Bouman have asked/suggested, I'd
like to hear what version of Windows you are running, and more specifics
about the printers and network involved.

I doubt that this is a virus, but with a little more info we might minimally
be able to refer you to a more appropriate group.

"Nedzad" <ned...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:OdTNoP1u...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

[Ned B.]

Hi,
Thank you for your response.
I have 3 computers with Win XP and 10 with Win 98 SE
Printers are: Two HP 1000 LaserJet. Network is simple peer to peer. It is
affecting most often Wi 98 SE machines but Win XP machines are also
affected. I am getting message that I need to set default printer prior to
printing (most often when trying to run Access reports ). After Mr. Bouman
suggested to run anti virus software I did that but no virus was detected. I
unninstalled printer drivers and everything which was related with printers,
went to HP support site, downloaded new updated drivers, installed them and
I was without problems for ALMOST THREE DAYS! After that it started again
with much greater frequency. I searched Google newsgroups and found people
with same type of problem (
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win2000/r1068063589 ) but no answer.
So please help if you can!
Thank You.

"Bill Sanderson" <Bill_Sa...@msn.com.plugh.org> wrote in message
news:eIjbE83u...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

[Bill Sanderson]

That's of some help.

I suspect that rather than something mysterious removing drivers from your
systems, you have a networking issue of some sort which is causing the
systems to lose track of each other. Perhaps
microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web would be most appropriate, but I've
got some further questions:

What network protocol(s) are in use on this workgroup lan?
If there is more than one protocol, have you considered moving to a single
protocol, presumably TCP/IP?

"Ned B." <ned...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:OJ3A0CUv...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...