Resolving 0x000003eb error occurring during printer installation

When you connect a printer (in any way: wireless or wired) and are going to print what you need, a window “Error 0x00000eb” suddenly appears with an explanation. The text of the postscript can be different: “Print device is not installed”, “Failed to connect a print device”, etc., although you already used it and everything worked perfectly. Most often, problems arise in Windows 7, where drivers for the printer need to be searched and installed independently, and printing is carried out through third-party programs, such as Canon My Printer. In Windows 10, there is a built-in service that quickly makes contact with equipment without manual control.

Fix error 0x000003eb when installing a printer.

Causes of errors and solutions

Error can occur for a number of reasons:

  • driver problems;
  • Windows Setup crash
  • crash in the registry.

A window with the code 0x000003eb often appears when you install a network printer (that is, one that is connected to several PCs at once). How to deal with this, we will tell further.

Testing the Windows Installer Service

First of all, it is worth checking whether something happened to the Windows installer, because the error "0x000003eb" that occurs during the installation of the printer may be associated with it.

  1. Click Win + R or type in “Search”: “Run”.
  2. In the application line write: “msc” without quotes and click “OK”.
  3. A list will appear in which you need to find the "Installer" and click on it twice.
  4. Assign an automatic start to it and confirm the action.
  5. Restart the OS.

Now you will need to reinstall the printer drivers, but the error should disappear.

Remove old drivers and install new ones

The actual problem for Windows 7, in which, as already mentioned, there are no services that support automatic interaction with any printer. Try the following:

  1. Open the "Control Panel" (via the "Start").
  2. On the left in the list, select the “Hardware and Sound” section, find the name of your printer and click on it.
  3. Above, the “Print Server Properties” line appears, expand it.
  4. Now, in the “Drivers” section, delete everything and reinstall them.

It happens that the drivers for the printer are written to the disk, which is included with the cords and instructions, but there is no disk drive on the laptop, and you have to either transfer the contents to a USB flash drive via another PC, or download from the site. Please note that you need to look for drivers on the hardware manufacturer's resource. For example, for Canon on the Canon website, etc. You need to select your model in the list, if you have a multifunction printer (printer, scanner, copier in one person), then look for the appropriate section. In addition to the drivers, you will need a program that controls the printer and printing - without it, if you connect the equipment to a PC on Windows 7, it will not work. The name of the program must correspond to the name of the manufacturer. For the scanner on the MFP one more utility is downloaded.

Removing printer key sections in the Windows registry

If you can not install the printer, you can try to remove information about it from the registry: after the PC it will be perceived as a new hardware, and the error will disappear.

  1. To start, in order to avoid problems, you need to make a copy of the registry: press Win + R and add the word “regedit” (without quotes) to the line. Click “Enter”, wait for the registry to open, right-click on the “Computer” icon and select “Export”. Specify a non-system partition for storage (for example, “Disk D” or USB flash drive) and start the copy process. If you accidentally damage the registry, you can restore it: open the file of the saved copy by double-clicking and click "Yes").

  2. Now back to the registry editor and find the folders: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Print \ Environments \ Windows NT x86 \ Drivers \ Version-3 and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Print \ Environments \ Windows x64 \ Drivers \ Version- 3 They need to get rid of.

  3. Next, open "Computer" - "Drive C" - Windows \ System32 \ spool \ drivers \ w32x86 \ 3. You do not need to open the last folder - just name it 3.old.
  4. Reconnect the printer.