HP Laserjet Pro 4001

[ReallyOnaRoll]

After setting up the Laserjet Pro 4001n, connected by USB to a Windows 11 workstation and shared it to our office's simple workgroup network, I had problems getting another computer in our workgroup to set it up. By the way, this computer had recently received Windows Update , version 24H2 - maybe that changed security settings?)

I could see the 4001 printer connected to that computer (print server) through the printer icon in File Explorer on the icon for the machine I was trying to set it up on, but when I right click selected "Connect" - it would go through the install paces and then give error message "Network not Available". Other times, it would error about "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Error 0x00000490" and "No driver found." Although the driver showed in the Print Server Drivers box.

On the HP Drivers page, I tried HP Smart, HP Print and Scan Doctor, HP Park, and the other drivers, but nothing worked. I used /sfc to ensure the Windows files weren't corrupted, and other of those types of maintenance ideas. Checked Firewall, Antivirus stuff, USB cable, something about mscms.dll, Windows Troubleshooter, Windows Updates options, opened up user Security permissions and granted full use to "Everyone", examined the "Hosts" file - lots of ideas but NOTHING WORKED!

All very frustrating and lots of time lost chasing this down the "rabbit hole".  Finally, I found a helpful clue by going to the original machine (that has the 4001n connected by USB and shared). I looked at the Administrative Events - System Event Logs. One of the entries was a "Warning" from the time I had tried to install the printer over the network on the new machine. "Remote calls to the SAM database have been denied in the past 900 seconds throttling window. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=787651.

This explained that certain recent versions of Windows were being restricted from anonymously accessing folders on machines that hold drivers needed to install things like PRINTERS! Which led me to ask my AI Gemini about entries in the machine's Windows Registry called "RestrictAnonymous" and "RestrictAnonymousSAM" which control anonymous access to network shares and to the Security Accounts Manager SAM Database. Therefore, changing the entries from "1" to "0" fixed the problem (I also typed "services.msc" and restarted the service called "Server". 

I was FINALLY able to go to the new machine and right click "Connect" on the icon for the shared Laserjet Pro 4001 and it all installed fully!!! (Don't forget to change back the settings to "1", because after the install, using the 4001 printer doesn't require accessing those secure folders anymore. Hope this helps some of you burning the midnight oil as I was. 

[ReallyOnaRoll]

PS: Here's the Registry path for those SAM settings I referenced above (Be careful and set them back after the install finishes)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\