problem with devices and printers

Question

I'm having problems with Devices and Printers.  I have a printer hooked up to this computer, and it is shared on my home network.  Other computers on the network got to where they can't use this printer.  It locks them up if you try to print to it.  Printing from this computer is OK.

I went to Control panel/Devices and Printers.  The green progress bar starts off like it is going to finish in less than a minute, but then it gets slower and slower and slower.  It takes a very long time for the green bar to get all the way across - about 10 minutes or more.  

When it finally gets done, it shows up HP 1100 series printer and the more specific HP P1100w, which is set to the default printer.  I tried to delete these, with the intention of reinstalling the printer.  They said that they were being deleted, but they didn't go away.  I tried rebooting, etc.  Windows 8.1 is up to date.  

I downloaded the printer installation software and ran it.  

It still takes about 10 minutes or more for the green bar to go all of the way across.  How can I fix this?

PS - Sometimes I have a similar thing when trying to pick a folder to save a file - it will take an extremely long time to bring up the folder to pick.  I don't know if this is related or not.

Answer 1

I wrote that message while I was waiting for the Devices and Printers window to come up.  This time when it finally came up, the generic "1100 series" printer icon was gone, but it still took 10 minutes or more.

Answer 2

PS - and white it is taking 13 minutes to come up with the Devices and Printers window, Windows Explorer is taking up 26% of my CPU on a quad-core hyperthreaded i7.

Answer 3

This may be related.  A few minutes ago I right-clicked on a JPG to show the "open with" programs.  The menu wouldn't come up - the blue circle kept spinning.  I could not close it.  Down in the task bar, right click and "close window" would not work.

I've had this happen a few times before.  I have to shut down the computer to clear it out.

After I shut down the computer, pressing the power button would not work - it would not come on.  After I unplugged it and plugged it back in, the power button worked.

I've got all the updates (except Silverlight, which has caused me problems).  I'm using Windows Defender and Malware Bytes.  I've run Microsoft Safety Scanner (I don't know if that does anything that Defender doesn't).

Answer 4

This seems to have started sometime after I went from W8 to 8.1.

If I pin it to the task bar, it stays there.  With it open, I did a refresh and it refreshed in about 15 seconds.  If I unpin it, close it, and then call it up from the control panel, it takes about 13 minutes to come up.  Until it comes up, the Devices and Printers window shows the Control Panel.  Then a few seconds (5-10) before it comes up, it shows "this folder is empty", but 22 items, then it populates the window.

Anyone? ... Anyone?

Answer 5

I timed it, and it took 13 minutes for the Devices and Printers to come up.  This is on a quad-core i7 with 16GB of RAM.