“The requested resource is in use” Fix – Printer Port Delete

Possible cause of “The requested resource is in use” error

I received the “The requested resource is in use” error, when tried to install my new printer. There were some problems with the printer installation from HP installer. So, I did a repair and there were two “USB001” printer ports. One was “Local port” and another “Virtual printer port for USB”. Apparently, the working port was Virtual and not Local. For some particular reason, selecting Virtual port and applying didn’t change a thing. So, the solution was to delete the non-working printer port. When I tried to delete the “USB001: Local port” – I received this error.

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First of all, how do you check the printer ports on your computer? We’re going to discuss 2 options. First option is using the graphical interface from Control Panel and the second is powershell (will be discussed later).
1. Open “Print Management”

Control Panel => Administrative Tools => RightClick “Print Management” => Run as Administrator”

2. Navigate to “Ports”

Print Management => Print Servers => *** Name of Your Computer *** => Ports

*** From here you can also delete your ports (this is how I got the error).

Fixing the printer port deletion error

What to do when you try to delete a printer port and you get an error “The requested resource is in use”?
1. Disconnect the USB cable of your printer from your computer
2. Stop the “Printer Spooler” service
2.1. Hold [Win] key and press [R]
2.2. Type

Services.msc

Click [OK]
2.3. Find “Print Spooler” service
2.4. Right Click it
2.5. Click [Stop]
3. Open “Registry Editor”
3.1. Hold [Win] and press [R]
3.2. Type

Regedit.exe

4. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors

5. Here you will find your printer driver. Mine was from HP so the name was “HP1100LM”. Use some logic; most probably, your driver will have some naming convention that involves company name and a model. Anyway, your printer will not be any of these:

Appmon
Local Port
Microsoft Shared Fax Monitor
Standard TCP/IP Port
USB Monitor
WSD Port

6. Right Click your driver key and Click [Delete]
7. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

And delete your printer key from here also
8. Navigate to “Devices and Printers”:

Control Panel => Devices and Printers

9. If you still have your printer here then remove it

Right Click the printer name => Remove Device

10. Restart the computer
11. Check that printer spooler service is running. After the Restart, it should start “Automatically”.
12. Open powershell
12.1. Hold [Win] and press [R] key
12.2. Type

Powershell.exe

Click [OK]
13. Execute

Get-PrinterPort

*** Get-PrinterPort Cmdlet will show you all the ports that are available on your computer. Mine is “USB001” port, so I will delete it.
14. Use Remove-PrinterPort Cmdlet in Powershell:

Remove-PrinterPort –Name “USB001”

*** When you use the name of the port there might be a Colon (“:”) in the name, like “COM1:”. If you have name of the port like in the example – you will need to add the colon also and it will look like:

Remove-PrinterPort –Name “COM1:”

The “PrinterPort” cmdlets can be used only when Printer Spooler service is running. If not – you will get an error. If you wrote the name of the printer wrong, you will also get an error.
15. Restart again
16. Follow the manufacturer instructions installing your printer.