Windows 7: Unable to print "The printer has not yet responded, but the ..."

I am unable to print from any program. Printers seemed to be installed OK. When I select print, the program freezes and displays the message "The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without printer information. Do you want to continue to wait for the printer?". If I say no I get the printer dialogue box with the printer line blank, but all printers displayed below the bank line. If I select one of the printers I get the message "The active directory domain services is currently unavailable".
I tried googling the problem, but cannot find an answer. Any ideas?

Hi, are you using any printer sharing (USB device share) software? This can cause such behaviour. Additionally it could be a USB glitch - have you tried changing the printer to another USB port? If it's a network printer or you are trying to access a printer on another workstation then there would be other steps to take...

Obviously you need a printer that has sufficient consumables on hand, and silly as it sounds, make sure there are no paper jams...

Tagging along with Qdos....If not sharing the printer go into control panel/devices and printers/remove all printers/unplug USB connection/reboot.
After your system has started then plug in the printer's usb connection and Windows 7 should find a new device is being added.
I have been down that road before and the steps above corrected mine.
Post back if more help needed.