Cannot add printer - Printer Ports is empty...

Nothing in the Event Viewer

What model printer are you trying to connect?

is the printer on a network? or is it plugged into another computer and shared or is it plugged into this computer?

TBH I have not seen a locally attached printer in years that needs you to manually select a port.  If its a USB printer then in will install the port itself.

Always follow the manufacturers instructions for installing.

It sounds like a registry issue from what I can tell. If that's the case then your options are:

1. Copy the printer port keys, and possibly USB or other needed keys from a known good system and replace the corrupted ones. This can be complicated due to different configurations and numerous keys involved.

2. Try a registry repair program such as CCleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

3. Perform a repair install http://www.matthewglover.co.uk/2010/06/29/how-to-do-a-repair-install-to-fix-windows-7/

There may be other options, but these are the top three I can come up with at the moment. Good luck figuring it out ;)

The Port selection is  symptom of the underlying problem, the fact that no ports are listed is part of the issue itself.
The printer model isn't relevant since no type of printer can be installed at all, but for the record it is a Photosmart 310.
Attaching with a USB cable gives the same result as the network install, "printer installation failed".
Something is stopping any type of port, network or local, from being created at all.

BlueThunda, I did a CCleaner reg repair before posting, didn't do it.
The repair install was going to be a last ditch effort...
I wasn't sure what registry keys to export, but that was a though of mine too. Any idea which keys I should get from a working machine?

Thanks for all the quick suggestions!

The ones you would need are most likely the Local Port keys and the USB Monitor keys. You can run regedit and find them by searching for Local Port or USB Monitor.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Monitors\Local Port
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Print\Monitors\Local Port
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\Local Port
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Monitors\USB Monitor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Print\Monitors\USB Monitor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\USB Monitor

Try those as a first effort, and you may need to dig deeper to the actual Printer Port keys or associated .dll or .inf files, but hopefully it will take less work rather than more ;)

is the printer port enabled in the bios?  normally in the integrated devices section

The BIOS setting doesn't matter either,as it is a USB printer, LPT, network, or serial for that matter. Thanks though!

why does the nios setting not matter?  on many boards you can enable, or disable usb

No printer can be installed, LPT, USB, Network, Serial, PDF Creator, any type of printer.

But, yes, in the BIOS, all USB ports are enabled.
When the printer is attached through a USB port it finds the hardware, begins the installation then bombs like the other examples above.

Use the Device anager to remove then reinstall the printer and com ports then see if they are available in the Add Printer.

then i suppose your OS can be corrupt
you can run sfc - or a repair install then to fix it : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html            repair windows 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html         SFC

"but eventually fails with a 'printer installation failed" message."

Can you please post a screenshot of the failed install?

I'd suggest a quick look at the Print Server in services to make sure it is started.

Ended up reinstalling... thanks for the help though!!