Printer driver

Hi folks, so glad to see this board back up and running. Now to my question.

My sister-in-law's computer does not recognize her printer. It was fine up until a couple of days ago and then all of a sudden no printer. I have tried to delete the driver and reinstall but for some reason it will not all me to delete the driver. This is an HP printer. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Lorreen

 

If i remeber rightly, HP are fairly anal when it comes to their printer drivers. Are you trying to deal with drivers in the normal way, i.e. goto the device manger etc, etc.

Find the original disc and use that, there will be an uninstall option in the prog, HP dont want to do things the correct way.

But for the record the usual method is to:

1) goto the manufacturer website and download the latest drivers.
2) unplug the offending printer
3) goto the device manager and delete the drivers
4) reboot
5) plug the offending printer back in
6) run the installer if supplied with the drivers or if not:
7) run the add printer wizard and point it to the new drivers wot you just downloaded.

Let us know what happens!

Dizz-E

 

In my experience the most common cause of losing the printer is a virus of some sort. Scan for virus' first, then uninstall the printer and then reinstall it. If the driver had been updated since it was installed make sure you know where the new drivers is.

 

I tried all that last nite and it did not help

 

I don't mean to imply here that you are a dummie! Having said that - have you checked the connections?

The same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. After going crazy for three days I started to do a little detective work and found that the cat had gotten behind the printer and pulled one of the cable's wire clips loose causing the computer to not recognize the printer. After re-attaching the cable and clips securely Voila ! the printer and computer became re-acquainted and all has been well ever since. Well, except for my relationship with the cat.

Some times the easiest thing to miss is the obvious! HTH


Mike

 

Hi Lorreen:

Have you tried (if possible) to connect another printer to see if IT works. At least then you will know if it IS the printer or the PC.

I am not sure this will work, but you may try is to delete the printer via the Device Manager in "Safe Mode ". Hopefully it will then re-install when you re-boot.

Good Luck.

 

I tried deleting the drive, it didn't work - if I go out and buy another printer, will I have the same problems, will it be compatable, and if so, it works, I still have lost at the problem of getting that particular printer to work. Btw, it does work on another computer.

 

If there is nothing wrong with the printer, ie it works on another PC now, and it worked on the original PC up until a few days ago, then the problem should not be with the printer itself.

Double Left Click My Computer, Double Left Click the Printers Folder, Left Click the printer to be removed, to highlight it, then Right Click and select Delete.

If it is a USB Model, it can also be deleted by Right Clicking My Computer, Left Click Properties, Left Click Device Manager, Left Click the + sign next to the Printer USB Symbol, which will then show the actual printer, left click this and then click Remove.

This is a step which should not be necessary, but disconnect the printer and re-boot the machine.

After the re-start, shut down again, re-connect the printer, and then start-up again. Hopefully it will then recognize the printer and re-install the drivers.

Good Luck and keep everyone posted.

 

printer

We need to know what operating system & what interface? Win9X USB printer & printer model. You should not just "delete" the printer, as this will NOT remove critical data about the printer from the registry, program manager, start menu etc. Prolly the reason you "can't" delete is because there the printer ICON in the taskbar. Remove from "add remove hardware" list, or click Start/Settings/printers & select YOUR printer. Then click File/Delete & ok. Then uninstall wll begin & a menu will rise asking you if you want all the files removed, OK. Reboot. Now re-install the correct printer drives as listed in your readme of the printer CD.