Printer problems

benjo · 17 Oct 2008 at 08:21

Just got an email from my uncle saying he's having a problem with his printer. Only problem is, i'm at Uni so i'm about 100 miles away. I'm not that great with printers anyway.

The printer is connected to the home pc via usb but will not
communicate. Has been working ok for over a year until now.
Unloaded and reloaded printer software disk but still no joy. Printer
will connect and works with my laptop.....
Been on the hardware device manager, then usb controllers and the usb
the printer is plugged into says "unrecognized device" and on status
there are no drivers installed....tried plugging into all the other usb
sockets but get the same message.

Seems like he's tried the obvious, and what i would try. Anyone got any ideas? He hasn't told me the make or model of printer, but i can remember it was a fairly recent HP or Epson one... I'll find out later.

benjo · 17 Oct 2008 at 21:30

To the top!

benjo · 18 Oct 2008 at 16:45

Printers arent OcUK's speciality?

ns400r · 18 Oct 2008 at 21:51

Change the USB cable to the printer.

Banzai_Joe · 18 Oct 2008 at 21:54

maybe try stripping out ALL the usb drivers from device manager and then auto scan for new hardware again?

benjo · 18 Oct 2008 at 21:57

ns400r said:
Change the USB cable to the printer.

Thanks, will suggest it.

k.Jacko said:
maybe try stripping out ALL the usb drivers from device manager and then auto scan for new hardware again?

I guess this is whilst the drivers from the disc are installed?

Banzai_Joe · 18 Oct 2008 at 22:00

yeah, just delete all usb drivers from device manager.
Probably best to reboot, it will pick up all your usb controllers again, and see if it recognises the printer this time.
Did you definitely get rid of ALL your printer software/drivers before trying to reinstall them?
If its a HP or Epson they both load shed loads of cr*p on that you'll never use. Is it an all-in-one? If not, i'd just manually install the printer driver only, not auto install with all the excess baggage.

benjo · 18 Oct 2008 at 22:02

It's not my printer, it's my uncles

All he's told me is in the quote from my OP, so i'm not really sure what he's done. I think he knows his way around a computer though, so i'll ask him to try what you suggested

Thanks