How to Uninstall / Reinstall Printer

Weird problem. I have an HP Photosmart Premium C309 that was a bit of a bitch to install on 7, but it's been working great for the last several months.

A couple of days ago it stopped working. I deleted everything from the print queue and tried to print a test page. Nothing. Stuck in the queue again. I deleted the job and clicked on devices and printers off the Start menu. No HP C309.

I remembered that the original installaion CD was pretty much useless, since it was not engineered with 7 as a choice. So I dowloaded the installation software from the HP site. Still a no go on printing - item stuck in queue.

I redeleted, and checked the Devices and Printers. There WAS an HP C309 listed, but it had (Copy 1) suffixed to the name. I deleted the printer and clicked on the 'Add Printer' tab on that page. I eventually got a message that the software for the printer had already been installed.

I reinstalled again, adn then tried to rename the printer - minus the (Copy 1). The system would not allow me to rename, saying that a printer with that name was already installed on the computer.

So now I look for help. I don't know how to delete a device that won't display, and I have no clue how to get this piece of s**t to work. HP wants to charge me an arm and part of a leg to help me Seems like if their software has bugs in it why should I have to pay them?

Would it be worth trying a system restore to the point you know your printer was working?

seavixen32 said:

Would it be worth trying a system restore to the point you know your printer was working?

Seemed like good idea, but every time I'd tried a restore I got an error (on restart, after the 'restore' had completed) that my antivirus was interfering with the restore, even though Norton had been disabled.

I ended up doing a level 3 uninstall, then reinstalled using the software from the HP site. All is now well, but I wonder what could've caused the problem n the first place.

If you installed a print driver without uninstalling the old one first or if you had tried the printer in different USB ports it's possible the system registry was corrupted.

As for the system restore not working it may have done if you'd tried it in safe mode.

Anyway, pleased to hear you no longer have a problem.

TVeblen said:

I'd like to know the why too! Sometimes I suspect computer gremlins.

I'm a little more cynical than you... I suspect HP. The conspiracy theorist part of me thinks they put a chip in the printer that activates a month after the warranty expires.