Issues using Printer

[smileybond]

Hi guys

I've got this odd problem with my girlfriends laptop that I haven't come across before, maybe you can enlighten me!?
She's got an Acer Aspire 5050 laptop that I recently installed Windows 7 on for her. Everything worked fine for about 2 months, until one day she plugged in her HP Deskjet 5740 printer to it and all it did was display it as an unknown device in devices and printers.

We had already previously got the printer working fine, by simply plugging it in with the wonders of windows 7 finding the drivers for us.

Does anyone know what could be the problem? Originally there was an error showing over the machine stating the PCI Flash driver was missing, but i've installed this and the error has now gone.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Paul

 

[ECH]

Similar to my thread, win7 needs to be told to find the drivers online. After several reboots that popup screen came up and I could configure it. But it's so rare that it pops up I am looking to find out how to access it.

 

[smileybond]

I'm not sure if this is what you mean but this is something i've seen before, if you go to Devices and Printers, right click on your computer icon and go to Device Installation Settings. In there you can select windows to download drivers for your PC.
I tried this as well but no drivers were being found when I ran windows update

Paul

 

[ECH]

I'm not sure if this is what you mean but this is something i've seen before, if you go to Devices and Printers, right click on your computer icon and go to Device Installation Settings. In there you can select windows to download drivers for your PC.
I tried this as well but no drivers were being found when I ran windows update

Paul

Yeah, that was the one. What I did before I found that feature was to Remove the Device (printer was shown with yellow triangle). Inwhich the printer auto turned off. once the process was completed I turned it back on and win7 auto detected it with the Device Installation Settings configured to allow it to look online for drivers. Then I set it to default and was done.

 

[smileybond]

Right ok, I think thats similar to what I tried. I completely removed the device and tried to add it again. The driver was already installed on the machine so it was easy to add. After re-adding the printer, it was plugged in but wouldnt print. So I turned the printer off and unplugged it, then plugged it back in again. When I turned it back on I was back to stage one with the printer unrecognised again... I don't understand how it can work for 2 months then just fail!

Paul

 

[ECH]

Right ok, I think thats similar to what I tried. I completely removed the device and tried to add it again. The driver was already installed on the machine so it was easy to add. After re-adding the printer, it was plugged in but wouldnt print. So I turned the printer off and unplugged it, then plugged it back in again. When I turned it back on I was back to stage one with the printer unrecognised again... I don't understand how it can work for 2 months then just fail!

Paul

My printer is pretty old and is no longer supported by HP. It's funny to because when I go to HP to look for drivers they give instruction on how to get windows to detect it . Unless someone else can help you my suggestion is to check with the manufacture to see if there is a newer driver for your printer.

For me, there is no win7 drivers on my computer for my printer. When I finally setup Device Installation Settings the drivers were downloaded for my printer. So that may have played a role, not sure. My only other suggestion is to right click on your printer and remove it, turn it off and check the Device Manager (check hidden devices as well) for any duplicate devices. IE: look for your printer in device manger even though you already removed it (enable hidden devices under "View").

 

[smileybond]

[/QUOTE]
My printer is pretty old and is no longer supported by HP. It's funny to because when I go to HP to look for drivers they give instruction on how to get windows to detect it . Unless someone else can help you my suggestion is to check with the manufacture to see if there is a newer driver for your printer.

For me, there is no win7 drivers on my computer for my printer. When I finally setup Device Installation Settings the drivers were downloaded for my printer. So that may have played a role, not sure. My only other suggestion is to right click on your printer and remove it, turn it off and check the Device Manager (check hidden devices as well) for any duplicate devices. IE: look for your printer in device manger even though you already removed it (enable hidden devices under "View").[/QUOTE]

Yeah this printer was the same, HP didn't offer a driver for the printer but Windows Update sorted it.

I will try what you suggested though, thanks very much for your help

Paul

 

[smileybond]

Sorry completely messed that quote up....

 

[kword88]

according to hp, the drivers for your printer are included in win7.

Software & Driver Downloads HP Deskjet 5740 Color Inkjet Printer - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

[smileybond]

That's interesting, as when we looked before it said to connect the device and find the drivers using windows update. Good spot. Hopefully this problem can be easily solved