Printers reinstalled themselves?

[TVeblen]

My daughter was using my computer last night, surfing the web (only, she says).

"For no reason" a balloon popped up: "found new devices, installing drivers". She thought nothing of it.

This morning I find that both of my USB connected printers had been reinstalled (duplicate Copy 1 versions). I removed the duplicates and all seems back in order. Very strange. AV and Malware scans are clean.

Any ideas?

 

[Layback Bear]

Just a idea. If your printers are usb connected this might apply. If for what ever reason they were unpluged, lets say to install something else for use and then plugged back in and booted it could pick them up as new.

 

[Bill2]

Just a idea. If your printers are usb connected this might apply. If for what ever reason they were unpluged, lets say to install something else for use and then plugged back in and booted it could pick them up as new.

Yes, also yanking out the usb cable without using safely remove can cause that. Or plugging into a different usb port.

Its also possible that updated drivers installed themselves via windows updates without overwriting the previous ones. Check in msconfig or your process list if there is a printer utility running connected with updating. E.g. some HP printers have hpwuschd running. Try stopping it from startup.

Just ideas.

 

[richnrockville]

I found that after install of a new version of windows 7, it suddenly searched (without my telling it to) and found some network printers and did the install. I am not sure that this is a feature not an option.

Rich

 

[TVeblen]

Hey guys, thanks for taking a look.

The printers were never disconnected (usb cables unplugged). I asked. (and it would require a deliberate effort to do so).
No other USB device was installed or used.

Automatic updates is turned off on this machine, and automatic driver search also.

All non essential processes are unchecked in MSCONFIG.
One printer is a Canon laser. The other an Epson All-In-One.

Never seen this one before. It's like poltergeists.

It just occurred to me: maybe a power failure (wall sockets, not PC)?

 

[Layback Bear]

Normally a power failure would of been noticed because other things would of stopped working. Has this happened after another proper shut down and boot up?

 

[TVeblen]

No, this only happened that one time, a completely isolated event. The computer was on and had been on for hours when they installed.

These printers have been installed together for over a year. The strangest part is that both printers reinstalled themselves. If it were just one I could imagine some plausible scenarios, but both???