Trouble with Brother MFC 8300 driver (installed with "Windows Update")

[nquizitor]

Trouble with Brother MFC 8300 driver (installed with "Windows Update")

I need help getting my printer to work with a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. I had to re-install due to a CMOS error which I think was due to a dead battery. It still could be something else seeing as I have had other problems with this install (explained below). Anyway, the printer is an old Brother MFC 8300 (it has been a workhorse!). Previous times I have re-installed Windows there haven't been any problems with this printer. I simply install the driver from Windows Update (the driver is named "Brother MFC8600/9650 Series" in the device manager). But this time the "Windows Update" installed the driver and says everything is working properly but when I go to "Devices and Printers" it doesn't show up under "Printers and Faxes". There is a listing for "USB Composite Device" under "Devices" that shows "Brother MFC8600/9650 Series" as a scanner. Not sure what that means.

I also tried to manually download the driver from "catalog.update.microsoft.com". I downloaded 2 different versions of the driver. One has a file size of 2.0 MB and the other has a files size of 2.3 MB. I ended up not installing either because I didn't know where the proper destination location was using the "Expand" command from the "Command Prompt" with "expand <CAB FILE NAME> -F:* <DESTINATION>". I think the file size for the "Windows Update" file was 2.1 MB (my memory isn't the greatest however).

I am currently running as a "Standard User". I also noticed an issue with an app I have used prior to this re-install, "Ultracopier". On previous installs it installed fine and it required "Administrator" rights after boot. But during this install it didn't work at all and didn't ask for "Administrator" rights after boot. I have also had issues with a 2TB external hard drive related to permissions and accessing certain files and folders. I don't know if any of this matters but I figured the more info the better.

Hopefully someone can help me with this because I really need this printer to work.

 

[Berton]

You may have to change to a User with administrative rights or an Administrator.

There is a listing for "USB Composite Device" under "Devices" that shows "Brother MFC8600/9650 Series" as a scanner. Not sure what that means.

That means your unit is a MultiFunction device and include Printer, Fax, Copier and Scanner. Sometimes the scanner part will be picked up as a separate device because Win7 has a built-in function for scanning.

From Drivers, utilities and software updates for your Brother Product

Dear Brother Customer:

Brother does not have a printer driver available for this model. Most operating systems include printer drivers with their installation program. Please check the manufacturer’s web site of your operating system to see if support is available for this model. If your operating system does not support this model, then this model is not supported.

Thank you for your understanding,
Brother International Corporation

 

[nquizitor]

Thanks for the response Berton. I was running as a "Standard User" prior to this new install and the printer worked as expected. I would prefer to run as a "Standard User" if possible.

The MFC 8300 is definitely supported by Windows 7 as shown in this link:

Windows 7 compatibility for Brother MFC-8300 All-in-One Printer model

Can you think of anything else that might be causing this problem?

 

[Berton]

You should be able to log in with administrative rights to install the printer then log out to change to the standard. In addition to the actual hidden Administrator I've found it best to have at least one User with administrator rights in addition to others.

 

[nquizitor]

I installed all the drivers for this computer as an administrator. Sorry, I forgot to mention this in the original post.

 

[nquizitor]

Any other ideas? I really need to get this to work.