Posted: 7/5/2006 7:13:10 PM EDT
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So, Bigscrun brings home his iPod to download new songs. No big deal, he does it all the time. Only this time it won't recognize the iPod. So we try plugging it into a different USB port, and still nothing. Now, my printer won't work. It isn't recognized now either, but its still installed. My digital camera works on the USB Port, I just downloaded pics off of it. Any advice? |
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I turned off the printer, turned off the computer, waited, turned the printer back on, and then the computer. Still nothing. When you try plugging in the USB cable to any of the ports (we have 2 on the front, and 4 in the back), the little window pops up at the bottom of the screen that says USB Device Not Recognized. So I clicked on it, and it says Unknown Device. |
Reboot the computer. Turn off the printer. When the computer comes back up turn back on the printer and let the computer redetect it. If that does not work do the following. Right click on My Computer and then click Properties. Click the Hardware tab and then choose Device Manager. Remove anything there that references USB under Universal Serial Bus controllers. Reboot your computer with all USB Devices unplugged. When the computer comes back up start plugging in your USB devices one by one. You may or may not need the drivers for your devices. |
How do I do this? I unplugged the camera and the printer (they were the only things plugged into a USB port), is that all I have to do? |
Once you have the device manager open. Locate the section for Universal Serial Bus Controllers Click the plus sign next to it and it will expand. Everything that is listed there is USB related. Right click each item in the list and choose uninstall. Once they are all gone reboot the system as described before. 
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Totally understandable. Your computer should redetect everything on its own. You may have to have the drivers for certain items but it's highly unlikely. Everything should be fine. If not I'm here. |
The driver should take care of your issue. USB Devices are constantly changing. Everytime you add or remove one by plugging in the device or removing it they reinstall themselves. Sometimes they get confused and conflict with one another. Happens all the time. Sometimes my cell phone causes the same thing to happen to my PC. |
| Got the driver/software downloaded, and its seems like I need to uninstall and then reinstall the software. It automatically pops up a window with the following options: Install More Software, Add a Device (using software already on my computer), Uninstall, or Exit. |
Go to your control panel. Then Add/Remove Programs and unistall the existing printer software. Unplug the printer. Then reboot. Then install the driver you downloaded from the web. Then plug back in your printer. |
In process of doing just that. Thank you for the help, appreciate it. |
No problem. I know how frustrating it can be. I used to hate USB devices. With older operating systems like Windows 98, Millenium and 2000 they were a real headache at times. |
Have you installed any Windows update recently? They are "infamous" for screwing-up your computer settings. Or even any other software? I disabled all the updates in my machines have been living very happy even with my old Win98SE. Even Win XP works. Only update I installed was SP2 because of my 300Gb hard drive that was not recognized by the previous SP. 
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I'm ready to throw this damn thing off the deck and be done with it.  I uninstalled, and attempted the reinstall, but when you get to the point where you power on printer, and connect to computer, it doesn't recognize that I've connected to the computer, and you can't hit the next button on the installation. I give up for tonight, thank you for the help, I'm going to bed to have bad dreams about printer drivers...........Rossi, the only thing I've recently done, was update the windows messenger thingy. Printer crap worked fine after that though, I think..... 
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Teddy doesn't like computers either.  Offering no valid solution, I know, I blame the alcohol. Best of luck with your plight though. BTW do they even use parallel ports anymore? If so maybe try connecting it that way, not as convenient as USB but whatever works.  -z |
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Could this be a power issue? How many USB devices do you have connected at once and what brand/model computer is it? I don't know about newer machines but I know to run more than 2 USB devices on my old PIII 733 I had to get a powered hub. Then my only worry was IRQ conflicts when I was burning a CD, watching winTV-usb, listening to some music, running a few programs, and having my usb web cam on... |
| Did the iPod come with drivers? Sometimes when you get a new device it's important that the software be installed first then the device plugged in, otherwise Windows can make some bad assumptions. You might need to uninstall the iPod to get your system back the way it was then try to re-install it. |
Might be a long shot but how old is the usb cable on the printer? Could it have been damaged? Do you have a different one you can try. Sometimes cables go bad. It sucks I know. Also as Jafo said try unpluggin other USB Devices and see if your printer works. If it does then something is either conflicting or overwhelming your USB stack. |
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The printer is an HP Photosmart 8250, and I bought it about 6 months ago. Other than my mouse, it was the only thing plugged in to a USB port, and I tried all 6 of them. The only thing I can think of that could have happened is when I updated the Windows Messenger. Isn't there a System Restore function that will put my computer back the way was? Bigscrun was worried we had a virus or something so we bought Norton AnitVirus and SystemsWorks and installed both of those the other night. |
I found this on a Google group. It seems you are not alone in your struggle with HP printers. Try this and let me know if it works. If not I'll keep looking for you. Here's how you can get your Photosmart printer to work on the USB port: 1.Shut the computer down. Turn the printer off and disconnect the cable. Restart the computer and remove the driver by clicking on "Start" then on Control Panel. Click on "Add or Remove Programs". Click on the change/remove button associated with "hp photosmart printer series (remove only)" and run that process to completion. Reboot if requested. The, go back to control panel and click on "Printers and Other Hardware" and then "view printers and faxes". 2.The printer should not appear there nor should it show in the printers folder in control panel, nor in the device list under Control Panel/system/hardware/devices. If it is, delete it. Close control panel and all other open windows until you are back at the desktop. 3. Root around on the HP web support page for Photosmart printers and download the driver set they have there. Apologies for not having the URL handy. There are three disks; you only need disk one. (The file name for my Photosmart 1215 is ps306en1.exe but the number may have changed if they have updated the driver recently. Download the appropriate file from the web site. 4. The file is a self-extracting ZIP compressed file. When you double click on the file it will ask you for a directory to which it should extract its content. Enter a location that you will be able to find later (ex. C:\hpfile) and write that location down. The file will extract a bunch of files (something like 265) into that directory. 5. Connect the USB cable to the printer and the other end to your computer's USB port. Turn the printer on. The computer may make a noise and XP may give you a notification balloon that a new device has been detected, something like "Generic IEEE 1284.4 printing support. Click on the "X" to close that balloon. Let the computer set a minute until you are sure the process has completed. 6. Now the fun begins. Click on the start menu, then again on Control Panel. Double click on the "Performance and Maintenance" icon (or "System" icon if you have classic view selected) then click on the "system" icon. Click on the "hardware" tab then again on "Device Manager." 7. You should see a list of installed devices. One of them will be "Generic IEEE 1284.4 Printing Support." (If you don't see that item listed, your computer has not detected the printer on the USB port you selected. Make sure connections are secure and that the printer is on. Try the other USB port. Cycle the power on the printer. Plug a different USB device into the port to assure it is working). 8. Double click on that entry and then click on the "driver" tab and again on the "Update driver" tab. Select the "install from a list" button and click "next." Click on the "don't search" button, next, and then on "have disk". 9. Click on "browse" and navigate to the directory where you unzipped the file you downloaded from HP. Highlight that location and then click on "open." Highlight "autorun.inf." Click OK. Highlight your printer model from the list presented. Click "next." Then click "finish." 10. At this point it will look as if all Hell broke loose. It will start installing files and devices left, right and center. LET IT RUN. You should not have to intervene, but if you get a window that offers an opportunity to "finish" or "install" click appropriately. If by chance the installer asks to overwrite and files already on the computer, click "yes." 11. At the end of the process, a window to the HP printer support WEB page will appear on your monitor. You can close this and the properties window. You are done. You should see icons in the system tray for the printer utility and the card reader. Right click on the printer icon and select "open toolbox" then "print test page." |
