Add New Hardware Wizard no longer recognizes plug and play printer

[Brandella]

I run a Dell Inspiron 9300 with WinXP SP2. My HP Officejet 6210
printer was having some issues, so I downloaded an update. During the
installation, the new software removed the old software requiring a
reboot. Once rebooted I continued the installation, when it cam time
to plug in the printer to my USB port, the Add New Hardware Wizard
popped up to say the printer could not be installed because the
"Specified File could not be found". The installation halted and
rolled back. Another reboot, and I decided to try the Add New
Hardware Wizard once again hoping the Plug and Play would get the
printer installed. It did not. So I tried a manual install through
the Wizard looking through the drop down lists for printers, mine was
no longer visible (up till now, it had been). Over several attempts,
I have tried the Generic Printer, another printer made by HP (but a
different model), etc.. The message is still the same. The Wizard
properly calls out the model of the printer in the error message but
says "Specified File not Found. I have even tried reinstalling from
the original CD from HP - no luck - same problem. I thought the
Windows Installer Package might have been corrupted and downloaded it
again -same problem.

Any suggestions?

 

[Elmo]

I run a Dell Inspiron 9300 with WinXP SP2. My HP Officejet 6210
printer was having some issues, so I downloaded an update. During the
installation, the new software removed the old software requiring a
reboot. Once rebooted I continued the installation, when it cam time
to plug in the printer to my USB port, the Add New Hardware Wizard
popped up to say the printer could not be installed because the
"Specified File could not be found". The installation halted and
rolled back. Another reboot, and I decided to try the Add New
Hardware Wizard once again hoping the Plug and Play would get the
printer installed. It did not. So I tried a manual install through
the Wizard looking through the drop down lists for printers, mine was
no longer visible (up till now, it had been). Over several attempts,
I have tried the Generic Printer, another printer made by HP (but a
different model), etc.. The message is still the same. The Wizard
properly calls out the model of the printer in the error message but
says "Specified File not Found. I have even tried reinstalling from
the original CD from HP - no luck - same problem. I thought the
Windows Installer Package might have been corrupted and downloaded it
again -same problem.

Any suggestions?

Did the error message mention the name of the missing file? Did you
unzip the updated drivers to a folder? If so, there might be a program
you need to run, or there might be a created folder that includes the
needed driver.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Any suggestions?

System Restore to a point before the installation of the new software.