G
Guest
I'm in driver hell with XP Home somehow. I have a Brother MFC-3420c
that I've been using for nearly a year now via a USB port. Lately I had
some problem and decided to download and install an updated driver.
To make a long painful story somewhat shorter, apparently I can't
install the new driver because some parts of XP are convinced there's
already a driver installed for the printer while other parts don't think
there is.
Some observations:
1) I can't print from an application because the printer doesn't show up
in the list.
2) When I go to Settings/PrintersAndFaxes the printer is not present.
3) When I go to PrintersAndFaxes/PrintServerProperties/Drivers it does
not show the Brother printer driver. (Originally it was still here, but
I deleted it following instructions from XP's Help system)
*BUT*
4) When I go to install the printer from PrintersAndFaxes/AddPrinter it
goes through the first couple of steps and tells me that it's working
properly (ostensibly with no driver!). It gives me no option to install
a new driver over it or remove the old one or anything -- it just says
all is well and that's all folks.
5) If the printer is off and I turn it on, XP instantly recognizes it as
the Brother printer and connects *something* to it. I don't know what
driver it thinks it's using. XP sounds a tone and the little icon
appears that would let one disconnect from a USB device and it knows
it's the Brother printer. Normally at that point XP would invoke the
New Hardware wizard.
6) If I try to use Brother's setup program it hangs endlessly waiting
for XP to come back with the new hardware installation wizard. Which
apparently does not appear because XP doesn't think the Brother is "new".
How can I convince XP to forget everything it ever knew about a Brother
printer so I can start from scratch to install it?
Thanks...
Bill
that I've been using for nearly a year now via a USB port. Lately I had
some problem and decided to download and install an updated driver.
To make a long painful story somewhat shorter, apparently I can't
install the new driver because some parts of XP are convinced there's
already a driver installed for the printer while other parts don't think
there is.
Some observations:
1) I can't print from an application because the printer doesn't show up
in the list.
2) When I go to Settings/PrintersAndFaxes the printer is not present.
3) When I go to PrintersAndFaxes/PrintServerProperties/Drivers it does
not show the Brother printer driver. (Originally it was still here, but
I deleted it following instructions from XP's Help system)
*BUT*
4) When I go to install the printer from PrintersAndFaxes/AddPrinter it
goes through the first couple of steps and tells me that it's working
properly (ostensibly with no driver!). It gives me no option to install
a new driver over it or remove the old one or anything -- it just says
all is well and that's all folks.
5) If the printer is off and I turn it on, XP instantly recognizes it as
the Brother printer and connects *something* to it. I don't know what
driver it thinks it's using. XP sounds a tone and the little icon
appears that would let one disconnect from a USB device and it knows
it's the Brother printer. Normally at that point XP would invoke the
New Hardware wizard.
6) If I try to use Brother's setup program it hangs endlessly waiting
for XP to come back with the new hardware installation wizard. Which
apparently does not appear because XP doesn't think the Brother is "new".
How can I convince XP to forget everything it ever knew about a Brother
printer so I can start from scratch to install it?
Thanks...
Bill