printer worked now doesn't - now not recognised

[Guest]

I purchased a new VAIO with Vista installed. I attached my old HP LaserJet 6P
(supported by Vista) by USB, driver installed fine and printer worked fine
for a few weeks. For an unknown reason it then would not work (jobs sent hung
up with a printer error) and fixing required deleting the 6p driver and
letting Vista reinstall the driver (unplug/plug in printer). This needed
doing each start-up. Now Vista no longer recognises the printer - unplugging
and plugging USB gives the message 'unknown device' - but there appears to be
no way then to step through and map to internal Vista drivers and HP only
offers the Vista driver in Vista not in it's www site. One other odd thing -
when I delete the 6p driver then reinstall manually it says there is already
this driver present - although it was deleted via printer list on control
panel.

Sorry for the long post - any help would be MOST appreciated!!!!

 

[Guest]

Can you make a system restore to the days when it worked with no problems?
That would rule out a hardware problem.
Carlos

 

[Guest]

tx carlos, could do although the printer still works fine on my old computer
(XP) and also if I try various combinations of deleting the driver/reinstall,
shutting off the printer, rebooting, install driver. and turn on computer I
can eventually get it to work, although no combination is relaiable and it
goes wrong again if I shutdown or sleep the computer

 

[Don]

I purchased a new VAIO with Vista installed. I attached my old HP LaserJet 6P
(supported by Vista) by USB, driver installed fine and printer worked fine
for a few weeks...

Your problem is a bit different from some other USB problems, but this
trick might help, and it won't hurt anything:

Try deleting C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 because it may be corrupted.
You will first need to edit its file permissions to give Full Control
to the Users group.

Reboot the machine with the printer unplugged, and then plug it in.
I'd like to know if it changes anything.

 

[Guest]

Don, you're a star!

Problem resolved - it made my day a good one. Cheers.

 

[Guest]

Don,
I have similar problem.
I have been using 6P with Vista Ultimate with no problems. Loaded Fujitsu
ScanSnap software and 6P stopped working. Removed ScanSnap software; Rolled
back Vista System Restore -successful. Still no printing: status indicates
"ERROR -Printing"; then after I "cancel document", "ERROR - Sent to printer".
"Ready" light remains on; this 6P works when connected to my XP machine. I
tried deleting and re-installing a “new†printer several times.

I see the file you referenced --- C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 when I search,
but I can not view it in Explore? I have changed the Folder options to view
System and hidden files. How do I access this file? Thanks … Dave

 

[Cal Bear '66]

This might help:

To completely remove a printer: Open Control Panel > Printers, Menu bar (ALT if
not visible) > File > Run as Administrator > Server Properties, OK UAC prompt,
Drivers Tab, highlight the printer, and click the Remove button.

Just removing the printer from the Printers folder does not completely remove
it, and it can only be removed with administrator privileges.