On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:17:06 -0800, Cindy wrote:
=>Did either of you find out a solution to this problem? It
=>sounds like the same problem I am having with W2k on
=>HP4050 printers.
....snip....
"Uninstalling" a printer usually does not clean up the
registry as it should, so uninstall --> reinstall often
does not work. The problems described may result from
corrupted or buggy files, or from bad registry keys which
in turn results in W2K loading conflicting *.dlls, etc on
bootup. So the first thing is to uninstall the printer (see
NB2 below), and reinstall with fresh or updated drivers
from another source (eg., HP's website).
If reinstalling the printer with fresh or updated drivers
does not work, it may help to use regedit to remove _all_
references to the printer, including files and folders
(some of the keys will point to files and folders), then
reinstall. Some files will be locked, since W2K opens them
per registry entries on bootup, so several power downs and
bootups will be needed to clean the registry completely.
Unplug the printer before you start on the registry, o'wise
W2K's hardware wizard will find an uninstalled printer and
go through its thing every time you boot up, thus messing
everything up again.
NB1: If you had other printers installed before this one,
look for references to them also, and delete everything
associated with them. (This is also necessary when you
install new CD burning software, etc.)
NB2: If by "uninstall" you mean deleting the printer
object, be aware that this is _not_ the same as actually
uninstalling the printer. To uninstall, either use the
printer's own uninstall routine, if it has one (it should
be in the printer folder), or use Remove Hardware.
Sometimes this is enough to fix the problem, but often the
regedit route is also necessary.
NB3: If you are leery of using regedit, you need someone to
hold your hand while you learn. Or get someone reliable to
do it for you. But IMO, knowing how to use regedit is close
to essential.
If the regedit route does not work, a complete clean
reinstall of W2K is probably your best bet. You should try
a Repair from the Safe Mode console first, but there is a
chance this will not solve the problem, as Repair does not
always clean out the files you want to get rid of. Before
you repair or reinstall, burn all significant data onto a
CD for safe keeping, and/or create a second partition and
copy data backups to it. When you reinstall, do not permit
W2K to reformat the whole drive, just the C: partition.
HTH&GL
