Tinker Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Yesterday I bought a new Printer/Scanner for my new job. Straight forward installation onto my PC first time with no issues. But, I want it set up on my laptop really, this is proving impossible. I get through to the stage where I have installed software, then I plug in the USB cable as prompted, and my laptop should search and find the device. Unable to find device is all i get. Have gone through the same procedure I did with the PC first. Laptop will be going to work with me, so if I cannot get my own printer to work, then there is a high chance I will have same problem at work with there printer on the network. Any printer experts out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteKnight77 Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Have you tried to manually install it? I had a printer that I had to manually install as a different model to get my laptop to see the actual printer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Not too sure what "manual install" means? I unpacked it and plugged in the cables, how much more manual do I have to get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Run the installation CD that should have come with the printer. That should manually install it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Ok, yep that is what I am doing. Only get to step 3 of installation, which is plug USB cable into PC, await recognising printer. Like I mentioned, installed straight away on another PC, must be something wrong with the settings on the laptop. Will have to try going through my services again, as I made a mess of them last week in msconfig. Must be something I disabled by mistake maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 (edited) Check your Device Drivers for the USB ports and see if they are ok. Also how old is the laptop? Might you be installing a USB 2.0 product on a 1.0 system? It should be backwards compatable but... I also see that USB 3.0 was released in Nov and while that also should be backwards compatable its so new that there could be problems with it. Edited January 15, 2009 by Fletch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Laptop is about 2 - 3 years old, seems all up to date though. Windows XP, SP3, USB 2.0. USB ports in device manager all seem ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 (edited) Are you using a 64 bit OS? I am and it won't recognize my Scanner and HP says the scanner is too old to worry about making a driver for it. Also, what Laptop and Printer? Edited January 15, 2009 by Fletch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 15, 2009 Author Share Posted January 15, 2009 Printer: Epson Stylus XS400 Laptop: Fujitsu Siemens Intel® Pentium® M 1.70GHz 240MB RAM 32 Bit OS I have had a similar printer installed and working on this laptop before. But there is no instance of it any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Ok I'm stumped, tried to look up your equip on the net for problems but nothing stood out there either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROCO*AFZ* Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 try another usb device in the port your plugging it into to make sure it works. That tells you the usb is good. 2nd Try another usb cable. Maybe a bad one. 3rd return the printer, it is DOA. Even if the driver doesn't get recognized it should at least ask you for one if all devices are working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Did you plug it to the wall switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 try another usb device in the port your plugging it into to make sure it works. That tells you the usb is good. 2nd Try another usb cable. Maybe a bad one. 3rd return the printer, it is DOA. Even if the driver doesn't get recognized it should at least ask you for one if all devices are working. USB ports are fine, tried external hard-drive, thumbstick and spare mouse. Printer / Cables work fine on 2 desktop pc`s here. Did you plug it to the wall switch? All plugged in. Busy day today, will have some more investigations this evening, though I am feeling sure I have something wrong in the laptop setup. Would be happy to do a fresh install, but I do not have a copy of XP on disc. My desktop PC`s just need a restart and F10 for system restore, but do not have that option on the laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dporter Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I'm not sure if you're on vista or xp, but if you have xp try going to the start menu/Printers and Faxes, and then right click anywhere in the blank space on the printers and faxes window and click "add printer". See if it will let you install it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 I'm not sure if you're on vista or xp, but if you have xp try going to the start menu/Printers and Faxes, and then right click anywhere in the blank space on the printers and faxes window and click "add printer". See if it will let you install it that way. Aha! The Printer Spooler is unavailable Admin tools / Services Printer Spooler cannot be started due to depending on other connections = LexBie Server Enabled LexBie Server Now able to start the print spooler Printer is now fully installed. Thnx for the posts guys, as suspected, issue caused by accidentally disabling all services in msconfig last week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROCO*AFZ* Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I'm not sure if you're on vista or xp, but if you have xp try going to the start menu/Printers and Faxes, and then right click anywhere in the blank space on the printers and faxes window and click "add printer". See if it will let you install it that way. Aha! The Printer Spooler is unavailable Admin tools / Services Printer Spooler cannot be started due to depending on other connections = LexBie Server Enabled LexBie Server Now able to start the print spooler Printer is now fully installed. Thnx for the posts guys, as suspected, issue caused by accidentally disabling all services in msconfig last week. That's odd, you should have still got the install new hardware wizard even without the spooler. Did you have a Dell printer prior? Make sure you uninstall that... they are actually Lexmarks and the devil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR6 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Yes, Lexmark printers are evil. I've had the same prob as Tinker and you cannot uninstall that Lexmark printer thing in services that basically makes life miserable for the next printer you install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Yes, Lexmark printers are evil. I've had the same prob as Tinker and you cannot uninstall that Lexmark printer thing in services that basically makes life miserable for the next printer you install. My other printer (previously installed on laptop) is a Lexmark X1180. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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