Hi David,

Well I'm not a computer Guru or anything close, but I have a suggestion

Go to, Start > Printer & Faxes > File > Server Properties > Drivers

Check if your printer Driver is in there if it is remove it and try installing your drivers again I hope it helps

Disclaimer: Do it at your own risk :) 

Ruben

Ruben,

I see the driver under the server properties but when I go to remove it, I get a messgae that says it can't be removed because it is running.

Ruben,

I rebooted computer and was able to delete that driver. I reloaded the most current software and driver and everything was rolling along smoothly, then right after it detected hardware the same error box shown in my first post came up.

Carl,

I did not reboot after removing the driver from the server properties.

Other USB devices do work on the USB ports. The USB ports do show under devices. I removed them from the device list and had XP recreate them upon restart.

Have you installed any new software lately? I have seen some programs clobber a print driver. Sometimes it's only until a reboot has happened and other times they will totally kill print drivers.

Are you using a USB hub? If so, bypass the hub and plug the printer via USB directly into a port on the computer.

Have you downloaded the latest patches from HP's web site for that printer? There may be a known issue that they have a fix for.

I have had success with the HP's by deleting the driver (like you did earlier), then rebooting the machine again, then re-installing the driver without all the HP software. Every once-in-ahwile, sometimes I have to install the HP software before the machine will recognize the printer again.

I have found that over the years, the HP drivers have been the most temperamental, when years ago, they were the easiest to work with.

I have never found it to be a hardware problem with the USB port or the cable, but sometimes with a USB hub.

Michel

David,

try the same procedure but I think you have to restart your computer after deleting the drivers before you install them again

Note, also you can check the USB ports withing Server Properties, make sure you do not have a duplicate

Ruben

David:

You might try going to the HP site and downloading the latest driver for that printer.

Does XP not give you the "found new hardware" window when you plug it in?

I forgot--did you say you plugged it into more than one USB slot?

I tried another USB printer and rceived the same error message.

I am using the most current driver from HP.

I did do a reboot after removing all drivers, to no avail.

I did find an HP technical article that explained that I could have a USB chipset that has a random compatibility issues with some USB printers.

What confuses me is that I have had two different USB printers connected to this computer for about a week, and everythng worked fine. Prior to that I had a parallel printer.

Michel,

The most recent software I installed was the HP 1012 printer software. That was two weeks ago and everything installed just fine.

My USB connection is a direct USB connection.

Have you done:

- a virus scan?
- a spyware scan?
- a disk error check?

Double check the printer driver instructions. Sometimes the driver needs to be installed before the printer is first connected. Which means disconnecting the printer, removing the old driver, rebooting (sometimes a power down is a good idea), then install the driver, and then reconnect the printer.

You might also check your event log to see when the latest Microsoft patch was installed. It could be that the latest patch broke something in the USB and/or HP drivers. That has happened to me several times. Several of those 'problems' were the direct result of using very old hardware devices, though.

I've never done it, but you should be able to uninstall the Microsoft patches through the Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. You might be able to use the KB numbers to see when they were released and what they fixed. I would think that they would automatically re-install if you have automatic updates enabled.

Programming: the art of removing old bugs and replacing them with newer ones.

Carl

  Guntersville Laser Engraving
  Guntersville, AL
  http://www.guntersvillelaser.com

Rodney,

A system restore is the first thing I did. I was shocked that it didn't solve the problem.

Okay Mo
How much do you know about computers? How comfortable are you trying things? Don't really need those answers. The next question is where are your connections to the USB, on the front or back of your computer? If they are plugged into the front ports move your printer cable to the USB ports on the back of the computer. 90% of the problems with USB is the way they are ported to the front or other locations on the computer. Printers are the most notorious for having problems with secondary USB ports. Plug your cable in there and reboot and see if the computer sees new hardware and installs it. If none of that works try the next steps.

First thing is go to start/settings/control panel/device manager/printers. Look at the list of printers and see what the computer says about their connections. If there are no errors go back to the device manager and open the system properties. Look for any yellow question marks next to any of the devices you see. If there are any there is a hardware conflict of some kind.
Next go to the item that says USB and click the plus sign to see if there are any problems with the USB ports.

Bill,

I removed, deleted and cleaned up anything associated with a printer. I did a complete shut down. I connected the printer to the USB port on the front, because it was originally on the back. I started up the computer and and same negative result when the system was trying to set up this hardware.

The new hardware gets recognized, but when it tries to set up the connection leaves that evil message.

I've put as much time into this as I am willing to. It's off to the professionals in the morning. Thanks so much for your help.