Installing new printer - help please

[machurley22]

Having spent most of the morning on the 'phone to various helpdesks on the Indian subcontinent without success I thought I'd try here before getting out the 4lb hammer.

My parallel port Epson gave up the ghost last week and I bought a Lexmark X2250 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier at the weekend. The software installation process stalls at the first hurdle since the installer doesn't think that the printer is connected to the PC and asks me to ensure that plugs are firmly pushed in etc.

However when I connect the cable, Windows (XP Home) recognises that something has been connected and a little box appears saying "Found new hardware Lexmark 2200 series" followed by the Found New Hardware Wizard, which would appear to indicate that there is no physical problem.

The Lexmark installation process says to cancel the Found New Hardware Wizard and launch their installer at which point their installer says the printer is not connected. The PC is 4 months old and the only other USB device connected is my ADSL modem.

The printer helpdesk say I have a conflict and need to speak to the PC people who first advised disconnecting the modem before trying to install the printer, then to Restore Optimised Defaults in the BIOS. Now they want me to re-install the OS in case my USB driver is corrupt. This doesn't seem to be addressing the problem to me (but what do I know?)

You know how it is with helpdesks, sometimes you get an expert, sometimes someone who can only read from a script. So far I've only had people reading scripts.

Can anyone help - please?

Dave

 

[webcraft]

Have you tried allowing the 'Found New Hardware' wizard to complete?

- Nick

 

[Steve Clayton]

......The Lexmark installation process says to cancel the Found New Hardware Wizard and launch their installer.......
________________

Delete all printers and then use the wizard feature and select "have disc" and try that.

Do NOT re-install OS - it's far to early to go to that extreme!

Good luck - Steve

 

[machurley22]

No I haven't, although this was the first thing I thought of. Since the Lexmark process specifically says not to I was too feart of making a mess!

Dave

 

[cliff]

Let the "Found New Hardware Wizard " do its stuff and try to install the drivers.
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[machurley22]

OK - that's 3 votes for the Wizard - I'll give it a go.

Dave

 

[Salty]

I had similar symptoms a while back (too far back for me to remember the absolute detail), but it had something to do with the Lexmark printer being upset that I'd assigned USB ports to other functions. I ended up uninstalling the other things I had plugged into USB ports (except the modem), and then installing the printer, which has since worked. May not be your problem, but can't hurt to try!

 

[cliff]

What was wrong with your Epson?

The old "an internal component is nearing the end of its service life, take the printer to an Epson service center" error message? then the printer freezes.

Epson build in a counter in the inkjet printers that counts waste ink (from head cleaning which the printer does its self frequently like every time you switch on and during printing not to mention user initiated head cleaning runs). When this "protection counter reaches a certain number the printer will not print anymore. One needs to remove the felt pads inside the printer, clean them, put them back and then reset the counter.

See here for the free software download needed to reset the protection counter and more.
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[machurley22]

Another triumph for common sense! The Wizard didn't seem to have any difficulty installing the software and I've now printed, scanned and copied stuff with no apparent problems.

Thanks to all.

Cliff, the sheet feeder on the Epson tried to ingest about 50 sheets of paper at the same time and choked on the result, unsurprisingly. I've taken it apart and although nothing seems to be actually broken there's a little plastic lever that seems to have become displaced from it's true home and I can't figure out where it should go. Spent a couple of days scratching my head before buying the new device.

Dave

PS - Cliff, have you posted on the latest Scottish Swallie thread yet.

Dave

 

[Danny_Labrador]

Seems to be all too familiar these days, My wife has a HP Photosmart 7260 which was an absolute bugger to install. I still have my trusty Epson Stylus 670 – can’t detect a quality issue and it’s a gas model as well, (everything’s not software driven) – you can switch it off and change cartridges without it offering its four tuppence of opinion.
Anyway if this is any help is all to do with USB ports with the HP because its got photo card readers on it the operating system on boot up sees it as a bootable device and then gets all screwed up as it ignores the hard disk (or partly ignores).
The work around is to boot up finish and then plug the thing in – this is HP’s official recommendation.

 

[Steve Clayton]

RESULT!!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gifmade my day as my e-mail server is down at the moment and I'm stuffed /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif