Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations Mike Lewis on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Any USB printer fails to install.. "unknown port" ??

Status
Not open for further replies.
mungoman

mungoman

Technical User
May 18, 2006
34
AU
On a P4 system with XP Pro I recently did a clean reinstall of the whole system. Since then I've been unable to install any USB printer despite having done so on that PC previous to the last reinstall. I faithfully follow the instalation CD right up to where it asks for the USB cable to be connected and the printer turned on. It then finds the/any printer and gets so far then either fails to show the printer icon in Control Panel/Printers or says it was unable to install due to an error. It sometimes ( depends of brand of printer) reports that the port is unknown.
I've tried unistalling the driver/s then removing theUSB driver in device manager but more often than not it just putrs them straight back.
Other USB devives such as scanner, pocket drives, hubs, WiFi adapters.. etc.. all work fine..
Any ideas on how to resolve the issue??
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Are you connecting to a USB port on your computer or to another device such as an unpowered hub or connector on your monitor?

pc.gif

Jomama
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've tried thru the front USB 2.) port which come direct off the MB, off the rear Mb ports and off a PCI card..

They all fail to complete the instalaltion

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
When the USB printer is plugged in and powered up, Win XP should run 'USB Printing Support'. You should be able to see this in the Device Manager under USB Controllers. This should be running before you install the driver for the printer. Do you see this in the Device Manager ?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had a problem with a HP using USB. I had to install the software with the printer NOT connected first. If you try to install with it connected it will not work.

Never give up never give in.

There are no short cuts to anything worth doing :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yup.. know about not connecting until prompted... but that's not it.. will check USB Printing Support when in a th e site.. thanks!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Have you the latest software from the motherboard manufacture. I had problem till I updated from the manufacture's website ( sorry for delay beed away)

Never give up never give in.

There are no short cuts to anything worth doing :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

vgulielmus
  • Locked
  • Question
Shared printer connected via USB
Replies
4
Views
805
vgulielmus
vgulielmus
S
  • Question
Sharp BP-50C55 printer User Authentication box
Replies
0
Views
341
SMS1295
S
R
  • Locked
  • Question
2 users in the same office using 2 different printers both have"GET /eSCL/ScannerStatus HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:" printed on the top of every paper t
Replies
1
Views
319
DrB0b
DrB0b
ayzal
  • Locked
  • Question
How to dispose old printers?
Replies
0
Views
189
ayzal
ayzal
paulapalmer
  • Locked
  • Helpful tip
get to know how to fix printer showing Offline Windows 10
Replies
2
Views
187
edfair
edfair

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top