No USB port option for printer 3

[gariel420]

Hardware
Gigabyte G31M-ES2L E5200 dual core, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HDD,
8 USB ports from Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller &
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion Controller,
comprised of 2 front USB ports, 4 rear USB ports, and dual USB ports from a PCI card.

OS XPPro SP3, ver 2600

I have been trying to load a Canon MP160 printer onto my XP Pro SP3 system, when I load the setup software from CDROM, no USB port option is presented. I have instead, Local Port, Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Monitor, and TCP/IP Port in the add to ports list. In the fixed list there are the usual LPT1-3, Com 1-4, File, Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Monitor Port, XPS Port.

I downloaded the latest driver from Canon, but there is still no access to USB ports

There are no yellow flags in the device list,
the BIOS has USB enabled,
there are no other USB difficulties,
I simply cannot get a USB port in the port for printers list out of Printer Properties.
I really need to get this printer going so that I can print out some accounts.

thanks in advance...

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Just a basic question but have you just plugged the printer into an open USB port ( probably best to use one of the back ones) and tried to print?





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[r0gerc]

Did you wait until the setup software asked you to plug the printer in? Sometimes this is needed.

 

[manhunter2826]

If the above suggestions don't work, and I suspect they will, you could try plugging in the printer, wait for Hardware Wizard to kick in ('Windows has detected....') and then browse specifically for the driver on the cd-rom (or download).

 

[gariel420]

Turkbear (TechnicalUser)
21 Sep 09 11:22
Hi,
Just a basic question but have you just plugged the printer into an open USB port ( probably best to use one of the back ones) and tried to print?

thanks for the reply
yes, Ive cleared all other ports of USB devices, and then tried every port on the machine, front, back, and on the PCI card. At no time has a USB port appeared in the ports dialogue window (printers/ports tab)All the ports work, I checked that out too, by moving a wireless mouse and USB storage device around all the ports.

 

[gariel420]

r0gerc (Programmer)
21 Sep 09 11:33
Did you wait until the setup software asked you to plug the printer in? Sometimes this is needed.

thanks for the reply Roger
yes Ive been at this a few days now, and tried it every way I can think of. All I get is a "USB Device not Recognised" bubble on the task bar,

I can do this, open the Device List, expand the USB Controllers list and delete "Unkown Device" and its USB Controller, and if Im quick, I can see as they reload in the device list, "Unknown Device" that briefly changes to MP160 and moves to Imaging Devices (the scanner part I guess) and MP160 in "Other Devices" (as the printer)

Then it goes back to "Unknown Device" and returns to how it was.

 

[smah]

If you right-click on the 'Unknown Device' in Device Manager, can you manually load the driver from the cd?

 

[gariel420]

manhunter2826 (TechnicalUser)
21 Sep 09 11:38
If the above suggestions don't work, and I suspect they will, you could try plugging in the printer, wait for Hardware Wizard to kick in ('Windows has detected....') and then browse specifically for the driver on the cd-rom (or download).

thanks for the reply
yes been there done that too
it knows something has been plugged in, sometimes I get the "found new hardware" bubble, which becomes "USB Device not Recognised" bubble

Im thinking the fact that I cant raise a USB port in the port dialogue window, that this is the core issue.

Ive been reading a lot of forum posts to catch up with this, and there are a lot of posts on the same issue, mostly without a solution. Two fixes Ive seen include, removing all the USB hardware from the device list, shutdown with the driver CD in the CDROM draw (driver already installed). And a cold boot after having turned the PC off at the mains to reboot the mobo....no go

Another had the idea that usbmon.dll and usbprint.sys were corrupt, and replacement fixed the problem...no go

Ive done both, and neither has worked for me, I still dont have an accessible USB port in the port dialogue window, and the machine isnt finding it by itself.

 

[gariel420]

smah (MIS)
21 Sep 09 12:35
If you right-click on the 'Unknown Device' in Device Manager, can you manually load the driver from the cd?

thanks for the reply

yes tried that too, it looks for an .ini file, Ive tried directing it to the XP setup disk in the CDROM, and tried "have disk" going to Windows/inf files, and to i386 on the CD

no go

then I had the wild idea of copying the usb and print related ini files to a folder within Windows/inf so it couldnt possibly miss them

no go

 

[qadkinsn]

At my job, when we set up Bluetooth wireless printers in the Add New Printer Wizard...we click on local printer and uncheck the Plug and Play button. The Next screen lets us configure a new port. There may be a USB port in this list that you can try. I'm not sure if there is but it's the best I can offer for a suggestion.

Good Luck!

 

[kjv1611]

Here's another thought: compatibility issues between the PCI USB card and your onboard USB ports. If you prefer one over the other, then disable the one you least prefer. If the onboard ports are less preferable, disable those in BIOS. If the PCI card is less preferable to keep, then just remove it (of course when the computer is turned off). Then once you've removed the PCI card or else disabled the onboard USB, then try again - with whichever is still enabled, and see if it works.

I've seen all sorts of weird things caused by problems between onboard and PCI USB ports not getting along. Thankfully, I haven't REALLY had to deal with that for some time now.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[gariel420]

thankyou folks
its really close
I removed the PCI card, shut down, turn off mains power to reboot mobo. When I got back in I got the device list up as quickly as I could right click on unknown device and uninstall it. Then it would look for a driver, pop it into 'Other Devices', were I can right click and go look for a driver manually, knowing I was looking at MP160. Somehow that bit came together and I even got a capture of what was happening so you could see.

Through more rigorous searching for drivers from the Canon CD and the XP Disk I now have the USB Virtual Printer port now checked and enabled. Something else I saw happening was USB Printer support appeared in the USB Device list.

But alas it still wont print, and Ive lost the USB Printer support in a reboot and cant find it in the hardware list.

So at least 2 things suggested are right
1/ hardware/software conflict with PCI card
2/ more vigorous manual search for drives

Also someone else suggested plugging the printer direct to the mains, as power loss might be an issue at the port. I will try obtain a shorter USB cable to the same ends. This one is around 8ft

Im hoping that 'USB Printer support' returns and the thing gets online when I can do that

But at least the port is up, thats got to be more than half the battle

not over yet but, thank you all for a significant achievement

 

[kjv1611]

Might I suggest trying this as well:

Since you've gotten better results by pulling the PCI card, you may actually get better results by disabling the onboard USB (BIOS), and installing the PCI card instead. From the looks of your printscreens, you've got USB 1.1 onboard, and USB 2.0 on the PCI card. At least, that's what I'd do.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[gariel420]

it might look like that, but the USB2 controller is in 'Other Devices'. Theyre actually should all be USB2.

I can get along with 6 ports, 8 was overkill but might have been handy

Host controller: Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

 

[BadBigBen]

Let me throw in my two cents worth:

reinstall the CHIPSET drivers, as these control how the USB ports are controlled...

then install the Printer driver, and then plug in the printer...

Question: Does the printer work on another workstation at all? do you have the means to test it on another workstation?


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[gariel420]

thanks Ben, I decided it was probably wise to go to Intel for chipset drivers and install them rather than the ones on the manufacturers CD. I dont know if there was a difference but I installed them anyway.

Im happy to say this situation is now resolved
I obtained a shorter 2m USB cable today, and that was the final hitch that enabled a perfect connection.

So looking back I see a number of things happening at once. it might not be possible to determine what the actual solution was however, I think these things below are key contributors.

* There was a USB hardware/software conflict with the PCI card, thats why the machine blue screened with usbport.sys.

*The technique of rebooting the mobo (power off at plug)and getting into the Device Manager list on reboot, uninstalling the "Unknown Device" from there,
wait for the device to be reloaded and automatically moved to "Other Devices", right click select "update driver", navigate manually to the drivers on CD. I used both the XP Windows CD and the Canon Printer Driver CD.
That saw the USB Printing Support hence the port driver loaded.

* Check cable lengths to ensure max power delivery between USB a and USB b ports, std USB cable is 2m.

This is what the device list looks like now in Device Manager, and note the presence of USB Printing Support

Thank you one and all for you attentive observations and invaluable assistance. I would be screwed without this printer to print my accounts before the end of the month

Thank you again and a very well done...

 

[manhunter2826]

Well done for persevering and getting it sorted, and the resultant info

 

[kjv1611]

Yes, thanks for the very complete follow-up. Inevitably, someone will run into the same issue in the future.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad to hear that it is sorted all out now...

probably, the problem was with the cable length or quality, all along in the first place...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[gariel420]

Id have to concede it was part of the problem Ben
But it has worked with that cable before.

Thing is, its already tough to setup without the port
and the PCI card wouldnt have helped.

I see a lot of threads about the lack of USB port option for SP3. It seems to me that, eliminating the variables is a good thing to do, in this case, the hardware conflict, the cable length, and possibly the usbmon.dll and usbprint.sys were corrupt (known fault in some SP3.

Operating from within Device manger to load the right drivers is the trick, you only get one shot at it after a reboot, as it doesnt do things in the same way after. And just to reiterate that, uninstall the driver for the Unknown Device from Device Manager, then you should see the hardware load into "Other Devices", from there its a matter of grabbing the right drivers but most essentially the one for USB Printing Support so at least you have the port.

thanks all again...