Vista USB Printer install issue

Well, i had high hopes that installing printers on Vista would work
better than previous version of windows but as it turns out it is
worse!

I have an HP P2015dn printer. I hooked it up to my Vista enterprise
machine via usb and it was recognized. The wizard took me to a point
where it was asking for the driver disk. I dont have the disk so i
decided to hit "Cancell" so that it would be recognized and take me to
the same prompt in the near future after i had gotten the cd or
downloaded the drivers.

I got the cd, plugged in the printer again and this time it says USB
Device not recognized. I thought "OK" i will just go to the printers
control panel and install from there. Well wouldnt you know, you cant
autodetect a usb printer from the printers control panel. It says "USB
printers will be auto installed when you plug them in"

I went to device manager and removed all usb items including the
"unknown device" and rebooted. still no go.

Anyone know how i can clean up the machine to restore it so that the
printer is recognized as a printer again? Or how can i do a manual
install of a usb printer?

Start with the HP site
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ubmit=Go%20%BB

You blame Vista for problems YOU caused. Typical.

Unplug the printer, put the CD in, load everything, plug in the
printer.

HP Printer Support has been a joke for me, I've come to learn its a
Vista issue!

This just like almost every other USB device requires the drivers to be
installed prior to the device being plugged in. You caused the error by not
following the instructions you received with the printer. To fix, go to
control panel and remove the printer totally from the system.

Load the device drivers for your Vista machine by downloading from HP
(watch wrap of URL, begins with http and ends with number 2093)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...&swEnvOID=2093

for the Vista 32 bit drivers.

Try these steps:

1. Update the chipset drivers.
2. Make sure the print spooler service is running.
3. All the firewalls should be disabled or you can add an exception
later.
4. Start the install wizard.
5. Connect the USB cable to system when the setup would ask for it.

Make sure that the printer drivers are not already installed.

The printer drivers have to be installed BEFORE you plug in the USB cable
for the installation to work correctly.

[MatthiasB]

Many HP printers' drivers are included in Vista itself, so nothing needs to be installed separately.

This was supposed to be the case with HP PSC 1350.

I had problems installing an HP PSC 1350 printer on a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. The printer worked without problems on another computer with Windows XP 32-bit. The Vista computer kept saying "unknown device" when I attached the printer. Finally, I found that the culprit was the very long USB cable. I had used extension cords, a total of three USB cables connected to a total length of about 10 metres. This cable worked fine with the XP computer, but caused the problem with the Vista computer.

The printer works without problems when connected to the Vista computer though a singe (3-metre) USB cable. I do not know whether the Windows version (Vista/XP) matters here, or whether it is the motherboard or some other physical component in the PC (new/old). But the fact is that the long USB cable was the only problem.