Installing Printer on Vista Home "USB Device Not recognized"

I have been trying to install a Canon Pixma 160 Multifunction
Scanner/Printer on my Gateway Computer with Vista Home operating
system.After many hours on the phone with Canon, trying two different
printers and a new USB cable, Canon determined that there is a problem
with Vista (possibly a security issue), and each time that the drivers
are downloaded and shows up on the computer as being downloaded, Vista
does something that cause me to get the "usb device not recognized"
message. Help!!!

Stacey,
Have you tried the hot install method?

Example: Have windows up and running,
Have the printer turned on but not connected to the computer,
Have your USB cable plugged into the printer,
Then plug into the USB port on your computer.

Windows has a unique way of finding the correct driver.

I have tried that - and everything else! Canon says that it is a
security issue with Vista, and that Vista is not allowing the
recognition of the driver. No matter how many times I install the driver
and which ever way I have tried to get the computer to recognize the
printer, it always comes up "USB device not recognized."

Windows has a unique way of finding the correct driver.

I vaguely remember having that problem with a USB port,
The only solution at that time was to connect to a parallel port.

I hope you find the solution.

I have tried that, too. If this is not a common problem with Vista,
perhaps it is not a Vista issue? Two printers later, the only thing we
could come up with was that Vista was blocking the printer driver
download, because it is there, then it disappears...

Something else to look for:

Go to the Control Panel (classic view) and double click Device Manager.
Go to the bottom and click the box in front of Universal Serial Bus
controllers.
Look for USB Printing Support.
Also look for USB2 Enhanced Host Controller.

If not in the list, you may have to obtain a USB2 card to install in your
computer.

[rogerh]

StaceyJA,

I had what seems to be exactly the same problem as you. I was trying to connect a Canon PIXMA iP4600 printer to a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium. I got the same "USB device not recognized" error as you. I had had the same problem with my previous PIXMA iP4500 printer. Very frustrating.

In my case a new USB cable solved the problem. I was originally using a cheap 3 metre cable but then bought a better quality 1.5 metre cable and the problem was immediately solved. My new 1.5 metre cable is made by NIKKAI and has gold connections at each end, which I think indicates better quality.

Curiously my old Canon BJC3000 printer worked perfectly fine with my old cheap USB cable.

You say that you tried a new cable but is your new cable good quality and is it as short as possible? I wouldn't start deleting files on your PC or altering any settings until you have tried a good quality cable.

[ReneeKate]

RogerH,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have spent countless hours trying to get my Epson printer installed on my laptop. I repeatedly received the 'USB Device Not Recognised Message'. I tried everything from calling Epson, calling the place where I bought my laptop, downloading new drivers, a manual installation, switching off my firewalls and nothing worked. I was almost ready to buy a new printer.

I went out and bought a AUD$20 USB cable which was gold plated and my printer installed in less than 60 seconds!

I cannot thank you enough. You have saved me more hours of heartbreak and hundreds of dollars in buying a new printer (which probably would have had the same problem).

You're a legend! Thanks champ.

Renee

[sugbear12]

RogerH

WOW!! Just signed up to the site, you made my day! I was so frustrated with my delimma of "USB Device Not Recognized" and you simple suggestion kept me from throwing my printer out the window. Thanks alot, simple cable swap, and BAM! it's working!!

[zerotax]

Holy cow. Worked on this forever. New cable solved my problem. Thanks!!! (My old cable worked fine on another computer, so I "knew" that wasn't the problem)!

[Kev_The_Gerbil]

Googled this post and signed up just to say thanks!! The usb port I was using did not seem compatible, on using the correct port and on using a new cable it all worked! It seems the epsons are not very flexible when handling older hardware!

[missaster101]

This is as close as I could come to the problem we are having. Our old computer is now gone. We have just acquired a computer with Windows Vista Basic on it. So this may or may not apply to this particular situation...but, here goes. We use an old DOS program to load all of our business data in...I did say old right? We put this program on the Vista computer via the old hard drive and it "kinda" works. But we have a Tracfeeder Printer - Epson LQ590. It will work to print a test page but will NOT take a command to print an invoice from the DOS database. We actually got the database working but there are still some forward link problems in it and we need some feedback on that also. Back to the printer, everytime we ask it to print a box opens on top of the info that says...QUIT OR RETRY. And ofcourse we have to quit and reopen the database again. This same database will pick up other customers information and paste it to a new file being built and if we delete it it will be deleted from the original customers file too...aarrrggghhh! So, as you all can see we are spending more money on hours trying to get this ---- thing working than what we think it is worth. I just know someone out there somewhere will surely have a solution for this or atleast some input. BTW, we have converted the serial port to USB from the printer to the Vista, we have purchased a parallel PCI card and put it in the Vista and put the 25 pin on it from the printer and it still will not take a command to print from this DOS database....HELP!! PLEASE!!!

[EINSTEIN_007]

missaster101,
Try the below printer code to open/close the print queue:
set device to print
set consol off
set printer on
set print to lpt1

.... print stuff etc

set printer off
set console on
set device to screen
set printer to

It will surely resolve the print delay issue.

[missaster101]

Thank you Einstein007! I will try this tomorrow when I get to work!