Having "USB recognition" issue; RE: LXK X3350 printer?

Question

Hi everyone. I've got a Lexmark X3350 printer, which connects to my PC via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable. Thing is .. my PC is "old" (around 6 years!), and it is "set up" to have a printer on the parallel port... FYI - I'm running Windows 2000.

I recently "lost" my PC to printer connection, and in the past it has taken me 60 to 90 minutes to re-hook it up... I've tried starting the PC and then attaching the USB cable, but the PC doesn't pull up the "New Hardware detected" window-box.

Can anyone recommend an easy way? I'm thinking something with the Hardware / Device Manager, and clicking on the USB settings? Is there a way that I can have the PC / Windows 2000 "check" each USB, and then have the printer be "found" (again)?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I just double-checked the USB cable. It is NOT the cable. I also spent 1.5 hours on the phone with a Lexmark rep., who couldn't fix the problem either...

Answer 1

What you are looking for in the third paragraph is the following:

I don't have my Win2K booted up, so this is from WinXP. When you are in Device Manager, click "Action", then "Scan for Hardware Changes". Win2K has something similar. It may be "Refresh" or something like that. That will cause Windows to re-find attached devices.

Otherwise, you may have a USB 1.0 port on your computer, and the Lexmark may be USB 2.0 with poor support for version 1.0. Buy and install a USB 2.0 card and use that one instead.

Another thought is that Windows doesn't need to re-find the printer because it never lost it. It could be the USB cable is bad.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Disconnect the printer
Open Device Manager
Double click on Universal Serial bus Controllers.
Delete USB Printing Support
Restart
Plug the printer in
If it still does not detect your printer.

Unplug the printer and as many usb devices as you can
Open Device Manager
Double click on Universal Serial bus Controllers.
Delete everything in the USB list
Restart

plug in the stuff that was unplugged one at a time.

And I thought I was the only one that fell into these weird windows quirks.
There's a microsoft kb article on this issue, but I spent a while fishing it out.


Good Luck