Win XP pro keeps installing HP Officejet T45 printer

[Onebadass]

I thought installing the drivers for my sisters HP Officejet T45 printer would be a peice of cake, but I was surprised. The printer works fine once the drivers and software are installed but everytime you turn the printer on Windows XP professional wants to install the printer drivers over and over again. I have all the latest updates. How can I fix this?

[Wiggo]

If ya turn of the PC on before the printer or any other devices this will happen as all connected devices need to be on before the PC is so that all connected devices are detected at startup.

[minibubba]

I doubt that is the issue....I've had a number of printers and peripherals and it didn't matter when I turned on/plugged in the non-essential devices.

The only time I have had an issue similar to this was with a SCSI flat bed scanner.

I would recommend reinstalling the drivers and software. If it is a USB printer then I would recommend removing all of the drivers for it and not plugging it in until the software asks for it.

[Onebadass]

If ya turn of the PC on before the printer or any other devices this will happen as all connected devices need to be on before the PC is so that all connected devices are detected at startup.

I'll try that this weekend when I go over and take another stab at it. I can't remember which was on first.

[Onebadass]

I doubt that is the issue....I've had a number of printers and peripherals and it didn't matter when I turned on/plugged in the non-essential devices.

The only time I have had an issue similar to this was with a SCSI flat bed scanner.

I would recommend reinstalling the drivers and software. If it is a USB printer then I would recommend removing all of the drivers for it and not plugging it in until the software asks for it.

Its not USB. I'll also try not plugging in the printer cable to the back of the system (if thats what you mean) until the software ask it, if Wiggo's method fails.

[minibubba]

if it's not USB then leave it plugged in. Plugging in a parallel device while the computer is running is not a good idea.

[asklepios]

i had the same issues with a USB printer. later i found out that letting XP find and install the driver (from CD ofcourse) is much better method then installing from the installer coming in the CD.
HP gives a crappy installer as far as XP is concerned.
every morning i was re-installing the printer (yeah i m one of those who shuts their PC's down at night) but to no avail.
try searching for drivers in CD from XP's hardware manager and then try installing it from there :cheers:

[Onebadass]

if it's not USB then leave it plugged in. Plugging in a parallel device while the computer is running is not a good idea.

It was plugged in before I started the PC but I'm pretty sure I had the printer powered off until I started to install the software, then I turned it on right away.

[Onebadass]

i had the same issues with a USB printer. later i found out that letting XP find and install the driver (from CD ofcourse) is much better method then installing from the installer coming in the CD.
HP gives a crappy installer as far as XP is concerned.
every morning i was re-installing the printer (yeah i m one of those who shuts their PC's down at night) but to no avail.
try searching for drivers in CD from XP's hardware manager and then try installing it from there :cheers:

Like I say, Win XP has no trouble finding the printer with its built-in plug and play even without the driver installed, Its just that P&P can't detect that its already installed when I finally did installed the drivers. I tried letting Windows install it completly at first but Win XP must not have a driver for it since it asks to specify a location for the driver.

I wonder how you turn off plug&play in WinXP? That might be my only other option if everybody's method here fails when I make an attempt tomorrow at hooking this thing back up again.

[Onebadass]

I worked the second time around. I'm not exactly sure what I did differently. Thanks for the help everyone.