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How to make Win XP "auto detect" printers?


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I had this working and then messed it up! Dang!

I have a new Dell Inspiron desktop computer running Vista Home Premium with a shared HP Deskjet 4280 all in one printer attached via USB. I have two IBM Thinkpad laptops (Lenovo) running Win XP, SP3. All three computers are networked in a home LAN talking to each other via a Linksys WRT54G broadband router. The network functions very well, thank you!

Here is the baffling (to me) problem: Both laptops used to print just fine over the network using a printer icon with the word "auto" in front of the actual shared (and real) printer name. Then I got a hairbrained idea to attach an old HP Scanjet scanner to the Dell Inspiron cuz I saw there was a Vista driver for it. Well, it didn't work, so I removed the software and then tried it on one of the laptops. It didn't work there either so I removed the Scanjet driver from it as well. After that little episode, the laptop where I tried to install the scanner drive no longer will produce this "auto" detected printer icon. The other laptop is still working fine and does show the auto printer. Neither laptop will print when I choose the icon without the word "auto" in front of the name, however, both laptops WILL print test pages on that no auto icon--they just won't print from any application. Yes, I tried notepad, wordpad and almost every other app on the laptops.

Does anyone know how I can help Win XP, SP3 return to auto detecting the printer? You can contact me at: [email address removed]

Hope I have included enough information, but just in case... my hat size is medium.

I spent 4 hours in chat with an HP rep who made me repeat all the things I had already tried. The whole experience made me think I knew more than the rep, but that's another story and I don't expect this forum to run out and educate HP customer service reps!

Thanks!

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Welcome to the Windows Forum.

I have removed your email address form your post, as we do not want spambots harvesting addresses from this forum. You can subscribe to a topic if you want to be notified when reply has been posted.

If I were you, I would first try a System Restore on the PC where you lost that functionality.

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Welcome to the Windows Forum.

I have removed your email address form your post, as we do not want spambots harvesting addresses from this forum. You can subscribe to a topic if you want to be notified when reply has been posted.

If I were you, I would first try a System Restore on the PC where you lost that functionality.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

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