Brother MFC-215C Printer

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I bought this printer about 3 weeks ago. When I first installed it my system
(W-XP) seemed to be running slow. I decided to visit the Brother website to
look for a new driver etc. I couldn't find the most recent driver at first,
but I did find the latest firmware, which I dowloaded and ran.
A few days later I found the latest driver on the Brother website and
downloaded it. I was directed to download an unistall program and run it to
uninstall the old driver first. This I did -all OK. Then I tried to install
the new driver. When it reached the end of the install it informed me that I
had chosen the wrong model at the start of the installation and I needed to
repeat the installation and choose the correct one. The driver is only for my
model of printer so I can't do that.
Now, even if I try to install the original driver from the disk I have the
same error at the end of the install. I have tried everything to reinstall
this printer and nothing works. I even had the engineer from Brother on the
phone for one and a half hours, and even he ran out of ideas. The computer
just doesn't recognise the printer. Have I corrupted the printers own system
by installing the frimware, and can I do anything about it?
I have been struggling with this for three days now, and nothing works!
Please help!

Please bear in mind in your answer that I am not an IT engineer or an expert
(I'm not an idiot either).
 
Thanks Cari,

Yes I did everything I was supposed to do. I did think at first that I had
installed the wrong firmware, but I didn't.
 
I'd contact Brother..... what if they put the wrong firmware up there or
mislabeled their file. There may be a utility they have so that you can
tell exactly what you printer now thinks it is, which would at least allow
the correct drivers to be installed.
 
I hate multifunction printers. everyone of them seems to have some level of
software related problems at one time or another.
Back to your MFC.
Brothers error messages can sometimes be misleading. The firmware update
utility and a MFC menu option should tell you what version firmware is
currently loaded.
Brother also has a cleanup utility (downloadable) that may need to be used
to cleanup things between driver installs, or if an install went awry.
Some of the Brother and other OEM's MFC software installs did not work
correctly unless the MFC was plugged into the first USB port on the first
USB controller. This seems to be MBD chip set dependent?.

A last resort with some drivers was to uninstall the driver and then
uninstall the USB port and controller that the driver connected to. This may
involve uninstalling all USB ports and controllers.
Do this with a PS/2 keboard, not a USB keyboard. With a USB keyboard, you
may or may not loose the keyboard functions during the uninstall/reinstall
process.

I have a Brother MFC 420CN. This MFC works correctly over the LAN, but can
have install problems similar to those you mentioned when a USB port is
used.
Most of the problem seems to be related to registry entries. I was told
that the 420's problems usually occur when other USB printers, USB scanners,
or multifunction devices were or are present.
 
I have now been to another computer with the same operating system and
installed the printer with no problems.
Anyone any ideas?
 
Phil said:
I have now been to another computer with the same operating system and
installed the printer with no problems.
Anyone any ideas?
Click to expand...

Because the printer works, and the driver you now have works with XP,
I'd try cleaning out all traces of the old install and then
re-installing as you did on the other computer:
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

If that doesn't work, you could try cleaning it again, only this time
also remove the USB port and controller as Chuck suggested.
 
Many thanks to Chuck and lem,

However, I cleaned all of the files I coul;d find related to Brother to no
avail.

Also, however, I only have a USB keyboard and I have never attempted
anything like removing USB ports and/or controllers. How painful is it and
can it be terminal?

Would you like to know how fed up I am - very, thats how!

Would appreciate some help.

This is porbably a cardinal sin, but me computer is a Dell Dimension 9150
desktop.

Well - you live and learn!

Thanks again!
 
Phil said:
Many thanks to Chuck and lem,

However, I cleaned all of the files I coul;d find related to Brother to no
avail.

Also, however, I only have a USB keyboard and I have never attempted
anything like removing USB ports and/or controllers. How painful is it and
can it be terminal?

Would you like to know how fed up I am - very, thats how!

Would appreciate some help.

This is porbably a cardinal sin, but me computer is a Dell Dimension 9150
desktop.

Well - you live and learn!

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

The problem with removing all your USB support when you have a USB
keyboard, is that you may get to a situation where Windows is looking
for an input but you have no way to provide the input.

Assuming of course that a Dell 9150 has a PS/2 input jack, you can buy
PS/2 keyboards for less than $10
http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...roduct_code=50201012&Pn=Standard_107_Keyboard
or you could try a PS/2 to USB converter for about the same cost (make
sure you get it going the right way) http://sewelldirect.com/ps2tousb.asp
 
Works on one computer, not another.
If I were faced with this problem, and had previously accomplished what has
been suggested,
I'd assume that I had multiple areas to look at.
First, what are the hardware differences? This is not usually important, but
can be, and may cause some real difficult problems to deal with.
Such things as USB support chip sets and the drivers required for instance.
Sometimes MBD support drivers are involved.
The real reason in looking at the hardware is to sort of establish some sort
of baseline between the systems.

Next, and more important in my view, is to compare the registry entries and
structure of the two computers in areas that can obviously have an effect on
printing and a printer install.
Special attention is paid to areas that are particuliar to the brand and
model of printer

One thing that I've found in the past is that there may be unexpected
registry changes that trace back to hardware that is not installed, or was
not uninstalled properly.
Multiple duplicate registry entries can cause some really odd symptoms.

Sort of a last thought that worked, usually on older windows versions and
SP's
Check to see if there are differences in rev levels of the various printer
support dlls. be they windows or vendor specific.
 
Thanks Chuck.

A new development.
I had to reinstall my old printer (a Canon), which does not print anymore
(hence the new Brother Printer) to scan something. It reinstalled with no
problems.
I have now managed to install the Brother printer in place of the Canon.
Windows is showing that it is installed and I can change its settings (print
quality etc.), but it doesn't print or scan. Windows tells me that the print
job failed.
Am I getting closer?
Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
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