erroneous hardware detection

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Powell
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Powell

Starting last week, everytime I start my computer a message pops up stating
that new hardware (printer) has been found. I click through the prompts and
finally receive a message that the hardware could not be installed. The
problem is that I don't have any new hardware and I still receive the message
even if I unplug all devices on my computer. How can I determine what
hardware is being detected and, more importantly, how to stop it?
 
Don Powell said:
Starting last week, everytime I start my computer a message pops up stating
that new hardware (printer) has been found. I click through the prompts and
finally receive a message that the hardware could not be installed. The
problem is that I don't have any new hardware and I still receive the message
even if I unplug all devices on my computer. How can I determine what
hardware is being detected and, more importantly, how to stop it?
Click to expand...



First thing to try is run msconfig
and see if the printer installation is in startup...

if there is...uncheck it and reboot , then opt to keep changes and not show
message again
 
Nope, nothing shows up there. Also, I get the same result if I do a "Scan For
Hardware Changes" from Device Manager so I'm thinking it's not something
epcific to startup?
 
Don Powell said:
Nope, nothing shows up there. Also, I get the same result if I do a "Scan For
Hardware Changes" from Device Manager so I'm thinking it's not something
epcific to startup?
Click to expand...


I am assuming the printer is USB.
If so...you can also get that situation if the printer is used on a
different USB port than the one it was on when
originally installed.

If that's the case...try the original port.

An other option would be to uninstall all instances of the printer and start
all over again.

If you do that however...be sure you still have the driver disk for the
printer
if it does not already exist in XP
 
The point is that there's no printer to be installed. I get this promt even
when there's nothing lougged into any USB or parallel ports.
 
Don Powell said:
The point is that there's no printer to be installed. I get this promt even
when there's nothing lougged into any USB or parallel ports.
Click to expand...



Then next time you bootup hit control-alt-delete

and not *exactly* what the name of the process is that's installing the
printer

next do a registry search for that process and it will probably be in a
folder labeled "run"

at that point you can delete it
 
Back
Top