cryptique Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 OK, here's my deal, as I recall it. Some details may be inaccurate. A few weeks ago, I tried to reinstall the mouse driver on my Windows XP Home laptop, and I accidentally installed a printer driver instead. (I know, dumb mistake, but the two links were right next to each other and I clicked the wrong one.) I fixed my other problem, but now that mistaken printer driver seems to have convinced my laptop that it has a printer connected to it. Every time I boot this thing up, it "finds" a new piece of hardware (the phantom printer), and it prompts me to install drivers for it. I can't get rid of this phantom printer. It "finds" it every time, but there's no printer listed under Printers and Faxes. I can't seem to find anything that points to this mysterious printer that I can uninstall or otherwise suppress. I tried to install the drivers it thinks it needs (so I could maybe then uninstall everything), but that didn't impress it. I think it was the printer driver installation that brought this on, but I might have done some other stuff back then when I was troubleshooting. Regardless of the origin of the issue, I just want to make it go away. Fortunately, it's not urgent -- this doesn't affect the functioning of the laptop at all, aside from being annoying at startup. But I sure would like to fix it. Anyone have a clue? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MrRain422 Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 You're fucked. You better buy a new laptop. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 You're fucked. You better buy a new laptop.I KNOW!!!!11!!!@!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jenbobblehead Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 you don't need a new laptop, silly, but you will have to move and change your name. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest ScottHoward Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 In device manager, it should be listed (maybe not under printers, but somewhere - perhaps with a yellow exclamation point). Disable it. Disable the print spooler service if you arent printing from the notebook. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 In device manager, it should be listed (maybe not under printers, but somewhere - perhaps with a yellow exclamation point). Disable it. Disable the print spooler service if you arent printing from the notebook.Yeah, I looked there but only under printers, and it wasn't there. I'll look again next time I boot it up. Thanks for the idea. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.