Printer Installation Problem (XP Home)

[Chuck Tucker]

Trying to help a lady with upgrading her WME system to WXP and re-installing printer drivers. Unfortunately, she didn't uninstall her Canon Multipass F50 printer/scanner prior to installing the XP upgrade. After upgrading to XP the uninstall (from Settings, etc.) would hang up and never complete. To their credit, we later found out that Canon warns of this problem.

So, I spent nearly two hours with the Canon tech support people cleaning out the old printer software. I downloaded the latest XP driver software onto a CD. Finally, I connected the Canon to the computer, the plug and play wizard found it but couldn't find a driver. So I directed it to the CD, but it couldn't find the necessary file there. Next I tried running the Canon install program -- it hangs looking for the printer. I finally discovered that the Canon installation CD actually copies itself to C:Temp and executes from there. So unplugged the Canon and reconnected it -- the Wizard found it and I directed it to the Drivers folder in the Canon installation folder on Temp. It loaded the driver and indicated that we had a successful installation. However, the printer doesn't show up in the Printer and Faxes window, and it doesn't appear when I click on Add Printer.

As best as I can tell it looks to me like the Canon installation sofware cannot detect the USB connection -- even though the plug and play wizard does. Also, it looks like the printer needs some of the software in the Canon installation stuff before XP recognizes it's there.

Sorry for the long winded explaination, but it is a very difficult problem. Any and all suggestions would be most welcome.

[Rebel]

Not sure about Canon Chuck, but I know that HP instructs the user to::
1) Do not connect the printer to the computer.
2) Install the printer software
3) Shut down
4) Connect the printer and reboot. Let the New Hardware wizard detect it and then point it to the proper drivers.

[Chuck Tucker]

Thanks John. However, we've tried that. The Canon installation software hangs there looking for the printer! Then, if we plug the printer in, the Printer Wizard starts up. Firecting it to the folder(s) with the Canon software doesn't work -- Except if I direct it to the driver subfolder in the Canon installation folder, it finds it, loads it and says the printer is installed. But it doesn't show up in the printer and fax window. I keep going around in circles with this one getting absolutely nowhere.

[Rebel]

Chuck,
There appear to be some solutions to the symptoms you are encountering here . Select "Quick Start Guide/Setup Instructions">FAQ's>Search by Category.

[Chuck Tucker]

Thanks John,

That's the Canon support page. I see that the Canon tech had us try some of the techniques described there, but I will print them off and give it another try next week. There seems to be this terrible conflict between the Plug & Play Wizard and the Canon installation software. The latter insists on trying to find the printer when it isn't connected yet, and the former can't seem to connect with the Canon software.

Another thing Canon suggests is turning off any firewall and/or AV programs and performing the installation in Safe Mode. I'll give that a try too.