[mdog17]

Hi,

I was wondering if you can help me with a problem that came up. I hooked up my Dell All-in-One Printer A920 to my dell laptop and at first it didnt recognize it. This was weird because I have used the printer before and it worked fine. So I thought it may be something with the driver, which I downloaded an update for on the website. When I came to install the printer, during the installation a message popped up that said:

"AddPrinterDriver() Failed: Printer monitor unknown"

And the installation stopped. I'm kinda stumped as to what to try next because I dont know what a "printer monitor" is? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

Edited by mdog17, 27 August 2005 - 12:44 PM.

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Hi there

Follow the instructions in this link :
http://support.micro...om/?kbid=870666

If they don't work, let me know whether your printer is USB or parallel & whether you have ever installed it on this laptop before.

[Samm]

Hi there

Follow the instructions in this link :
http://support.micro...om/?kbid=870666

If they don't work, let me know whether your printer is USB or parallel & whether you have ever installed it on this laptop before.

[mdog17]

Thanks for responding,

I tried to do what the website on that link said but I could not discern which file was the printer's (i.e. could not find name of printer in any INF file name). My printer is USB connected and its been installed before (and worked for a year) but now no longer works,

Thanks again

[Samm]

If you downloaded the driver, it should be an .exe file. If you extract this file into a folder, you will see all the individual files contained within it. Look in those files for anything ending in .inf
The chances are the printer name won't be in the actual file name but it should be listed inside the inf file itself.
I've just downloaded the a920 driver myself & had a look through the files. The only INF file I can see is in the WIN_XP2K folder and is called dlbkw2k.inf so go with this one.

I would also run a search on your hard drive (in the windows folder) for this particular file. If it exists, I suggest you either delete it so the system is forced to use the downloaded one or modify it, as per the instructions, so that both the downloaded INF & the resident INF are altered.

[mdog17]

Found the files you were referring to and added a semicolon to all of them.

Now when I run the setup for the driver install, it proceeds thru the install and completes it, but doesnt do anything, because when I try to access the printer thru Printers and Faxes, it says: "Must install driver for this printer".

Meanwhile, while doing all this, I restart my computer and after the startup, half of my icons for various unrelated programs (Word, my CD-Burning software, MSN messenger) are gone, replaced by the DAT file icon. These programs still work when u click on the icon, but the icon just seems to be gone. And when i right-click and see the properties of one of these programs, to see if i can manually change the icon back to the original, it says that I'm missing some shell file in System32 folder. I'm starting to think that there may be a virus present, what do u think?

Thanks in advance

[Samm]

A virus is a possibility. I suggest that if you already have AV software on your system, update it & run a full scan. If you don't have any software, you can download AVG or Avast for free. Make sure its updated & scan everything.

If the AV software doesn't find anything, then try Hijack This. You can download it from here :
http://www.majorgeek...wnload3155.html

When you go to run it, make sure all explorer windows are closed & any other apps are closed. Select the perform scan & save log file option, then copy & paste the contents of the log file here.
I will then be able to tell you if you have a malware problem on your system. Be aware though, that if you do, I will ask you to go to the malware forum in Geekstogo to have it resolved, as they are the experts.

Another possibility given that you said you installed this printer on this laptop before, is you may need to run some sort of USB cleanup utility. Sometimes if theres traces of the old install or failed install on the system, it can prevent the new install from working. This doesn't explain the desktop icons going strange though.