Printer driver list empty
Posted by admin on May 9th, 2007
Hi,No, this is not a standard "there is no driver for my printer" issue.We have a network printer. HP have no driver for it, stating that the driver is built into Vista.On three of our machines, we have installed this built in driver using an IP port and it worked fine.On one computer, when we get to the "add the printer driver" screen, we don't see a list of manufacturers and printers.We see one single driver, the HP Photosmart printer driver which was installed earlier. We have the "Have disk" and "Windows Update" options. Tried "Have Disk" and pointed at c:\windows\inf and still only saw the same Photosmart driver.Tried uninstalling the Photosmart driver, and then, we only see "no drivers found" show up in this screen. I can't seem to make it point in the direction of the built in Vista driver. Any assistance appreciated.
May 14th, 2007 at 04:06 am
"jsmall@visinet.com.au" wrote: Same here after trying to install a crappy HP driver (Universal Printer). Any hints greatly appreciated.ByeMarc
May 16th, 2007 at 01:26 pm
I have some mail out to the developer on this?in the mean time point to \windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository\prn??????.inf???? is a two letter description for the manufacture. Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."viersich"
May 20th, 2007 at 05:11 pm
Hi!"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: Ok, lets see what they say. Cool, thanks, works. ;)ByeMarc
May 21st, 2007 at 04:46 pm
Hi. Ok, correction: does NOT work. Vista says (I have to translate from German):"Main driver packet not found"ByeMarc
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
do you have a restore point prior to the HP driver installation? Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."viersich"
May 27th, 2007 at 06:08 pm
Hi."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: This was also my first thought. But unfortunately I don't.Bye Marc
Jun 1st, 2007 at 09:09 pm
development wondered if there are any prn* or ntprint* directories under the \filerepository directory.thanks Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."viersich"
Jun 4th, 2007 at 09:51 am
Hi."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: There are many (not empty) ;)42 "prnxxx"directories and "ntprint.inf_a6d3ccdf".Bye Marc
Jun 5th, 2007 at 01:02 pm
Please take a look at the %systemroot%\inf\setupapi.dev.log and setupapi.app.log. Errors are marked with a "!!!". Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."viersich"
Jun 9th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hi."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: No, sorry, no suspicious entries.ByeMarc
Jun 10th, 2007 at 09:24 pm
Thanks Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."viersich"
Jun 15th, 2007 at 09:10 pm
I also have the same problem.Right after I upgraded to Vista Business the add printers list was populated with many manufacs and multiple printers for all. I install two HP printers using the add printers wizard per instruction from the HP web site. Both printers worked with the limited functionality that HP described.Now the add printers third add printer window "Install the Printer Driver" states (unable to find any drivers for this device) and shows the Windows Update and Have Disc buttons. The windows update button does find a few manufacs and printers.I first became aware of this after a failed attempt to install the "Full Feature" driver for the HP all in one 4300 series that showed up on the HP web site recentlyI hope there is some way to fix this short of reinstalling vista.Thanks Bob On Fri, 9 Mar 2007 15:43:08 0800, viersich wrote:
Jun 21st, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Bob, are you still having this problem? If so, could you see if devices are showing up under other device classes? Try opening devmgmt.msc, going to Action>Add Legacy Hardware (if this item doesn't show up at first, try clicking on an item in the device tree). Then click Next, select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list," and select a device class (such as Display Adapters). Do any devices show up?Thanks, Justin Justin Weiss Windows Printing TeamThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Jun 24th, 2007 at 08:43 pm
On Mar 28, 10:03 am, "Justin Weiss [MSFT]" wrote: I am still having this issue. I have tried as you suggested. It appears I can find drivers for everything *but* any form of printer.I have also noted that if I click "Windows Update", it populates the window with a few drivers (assumedly those with Windows Updates available) but none that appear compatible with this printer.
Jun 28th, 2007 at 06:22 am
Hi Justin, A few devices show under the Add Legacy Hardware. If I select "show all devices" a few manufacturers show up. For most of the devices listed are ones that are installed on this machine. Selecting other categories of device including printers either show (unable to find any drivers for this device) or a single of "Model". In each case there is a "Have Disk" button and in the case of printers also a"Windows Update" button.Thank you for your response. I will monitor this news group often,however if you need my true email address I will be glad to give it to you.Bob COn Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:03:31 0700, "Justin Weiss [MSFT]" wrote:
Jun 29th, 2007 at 10:34 am
If you can use system restore to revert the system back to a state before the HP driver modified the system Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Jul 4th, 2007 at 07:21 am
If you can use system restore to revert the system back to a state before the HP driver modified the system Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Jul 7th, 2007 at 02:22 pm
Alan,I know you are trying to be helpful, but Reinstalling Vista or going God only knows how far back in time is just not the answer most of us want, besides we all know that already.I have always found it very difficult to accept the fact that if something like a list of installed printers is not showing up that someone on M$ does not have enough expertise to know the items in the registry that take care of that sort of thing.The shotgun approach is just so coarse and time consuming and please remember that reverting back destroys anything that has been added in the interim."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 11th, 2007 at 06:05 am
Yup I know this but I can't suggest anything else at this point.Holman, I assume you have the same issue. This is not a printer specific issue by the way and it's not anything in the registry. I will add you to the list of affected customer$.Anyone else with this problem let me know so I can inform the responsible team.I'd also like the driver name that brought on the problem, currently it appears it's just HP for the print driver list but since HP represents more printers, there is no clear conclusion. Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."HolmanGT"
Jul 12th, 2007 at 03:10 pm
Alan, Now you have made me feel bad because of my snappy attitude the first goaround.I am in contact with some M$ support guy but he thinks it is a printer problem, and I am with you on this Alan I don't think it is printer specific either (matter of fact it I would bet a cup of coffee on it).Alan, there are only three things I have attempted to install that may have contributed to this problem (all three did not work, ever). 1. A Jabra Blue tooth 2. A Anycomm 250 Blue tooth 3. My HP 6840 (I used their new release Vista driver package).Alan I am pretty close to going back to a back up that in time is pretty close to my original install, if that does not work I am going back and do a complete reinstall, which by the way I don't know how to do because I originally installed the Business version and then did the anytime upgrade to Ultimate so I don't even have an Ult. disk or License Key. Anyway between this whacko security, copy protection and not be able to install any peripherals... it is just about completely turned me off to Vista and I would be hard put to recommend it to anyone.Appreciate your help Alan, and you are the only M$ person so far that realizes the magnitude of this problem, magnitude hell, you are the only one that is even aware of the problem. The rest just go duh... call HP and then HP does the same thing and says call M$. In case it is not obvious I am not having very much fun right now with my brand new very expensive none upgrade version of Vista Ultimate. The only thing Ultimate about it may be my demise."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 13th, 2007 at 06:00 am
Hi Alan,Maybe this will help with the specific driver.I was able to install both a HP Officejet 4515 Allinone and a Hp Photosmart 7960 using the Add Printer Wizard which was fully populated at the time.Then I experienced a failed attempt to install this file from HP "AIO_CDB_Full_NonNetwork_enu.exe" . It is listed on the HP drivers download page as "This download includes the HP Full Feature Software and Drivers." They list all versions of Vista both 32bit an 64bit as the system requirements.After the above driver failed to detect the Deskjet and was uninstalled, the vista new hardware wizard could not find any drivers for the Deskjet4315. I then tried to reinstall the Vista native drivers that had originally worked using the add printer wizard and fount it completely empty. I was able to get the Deskjet4315 drivers back using system restore but the add printer wizard list remained empty. Of course I can not say for sure that the HP driver caused the list to be empty as quite some time had elapsed between using the wizard to install the two printers and trying to update to the full feature driver. Bob COn Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:14:29 0700, "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 14th, 2007 at 08:00 am
Where can I send a StarBucks card (If you are located on Mars, then I'll have to choose a different provider). If you still have contact with the MS support guy send him my name. If his first name is Jim, he also knows this is not printer specific.Don't feel bad. I like to use the $ in customer to push the fact that the customer is where the $s are from and you guys deserve some respect (well the nice ones at least).Hang on just a bit before a complete reinstall the Business CD has the same files on it as the Ultimate but the License for Ultimate just gains access to those features.I hope to have more information Monday. Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."HolmanGT"
Jul 15th, 2007 at 01:27 am
Alan,You’re lucky I had a whole big long winded reply but in my infinite dexterity I sent it to some bit bucket in the sky by mistake.The M$ guy that is supporting my problem name is Michael W. nice guy but I don't think he has a clue how big this problem is, I sent him a list of a blank add printers screen and he replies asking me to try deleting all the printers... did I miss something.Anyway I guess I will try to find the fortitude to wait until Monday before I do a new install. I really don't have that kind of patience but I purchased business to Ultimate Full on line thru the “AnyTime” “Digital Locker” thing. So now I have a $300+ Legal Vista Ultimate with no license key or CD so I don’t know how the hell I would reinstall it anyway. No this is not funny, I feel like M$ asked me to play shotgun and I agreed. If I have to go out and by another copy of Vista Full so I can reinstall I am going to become a one man antiVista Town Crier not that it will do any good just make me feel better (I think). I just don’t understand how a company like M$ can go along when a major problems like this shows up and not make some public statement about “Yuppers – we know about it, we are working on it and a fix will be forthcoming that would at least give people a sense of “Helps on the way”.Well I guess your luck ran out Alan, this was pretty longwinded. "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 17th, 2007 at 03:38 am
On Apr 1, 7:36 am, HolmanGT wrote: I was contacted and told a fix was on its way, but no ETA. I can't really justify the expensive upgrade to Vista, only to wait "indefinitely" on the ability to use a new printer that always worked previously, so as much as I despise the suggestion, I'll be taking the recommended "shotgun" approach in another 48 hours, if nothing else comes about.Best of luck to everyone else with this issue.
Jul 18th, 2007 at 09:53 am
Here is the fix for the "Empty Printer List".C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 is most likely corrupt and should be deleted. You will need to edit its file permissions to give Full Control to the User Group before you will be allowed to delete it.Credit to: Bob (of), Windows Vista Community, Hardware & DevicesI personally used this method and it works and works well. But I assume no liability or credit."Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 20th, 2007 at 06:25 am
Here is the fix for the "Empty Printer List".C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 is most likely corrupt and should be deleted. You will need to edit its file permissions to give Full Control to the User Group before you will be allowed to delete it.Credit to: Bob (of), Windows Vista Community, Hardware & DevicesI personally used this method and it works and works well.I am now able to install printers and thumb drive automatically (don't know about USB hard drive but I assume they will also work).My heartfelt thanks goes out to "Bob" whomever and wherever you may be.I assume no liability or credit for this fix. HolmanGT HolmanGT's Profile: forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=24165 View this thread: forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=695912forums.techarena.in
Jul 22nd, 2007 at 05:25 am
Thank You, Thank You, Thank YouIt also works for me. I simply renamed the file to INFCACHE.1.old and it fixed the empty add printer list. It will probably fix other problems where new hardware would not install automatically, but haven't had time to try yet.Hopefully someone will be able to shed some light on the purpose of this file, especially how it gets created and modified. A reboot did not recreate it.Bob COn Mon, 2 Apr 2007 09:02:04 0700, HolmanGT wrote:
Jul 24th, 2007 at 03:16 pm
Hey Bob,It does take care of things like thumb drives, so I am hoping it will take care of USB Ext HDs also. My infcache.1 never came back either but it works great without it. I am sure there is more to this story than meets the eye but I will take what I can get.You know what makes this so hard to deal with for me anyway is My HP 6840 (an excellent printer by the way) does Ethernet, USB and wireless. I brought it home took it out of the box and XP automatically started talking wirelessly to it. Now a new OS ... TaDa drum roll ... six years in the making "with WOW" whatever that is and the damn thing can't even find its way home after dark.And I have a request for M$ Please stop adding "Remember it is a new OS and third party drivers so please be patient". Just admit you goofed and let an oops slip thru, that is much more palatable for me than the canned propaganda blurb. HolmanGT HolmanGT's Profile: forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=24165 View this thread: forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=695912forums.techarena.in
Jul 27th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Thanks to HolmanGT for posting the solution to the empty printers list by deleting or renaming the INFCACHE.1 file I was able to do some testing.For my system it is definitely the new HP driver posted on their web site in the last week or so that adds the corrupt INFCHACHE.1 file. If you delete the corrupt file, before uninstalling their defective package, it is added back during the uninstall. The uninstall also does not restore the limited function driver that was native to Vista. Thus their failed installation renders the printer inoperative unless you use "system restore" or know to delete the corrupt INFCACHE.1 file. It also prevents the installation of any other printer using native Vista drivers.I have spent many hours on the telephone and sending email to HP support and they insist that the problem does not lie with their driver. This short excerpt from my setupapi.dev.log sure looks like the problem is in their driver package unless I totally do not understand the words. *********************sto: Processing CopyInf. File = c:\users\bob\appdata\local\temp\7zseb86.tmp\hph9100a.inf ! sto: File c:\users\bob\appdata\local\temp\7zseb86.tmp\hph9100a.inf listed in CopyInf directive is missing. Skipping importation of this driver package**************I only pasted one of twelve such entry's in the log. There are other errors also.This definitely is not a Microsoft problem. I put the details here in the hope that someone from Microsoft can convince HP that they have a serious problem with most if not all of the recently released Vista printer drivers.Sorry for the long post.Thanks Bob COn Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:08:07 0700, "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
Jul 28th, 2007 at 03:51 pm
Giveem Hell Bob,This finger pointing gets kind of old, especially while you and I sit here with our equipment down so to speak :)Maybe Alan will be able to do some good with all the detail you have collected, even if he has been very quiet today. HolmanGT HolmanGT's Profile: forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=24165 View this thread: forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=695912forums.techarena.in
Jul 31st, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Just lingering. The problem is not in the fact that some vendor can corrupt the infcache files, Vista is supposed to detect this and regenerate the file. Unfortunately the setup functions that perform this work are not doing the job. Keep stirring the fire and the flames will be noticed by someone. I was never able to track down the support person you were dealing with. There was some mail from someone else in support, which was how the spooler developers were able to pass the information to the core setup team who said, known issue (we also do some finger pointing internally). The setup team recommended the system restore and clean install solutions. I am glad "Bob" from the hardware newsgroup decided to use the information that must have been passed his way.There is a Quick Fix Engineering bug now to address this problem but the support group needs to increase the number of instances this problem is encountered so we need to get your instance on the list. Alan Morris Windows Printing Team Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowtoThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights."HolmanGT"
Aug 2nd, 2007 at 07:48 am
Thanks for the update Alan.The thought had crossed my mind that something in the operating system should protect it from third party stuff.I still hopes that Microsoft can somehow convince HewlettPackard that they (HP) have released a bunch of bad Vista printer drivers. Trying to get the information to them through their support system only hits a brick wall of "problem in our driversNo way!".Bob COn Mon, 2 Apr 2007 20:16:07 0700, "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote: