Windows – Printer driver unavailable after Windows 7 upgrade

1. Insert the cable USB-to-Parallel-IEEE-1284 into a USB2.0 port. Keep in mind that USB 3.0 ports will not work. This is the scenario we have now:

   

   • USB Printing Support: is your cable
   • EPSONTM-P2.01 (or whatever you have on your machine) is the printer that is not recognized

2. Double click on EPSONTM-P2.01 (or whatever you have on your machine) > Change settings (with Administration privileges) > Driver > Update Driver > Browse my Computer for Driver Software > Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer > Printers > Generic > generic / Text Only

   

   Of course, feel free to pick up the right driver if you see it.

It's a kind of magic: now the not-recognized USB Printing Support has become a printer. Test it and everything should be fine.

The problem is fixed now. Below is what I did to fix it (after the steps attempted that I listed in the question).

I attempted loading the registry keys for the print spooler from a working Windows 7 machine (see comment from "WindowsAdminGuru") and rebooting the computer, but there was no evident change and I don't think that was the solving factor.

What did make a difference was twofold:

First, I followed the steps listed here to:

• Stop the print spooler (which was actually already stopped) through Windows-R -> cmd -> services.msc -> print spooler -> stop.
• Delete all files from the three directories C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86, C:\Windows\system32\spool\printers, and C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\x64, although in my case there were only files present in the third of these, x64.
• Start the print spooler (from the window which I already had open, but which was accessed through Windows-R -> cmd -> services.msc -> print spooler -> start.)

This made a change, and I was then able to download the drivers from the manufacturer and install the printer again. (The driver didn't show up in "Windows Update," which froze, but I successfully downloaded it through Google Chrome and ran the installer/setup wizard with no trouble.)

But, although I successfully got a test page printed, weird things continued to happen:

Three printers showed up in the "Printers and Devices" window, two duplicates of the printer we wanted, plus a "Fax" version of the same printer name but with a different icon. None of them worked. When I tried to print from Notepad, I got a different error and then the print spooler quit (and all the printers disappeared from the list). I'd kept services.msc open and I tried starting it, but it quit again.

On one of these tries I got error 1067. Googling that, I found and followed directions to:

• Stop the print spooler (which was already stopped)
• Remove every registry key from hkey_local_machine -> system -> currentcontrolset -> control -> print -> providers, except for "Internet Print Provider" and "LanMan Print Services" (which in my case were the only two there)
• Remove every registry key from hkey_local_machine -> system -> currentcontrolset -> control -> print -> printers. This had one entry, which was the printer we'd been having so much trouble with! I removed it.
• Restart the print spooler (from services.msc which I still had open).

Print spooler didn't die again this time.

Next I went to the "Add Printer" dialogue, which also didn't die (so far so good!) and clicked "Add local printer" (Note: The "Add network printer" option was not present at all!), then "Use an existing port," chose the standard TCP/IP port already listed that the printer was on, then received a choice:

It said that the printer driver was already installed, and I had the choice to use the installed driver, or reinstall the driver. I chose "reinstall the driver." That took several minutes.

With that completed, the printer is now working perfectly with no hitches. :)