Brother Laser Printer No Longer Works After Recent Updates (?)

I do not know whether it is because of WinUpdates or something else, but the driver for my Bother HL-2040 laser printer no longer installs correctly. Luckily I was able to test the printer on a much earlier version of my current Win7, and it still worked perfectly, so the printer, its driver and its leads are NOT the problem. I could uninstall latest WinUpdates, or could target a likely one - or maybe someone has a better suggestion.

 

Which version of Windows 7 and service pack is it, and is it 32bit or 64 bit?
Have you tried downloading a fresh driver set up file from here:
http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl2040_all
and tried reinstalling them?

Can you please look at your Windows Update History and please list the KB numbers for those installed prior to this printer problem occurring.

 

Win 7 Ultimate; SP 1 ; 32 bit O/S; I am now downloading the driver you have suggested and will install it when that is done.
The printer problem was noticed on Feb 27; there was a very large number of updates installed on 16 Feb. I am confused by the facts that a system of 9 Feb shows the printer problem; but when I booted a clone of the Feb 9 system, it insisted on installing 5 updates first. But I have not found 5 updates listed for Feb 9 in the history of my current up-to-date system. Feb 9 is the furthest I can go back for fossils of the complete O/S - other than the rather 'primitive' [from 2011 ?] system in which the printer works well.
It would be good if I could prevent the updates from installing in the clone of Feb9 - then I could test if the Feb 9 fossil is still OK with the printer. The driver has downloaded and I am about to test it - in the meantime, I will send this.

 

When I tried to install 'your' driver, this error message appeared : "The arguments are invalid."

 

Apparently, because I had not yet 'connected the printer'.
Upon resuming, I get the same error notification as ever since the problem arose. "The driver was NOT installed successfully'.

 

The last lot that downloaded BEFORE Feb 9,
(KB3124275)
(KB3124001)
(KB3123479)
(KB3121461)
(KB3110329)
(KB3109560)
(KB3108664)
I had been doing monthly manual updates, as the best way I knew of controlling the GetWin10 update.

 

Maybe you should do a clean and total uninstall of all Brother Printer driver software - preferably using a program such as GeekUninstaller or Revo Uninstaller and get it to remove all left over entries - then restart your system and run CCleaner > Cleaner and CCleaner > Registry Scan and fix issues.
Then get a new driver software set up file and try again.
If the printer error occurred on 27 Feb it's unlikely to be anything to do with January or Feb 9 windows updates. It also wouldn't have been affected by anything on the 16 February *if* the printer worked ok in the days after.

 

Revo showed the Brother software with Flash icon - and seemed to be stalled in its attempt to uninstall it - however after an unusually long delay, it did achieve the usual uninstall steps . I do not use the printer often [since I have a Dot matrix printer that I use preferentially], and that is why I WOULD consider the preFeb9 effects - I document a great deal, but NOT when I use the printers - so it's possible that the printer was used for the first time on Feb 27 after the Feb9 system was cloned to the fossil storage. I will post this reply now and report further as appropriate if I need to go to the 'extremes' you suggest.

 

Avast alerted me to the (confirmed) fact that 55 files had been left behind by Revo - viz :- those in C:\Program Files\Brother\, so manually deleted them. Then rebooted and tried the re-install of the Bro drivers.

 

NO improvement - so I'll have to try all the cleaners you suggested.

 

Personally, on my systems, I would have carried out the steps in the order as I listed them. Revo in its settings allows you to use its third most thorough method and after the standard uninstall, searches for and actually lists everything it finds left over, and gives you the choice to remove them.
That should not leave any program folders. But in any case, I would then have done a restart and used CCleaner - Cleaner and Registry scan well before trying to do a clean reinstall. That would have found stuff that even Revo didn't clean out.
I suspect it will all need to be done again.

 

I just wanted to see if Revo by itself would be enough - apparently it is not. I was quite surprised to find those left overs in\Program Files\, because I had done the clean up steps in Revo that you describe. I am not familiar with 'Cleaner & Registry' scan - unless you mean those functions in CCleaner. I will now do the uninstall again - and then apply CCleaner, before re-installing driver.

 

It actually depends which of the three separate different levels of uninstallation you used in Revo, and you haven't said which of those levels you used and whether you went through any list it came up with, and whether you deleted what it found. On a 32 bit system the standard Revo version has always worked very well in my long experience. It would have found the program folder even on level 1 or 2. But you do have to follow each step in Revo carefully, and actually click for it to remove the left overs. It doesn't happen automatically.
If you do use Revo again, you need to use the third strongest method, and you do need to actually open the final step and activate it to delete the left over entries.
And yes if you go back to the steps I first suggested it does say 'CCleaner'.

 

I also have used Revo a lot, and have just applied it AGAIN to the Brother driver; this time Avast did NOT alert me to left overs, but when I looked in C:\Program Files\, \Brother\ was still there and the \BRHL2040\ was still full of files, many with swf extension !
I used the highest level, and selected ALL the items in BOTH windows (one for Registry and other for Files) and deleted them.

 

Brother have a support page on printer driver uninstallation
http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl4570cdw_all&faqid=faq00000071_005
maybe that will have further steps.

 

I had already used Revo before I saw your latest UNINSTALLATION post. Revo had left many files (mostly SWF) in \Program Files\Brother\BRHL2040\ - which I manually deleted. I did a thorough application of CCleaner. On reboot NO IMPROVEMENT - it auto-installed - so apparently there was still a driver lurking somewhere. The message I captured was 'Device driver software was not successfully installed.'
Your latest post seemed to require knowing one of two ways that the original driver was installed - I have no idea which of those applies.

 

I just want to report what you might already have suspected, that the Print Spooler Service can not be started. I have tried to compare the SERVICE settings in the system where the printer works, with those where the printer does not - but to no avail.

 

The RPC is started; the other dependency is HPPT (NOT a Service) - I do no know what to do with that. Starting WinHPPT Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service achieves NO improvement. It MAY be of interest that I did an upgrade to Win10 of a clone of my Win7 system after Feb26, and it has NO problem with the laser printer. I intend, very soon, to do yet another UNinstall of the driver, according to your latest instructions, and follow it with deleting all references to Brother from the registry (using RegScanner) before doing another re-install.

 

Look if this software can help.
Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Portable.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/tweaking_com_windows_repair_portable.html

Click the Repairs tab, ensure Automatically Do A Registry Backup is checked, click Open Repairs, and select only Repair Print Spooler. Click Start Repairs.

 

That Repairs method brought NO improvement. But it did show me, that when the notification area says that the driver is being installed, and invites me to look at details, the details show that it is looking (exclusively ?) at Windows Update, so no wonder it keeps failing to install successfully. Perhaps, if the 'installer' can be pointed to the new driver ....

 

I have now had a chance to try Brother's Uninstall method at http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl4570cdw_all&faqid=faq00000071_005 and it generated the following error message :

 

It seems to me if I could prevent the auto-installing of the driver which keeps failing to install successfully - and get the process to focus on a newly installed driver, I might have more success. But how to remove what Revo and Brother's own Uninstaller have not been able to, seems a great challenge. Can we do something about the drivers in C:\windows\drivers\ perhaps ?

 

A TOUGH nut to crack ! I did another UNinstall with Revo, and followed it by deleting the hundreds of references to Brother in the Registry - as displayed to me by RegScanner. I'm at my wit's end !

 

Since there is no Edit option, I will add here in a new post that I think if the auto-install that looks at Windows Update (only) could be prevented, and 'we' could point the process at the new driver, it might have a chance of success.

 

Ultimately the solution turned out to be replacement of C:\windows\system32\drivers\HTTP.sys [which required UNLOCKER to allow deletion] with a copy from the drive that still allowed normal printing. The path to that solution is very complex, so I will reveal it only if someone asks me for it.

I am surprised that I can not find an option to mark this problem as SOLVED.