Disappearing Printer

Windows XP Home

Have a strange intermittent printer issue on a friend’s computer. From time to time their printer disappears. It simply doesn’t even show up in the control panel. All that is required is to re-install the software. How long it will stay there is anybody’s guess.

Have run malwarebytes, ccleaner, defrag… avast antivirus and windows defender are running in background. The PC appears clean except for this issue. Any ideas???

 

It's an HP all-one they have had for a couple of years. Don't know the model, but will obtain it if it happens again. The next time it occurs I'll ask them to re-boot and see what happens. Thanks

 

If hooked up via USB, is this a share issue, or just a issue with the one computer that the all-in-one is hooked up to? There are too many holes in your request, and I for one, am not going to play 20 questions to try to figure it out.

 

No share issue... just one Desktop hooked up to a printer via USB.

Not sure what you mean... too many holes in my request. This is a friend's computer, who is not all that computer savy. Only uses it for emails, document writing and browsing the internet occassionaly. I'm trying to help him with my limited knowledge, ans was only explaining his situation and what I have done for him to date. I didn't see any other issues/problems with his PC.

This disappearing printer issue has happened 2 or 3 times in the last few days... and I was simply asking if anyone else has ever encountered such an issue. I haven't, and although I'm not a computer geek or tech... I have used many different operating systems since the start of MS-DOS.

Thanks

 

Too many holes as in: What Operating System, what is the manufacturer & model number of the computer, what is the manufacturer and model # of the printer. Are they sharing the printer across a network.

You came back and gave one answer, but went on a tangent about using computers since MSDOS, which does not help to give the answer to the problem. Also being the go between for another party, when you do not have the equipment in front of you, does not help.

Simple fix is try uninstalling the printer, then reinstall, make sure the OS is up to date, change out the USB. Make sure that the USB cable is not plugged into a hub, or it will disappear if the hub becomes unplugged.

 

As a go between this is what I know:

E Machine Computer (2yrs old) - Model# ??
Windows XP Home - All updates installed
HP All-in-one printer - Model# ??
NO NETWORK and NO printer sharing... direct USB printer connection

Have re-installed printer software twice within a week. At the moment it is working.

If it disappears again, I'll obtain all the other particulars... but first suggest a new USB cable.

Thanks

 

You will need to go back and find the info that you left with question marks. No further help here.