Member Avatar for Lee Hassig

I have Pentium 4 computer running Windows XP Home Edition, which is up to date.

I recently purchased a 16-foot USB 2.0 cable with repeater to accommodate an increased computer-to-printer distance in my new office.

The cable came with no drivers, no instructions--implying to me that all I had to do was plug it in. Wrong!

When I tried that, Windows wanted to install a new device. I barged past that only to find that the printer wouldn't print. Some sleuthing seems to have revealed that the cable/repeater is not the hardware at issue;the Device Manager reports that it's working properly. The "Unknown Device" that appears in the USB section of the Device Manager turns out to be the printer, for which Windows informs me that there are no drivers installed.

Not true. The printer works fine, as it always has, when connected directly to the computer.

I could reinstall the drivers, but I'm in the middle of a household move, and the CD is buried in some box or other.

Question: Is there any way to direct Windows to the drivers that are already installed. If so, can anyone step me throught it.

Much THANKS!
Lee Hassig

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Member Avatar for MidiMagic

It could be that the repeater is identifying itself, but not the printer.

Question: Is the repeater bidirectional? Some Plug-N-Play printers have the driver info in the printer. With a single direction repeater, the computer can't read the driver info.

Member Avatar for Lee Hassig

It could be that the repeater is identifying itself, but not the printer.

Question: Is the repeater bidirectional? Some Plug-N-Play printers have the driver info in the printer. With a single direction repeater, the computer can't read the driver info.

Thanks for the advice. I don't know the answers.

It's a Brother printer. In the add/remove programs feature of Windows, there's an entry for the printer, but it's not been used in a couple of years, or so Windows tells me. So that's unlikely to be the drivers, I guess.

The repeater package doesn't address how many directions it accommodates. I'll have to look further into that.

Thanks much for your help.

Lee Hassig

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