Solved: Brother HL-5140 Keeps Wanting to Install.

[JohnWill]

I have a curious error that I've been unable to get solved.

I have a system that was sharing a Brother HL-5140 printer connected to another machine on the network, all was well. I have moved the machine into the position of the primary machine, and now the printer is directly connected to it on the LPT1 parallel port. I changed the port assignment and got the printer working, even shared it with other machines with no issue. However, now the printer is detected as new hardware every boot, but it always finishes with an error. The environment is XP-Pro SP2, all service patches applied. The error dialog that I get:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
An error occurred during the installation of the device.

The specified port is unknown.

Click Finish to close the wizard.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I've uninstalled the printer and re-installed, and even went so far as to uninstall, scrub everything I could find in the registry for the Brother printer, and re-install the printer.

The printer still works fine, but I can't get rid of the stinkin' startup error!

Does anyone have an insight how to convince XP that the printer doesn't need installation? I am guessing it is getting confused about the exact characteristics of the parallel port it's connected to. Is there perhaps a way to disable PnP detection on just the parallel port?

Any insights would be appreciated.

 

[Scorpion]

John,

I assume you've opened up Device Manager, Ports, Right click Printer Port, clicked properties, then the Port settings tab, and unchecked 'Enable Legacy Plug and Play detection'?
Surely, it can't be as easy as that can it?

Scorp.

 

[JohnWill]

You're right, it can't be as easy as that. I've visited all the settings of the parallel port, from IRQ, no IRQ, legacy PnP support, no legacy PnP support, etc.

 

[Scorpion]

Lolo...didn't think so! .

Ok, how about this....
Open the Printers and faxes window from Start, the right click on the printer name, click properties, then click the ports tab. Now make sure that the LPT1 port is selected, and uncheck any others, and apply.

Probably not that , and if not, then I have no clue, but I had to try again...lol

Scorp.

 

[JohnWill]

Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt.

 

[Scorpion]

Well, in that case, I dunno, except to say it is probably a driver issue (duh)...and that is not something I would know about, other than using a driver cleaner to remove all traces, and THEN going and removing the registry enteries that the driver cleaner didn't remove...

Anyway, this will give it a well deserved bump John.....after all the help you give in these forums, I'm surprised no-one else has jumped in ....unless of course no-one else has any ideas either

Good luck with it. I'm gonna follow the post.

Scorp.

 

[JohnWill]

I may have to give up and use the USB connection to the printer. I am too lazy to add another USB card, the only reason I haven't already changed the connection.

 

[JohnWill]

Well, on the advice of many, I finally ditched the parallel port connection and hooked it up using the USB, and the problem is gone. I really need to stick a USB 2.0 card in now for more USB connections, but that's the easy part.