I'm confused, in serious need of help...

[silverbear]

On any number of levels, actually, but this time I have a specific, tech problem to ask y'all about...

The hotel I work at has a business center with a PC for the guests' use... we installed the Norton Internet Security package on it last year, and the 1 year subscription for updates ran out about 2 weeks ago... I tried telling management this needed to be dealt with, but it went in one ear and out the other, and sure enough, the ol' PC got itself infected... it went into a never-ending boot cycle, as soon as it got to the desktop it would shut itself down and reboot...

Well, THAT got their attention, and they finally listened to me... I told them at this point, we needed to format that sucker, and reinstall everything... I got the go-ahead to do so, and went to work on it overnight last night...

Thanks to Service Pack 2 (may I never, ever hear that phrase again), it took 2 attempts, but I got everything installed the second time around... installed the AVG antivirus (my first time working with it, I already like it), and the ZoneAlarm firewall... so far, so good...

But now, I have two problems, and I can't begin to figure either one out... first off, the PC does not recognize that it has a floppy drive, even though it does... that's not a great big deal, since we do have a CD burner on it (perhaps I should mention the boss went cheapo when he got that thing, it's an E-machine he bought at Costco)... the more important issue is I can't make the PC recognize the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1300 printer we have plugged into it...

I tried using the Add New Hardware Wizard to recognize it, no luck... I tried finding it on the master list that the Wizard gives you when that happens, but no LaserJet 1300 on that list... I tried to find the install disk in the box where we file all our software away, but couldn't find anything... I then went to the HP website, and downloaded the drivers for the 1300 there... and it STILL doesn't recognize that there's a printer attached... if you go to the printers folder in Control Panel, there's nothing there, at all...

If any of you tech-savvy types can offer me any advice at all, I'd be quite grateful... we NEED a printer for that Business Center PC...

 

[Yeagermeister]

On any number of levels, actually, but this time I have a specific, tech problem to ask y'all about...

The hotel I work at has a business center with a PC for the guests' use... we installed the Norton Internet Security package on it last year, and the 1 year subscription for updates ran out about 2 weeks ago... I tried telling management this needed to be dealt with, but it went in one ear and out the other, and sure enough, the ol' PC got itself infected... it went into a never-ending boot cycle, as soon as it got to the desktop it would shut itself down and reboot...

Well, THAT got their attention, and they finally listened to me... I told them at this point, we needed to format that sucker, and reinstall everything... I got the go-ahead to do so, and went to work on it overnight last night...

Thanks to Service Pack 2 (may I never, ever hear that phrase again), it took 2 attempts, but I got everything installed the second time around... installed the AVG antivirus (my first time working with it, I already like it), and the ZoneAlarm firewall... so far, so good...

But now, I have two problems, and I can't begin to figure either one out... first off, the PC does not recognize that it has a floppy drive, even though it does... that's not a great big deal, since we do have a CD burner on it (perhaps I should mention the boss went cheapo when he got that thing, it's an E-machine he bought at Costco)... the more important issue is I can't make the PC recognize the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1300 printer we have plugged into it...

I tried using the Add New Hardware Wizard to recognize it, no luck... I tried finding it on the master list that the Wizard gives you when that happens, but no LaserJet 1300 on that list... I tried to find the install disk in the box where we file all our software away, but couldn't find anything... I then went to the HP website, and downloaded the drivers for the 1300 there... and it STILL doesn't recognize that there's a printer attached... if you go to the printers folder in Control Panel, there's nothing there, at all...

If any of you tech-savvy types can offer me any advice at all, I'd be quite grateful... we NEED a printer for that Business Center PC...

Are there any unknown devices listed in the device manager? If so it could be the printer. You can either delete it and run the printer install again or double click on the unknown device and choose update driver. You can also use the HP Laserjet 1200 driver that comes with XP if you need too. They are basically the same printer and you don't lose any functionality.

 

[silverbear]

Are there any unknown devices listed in the device manager? If so it could be the printer. You can either delete it and run the printer install again or double click on the unknown device and choose update driver. You can also use the HP Laserjet 1200 driver that comes with XP if you need too. They are basically the same printer and you don't lose any functionality.

Interesting-- there WERE a number of different LaserJet 1200 drivers listed on the Add New Hardward Wizard's list...

I'll give your suggestions a try tonight at work... hadn't thought of looking in the device manager...

 

[Mash]

Silver Bear...

give this a try....I just google it....works on winxp also...

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/wi...evices-in-device-manager-windows-server-2003/


Device Manager displays information about the hardware devices installed on your computer. When it comes to troubleshooting, it can be an invaluable tool. However, you may not have noticed that Device Manager does not actually list all the hardware.

Two types of devices are hidden in Device Manager: non-plug and play devices and ghosted devices (nonpresent). You can easily force Device Manager to display non-plug and play devices. Right click My Computer and click Properties. From the Hardware tab, click Device Manager. Select Show Hidden Devices from the View menu.

Forcing Device Manager to show ghosted devices requires a little more work. Right click My Computer and click Properties. From the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables. Under System Variables, click the New button. Type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices for the Variable Name. Under Variable Value, type “1″ and click OK. Click OK twice more to apply your changes and exit the System Properties dialog box. Now open Device Manager again and from the View menu, click Show Hidden Devices.


Also...I dont recommend using Nortons Security....it IMHO does more harm then good....but AVG is a great free antivirus program.