Hello,
My name is Mike, I’m a Technical Analyst located at Dell corporate headquarters in Round Rock, TX. I’m part of an internet outreach team developed to interact with the online community regarding technical questions and issues that customers face with Dell products. I’ve read your post about the printer problems you had after upgrading to Vista and wanted to offer a suggestion. When upgrading the OS sometimes the older drivers and software can cause problems like this. The best way to get it working again is to completely remove all traces of the printer and reinstall. Simply deleting the drivers may not be enough so here is a complete rundown for removing all of the printer drivers and printer software from the system.
First, Disconnect the USB cable from the computer.
Second, we need to stop the printer spooler service as follows:
1) Click Start.
2) Type ‘cmd’ in the Start Search box.
---Search results should appear---
3) Right‐click on ‘cmd’ in the search results, and then select Run as Administrator.
---The command window will appear---
4) Type ‘net stop spooler’ into the command window and press <ENTER>.
---The Print Spooler service should now be stopped---
Next, we’re going to delete the printer drivers from the system as follows:
---Warning--- These steps will remove drivers for ALL printers installed on the system.
1) Click Start.
2) In the Start Search box, type ‘C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\w32x86’ and press
<ENTER>.
3) Delete all the files and folders in this directory.
---NOTE--- There may be some files that will not delete because they are being used by Windows.
Click on the Ignore button to bypass deleting these files.
With the drivers uninstalled we now have to remove the Dell printer software.
1) Click Start.
2) Click Control Panel.
3) Click Programs.
4) Click Programs and Features.
5) Click the software related to the attached Dell printer to highlight it.
6) Click Uninstall/Change.
7) Follow through the prompts in order to remove the software.
Now we need to delete the Dell printer from the printers list.
1) Click Start
2) In the search bar type “Printers” and press <Enter>
3) Select any and all Dell printers and press <Delete>
Now delete any OLD drivers from the Server Properties Window.
1) Click Start
2) Type Printers into the search bar and press <Enter>
3) Press <ALT> to bring up the file menu.
4) Select Run As Administrator then Server Properties.
5) if the UAC window appears just click Continue.
6) Click on the Drivers tab.
7) Select any Dell printer drivers listed.
8) Click Remove, and then select Remove Driver and Driver Package.
9) Select Yes to confirm removal of the driver.
10) The system will now scan to see if it can remove the driver.
11) Once it has finished scanning click on Delete.
---Repeat the last 11 steps for each Dell printer driver that is installed.
At this point, you should be able to install the latest printer software for Vista from
http://support.dell.com and be able to print successfully.
---NOTE--- It’s been reported that some driver installations in Vista can take up to 10 minutes. Be patient and please wait for the driver to fully install.
I know this looks like a long process, but hopefully this will get everything working for you. I hope this helps.
Thank you,
Mike B.
Dell customer advocate.