Device plugged in USB port Not Recognized

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I have lost the ability to use my HP printer on either my Win 7 desktop or Win 7 laptop and a couple of Win 10 laptops were also tried but unable to send jobs to printer.  The problem began after an update around mid Feb 2020.  I ran a print job in early Feb but the next time I went to print I get a message “the device plugged into the USB port is not recognized”.  I reloaded the drivers – both from online download and from the disc on several computers and also a computer guy who came to my home was paid to try and restore the printer and tried his win 10 laptop also but nothing worked.  I was told to just go buy a newer printer as mine is about 9 yrs old but has been seldom used and it still powers up and warms up (can hear the gears turn) when turned on but the machine is not communicating with the computers.  I saw one of the win 10 updates was to “fix security issues with mice, printers, keyboard, etc” and thought how strange that may be something in the update that blocks the printer from being recognized.  I tried uninstalling the recent updates on two computers but a couple of these updates will not allow themselves to be “uninstalled”.  I wonder if anyone else has this problem with HP Printer model 1505 (which is not wi-fi capable so must be connected by cable to print from computer).  It is a laserjet and a nice one which I hate to throw away unless exhaust all options.  I see this recent notice but the HP printers are not mentioned.  Should I trust MS and download a particular update?  I don’t know what version 2004 or otherwise I have now.   Thanks for any helpful insights.

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If you cannot print to it using any computer then the printer has gone to silicon heaven.

A new colour laser should last another 9 years.

cheers, Paul

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Sometimes it can be something in Windows that is a cause; Trying to find an origin of the unrecognized device problem proved to be an ambiguous, futile effort. (A solution was to eventually reinstall windows. Notably my problematic device worked fine using a Linux based operating system.)

Press Win+R and that will open a dialog named Run, enter winver, click okay or press enter.

Do the attempts to connect any other USB device result in that error message?

Is the USB port inside the printer loose or are any of the connectors dirty?

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What is the status of the printer in device manager ?

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It appears the printer is connected to a Win 10 device… but it’s not clear whether this is a desktop (not mentioned) or a laptop. IMO more info is needed.

1. Is the USB printer connected *directly* to a USB port (rather than via an additional USB hub)?

2. When you connect/disconnect the USB printer from the Win 10 device, do you hear any device connect/disconnect sounds?

3. *Right*-click on Start, open Device Manager. Do you see any warnings/exclamations against any devices? If so, what are they? Similarly, do you see any activity (like categories opening/closing), when you disconnect/connect the USB printer?

4. Do you have another USB printer cable you can try as a substitution test and, if so, what were the results?

5. On the Win 10 device, download and run the small, free, portable USBDeview. This will show you if the USB ports are detecting the printer. If it’s not detected, try connecting the USB printer cable to another USB port.

6. If you disconnect the printer’s USB cable and, instead, connect another USB device (like a portable hard disk, flash drive, camera, phone) then is the newly-inserted USB device recognised, i.e. as a test of the USB port itself.

Hope this helps…

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