Printer Shows as Unspecified Device

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I recently installed KB4520005, October 19 Cumulative Update for W8.1 x64 system. Initially there were not any discernible issues but I recently noticed that a local HP USB printer (HP Photosmart 6520 Series) no longer is recognized as a printer by the OS. It appears in “Devices and Printers) as an unspecified device.

The printer works normally and I took the trouble to uninstall and reinstall fresh the printer drivers and related software. The printer driver is recognized in Device Manager and I can print from all apps such as Excel, Word, etc.

I tend to believe this was caused by KB4520005 as this device was recognized as a printer properly for many years in use. All the drivers and software is the latest release available from HP.

With all the printer problems MS has created with recent patches I was wondering if anyone has seen a similar issue pop up just recently? If so, suggestions or solutions are welcome.

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Check out this topic.

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Thanks for the link. The W8.1 system I am dealing with also shows generic USB device icons and it really does look like a bug in KB4520005. I have not found any acknowledgment from MS in any documentation. Inasmuch as I appear to have printer functionality, I will not attempt to uninstall the update. I have not as yet found a way to get the printer recognized in (Devices and Printers) and I suspect it can only be addressed by MS. Patch QA is really not very good these days.

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