Dodgy printer- help!

[Slick]

I troubleshot a very similar problem a few computers ago. Somewhat intermittent and seemingly impossible to nail down. I'll save you the long story, but it turned out a physical defect on the computer's parallel port. Most of the time it worked fine, jiggled the cables and everything. Then once in a while it wouldn't work for a while. Drove me nuts. I forget how I actually proved it was the port... I will reply to this thread if I remember.

Slick.

[dogscoff]

Thanks slick, I did consider the port (and I still won't rule it out) but I had the same results via USB.

[Gandalph]

Windows 98 and SE are garbage collectors. They keep a record of everything you do or install. Sometimes it is impossible to get rid of. Start by deleting everything in the C:\windows\temp directory. This is where the majority of the garbage is stored. Unfortunately, it will also collect garbage in the registry which is nearly impossible to clean. I do know a trick that makes Win98 and SE believe it was just installed. This causes the hardware install routine to run again. It has about an 80% success rate of solving these, and similar, types of problems. If you would like to know the trick send me an email.