Vista Tutorial - USB Device not recognised

I have a Canon Pixma 530 Multifunctional Printer/Scanner/FAX which I am
trying to connect to my new HP computer with Vista (I think it is 32 bit, if
that is what "32x" means) - it dont work, a total of £1,200 worth of kit that
is TOTALLY USELESS!!!!!!! (I have been messing around with this for a week
now which is why I am a tad irritable and about to chuck the lot out the
window).

There is nothing wrong with the printer - it works fine on my laptop with
Windows XP and other devices (camera, external drive) work fine on the USBs,
I have already recieved a first response from the Canon Helpdesk and,
following their advice, downloaded, unzipped and installed the "appropriate"
driver... my PC even tells me that it has installed it correctly - super!!!!

Until I connect the MP530, only to recieve the "USB Device not recognised"
message. I have tried every bit of advice I have been able to glean from
googling the problem to death and scouring this forum - still no good. I have
deleted INFCACHE.1, reinstalled it, unplugged the PC, plugged it back in,
rebooted with the printer plug in, rebooted with the printer plug out, tried
to manually point the "unknown device" to any drive anyywhere that the
drivers may have been secreted to and many, many other totally fruitless
exercises.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this is either something totally
dumb that I have done (quite possible) or a major problem with Vista that
urgently needs sorting (Are you reading this Bill???), and this is reinforced
by the sheer volume of similar pleas for help you can find on forums all over
the internet.

I need a response to this quickly, I have too much work piling up and need
to use the new machine urgently. This is starting to affect my bottom line

PLEASE SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT TO DO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
The Earl, Dubai, UAE

Hi, Earl.

The first thing that you need to do is to determine for sure whether your
Vista is 32-bit (also known as x86) or 64-bit (x64). Drivers connect the
operating system to the hardware, and for this, 64-bit and 32-bit don't mix
and match!

Press <Win>+Break. That is, if you have a Windows logo key on your
keyboard, hold that down while you press the Pause/Break key (usually in the
upper right of most keyboards). If not, then click the Vista Orb (formerly
the Start button) | Control Panel | System.

Either way, you should see the System Properties window on your screen. In
about the middle of that screen, under System, it might say:
System type: 64-bit Operating System

If it doesn't say 64-bit, then it's 32-bit Vista, even if it is running on a
64-bit-hardware computer.

Since I've never had a Canon printer, I'll let others help with actually
finding the driver. For my HP OfficeJet G-55 printer/scanner/copier (about
7 years old) on USB, all I had to do was let Vista find it and install the
drivers from the Vista DVD-ROM. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"The Earl" <TheEarl@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6C7FAF97-EC50-4DBD-9EE9-0B13B427D73F@xxxxxx

Following your instructions, it says 32-bit operating system.

How do I find out if my hardware is 32-bit or 64-bit?? Under "Device
Manager"/Computer it says "ACPI x86 based PC". Does that mean I have a 32-bit
PC also?? It is an HP a6130.me (Whatever that means).
--
The Earl, Dubai, UAE


"The Earl" wrote:

Hi, Earl.
Yep. In Microsoft-speak, x86 means 32-bit.

The first IBM PC used an Intel 8088 CPU, which was an 8086 with an 8-bit
bus, rather than a 16-bit. (I'm an accountant, not a techie, so this might
not be technically correct, but it's close enough for today.) Then the
Tandy 2000 and one or two other computers used an 80186 in the mid-1980s.
This was followed by the 80286, the 386 (Intel dropped the 80 along about
here), the 486 and the - no, not 586 - the Pentium. The whole family of
CPUs came to be referred to as x86, and that's what MSFT adopted a couple of
years ago to differentiate the 32-bit WinXP and Vista from the 64-bit.

In a 64-bit WinXP or Vista installation, 32-bit applications (which are
still almost all apps on the market) are installed into the
new-and-only-in-x64 folder "C:\Program Files (x86)", while new 64-bit apps
(when there are any) go into the familiar "C:\Program Files". I don't know
why they didn't just keep the old name for 32-bit and use (x64) for 64-bit.
When we dual-boot both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, this creates a
LOT of confusion!

But none of that concerns you for now - except that x86 = 32-bit.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"The Earl" <TheEarl@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B3223048-0676-45CE-80F5-9C8B53883A55@xxxxxx

HP a6130:

Intel® ViivT processor technology
Intel® CoreT2 Duo processor E6550

You are running the 32-bit (x86) version of Vista on a processor fully capable
of running the 64-bit (x64) version of Vista.

Therefore you do not have a 32-bit "system".

To check the version of Vista that you are running go to Control Panel (Classic
view) > System > "System" category > "System type:"


I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:61B36DFB-E288-4013-9D4E-138712B1BA74@xxxxxx

In Device Manager > Computer: "ACPI x86 based PC"

In this case the x86 merely means that your PC processor is based on the XXX86
(CISC -- complex instruction set computing) architecture as apposed to the old
Motorola processor or the RISC -- reduced instruction set computing (IBM Power
PC, Sun, etc) processors.

It does not mean that the processor is incapable of handling x64 instructions or
that the operating system in use is 32-bit (x86).


I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:61B36DFB-E288-4013-9D4E-138712B1BA74@xxxxxx

Well, er.....thanks, guys........now I am totally confused.

What do I do to find out what bits of what I have????

Please tell me in simpleton language what you need to know and how I can
find it out and tell you what you need to help me to sort out the problem of
why my printer don't work.

And please remember... it's ME that's the simpleton. I wish I had been born
in the steam age.

--
The Earl, Dubai, UAE


"Cal Bear '66" wrote:

To find your version (32-bit or 64-bit), go to Control Panel (Classic view) >
System. In the middle of the page is a section called "System" at the bottom of
that section is an entry called "System type:". Most likely it says: "32-bit
Operating System". Which means that your system is running the 32-bit (x86)
version of Vista. If it says "64-bit Operating System" (unlikely), you are
running the 64-bit (x64) version of Vista.

Go to Canon's site and download the appropriate drivers (32-bit or 64-bit) for
your exact printer model.

Uninstall any printers you have attempted to install previously in Control Panel
(Classic view) > Printers.

UNPLUG the USB printer cable and reboot.

LEAVE THE USB PRINTER CABLE UNPLUGGED and run the downloaded printer drivers
again. DO NOT PLUG IN THE PRINTER'S USB CABLE UNTIL PROMPTED TO DO SO BY THE
DRIVER INSTALL PROGRAM.


I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"The Earl" <TheEarl@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2C04D094-ED76-4B4C-9916-09AEDE27FAA8@xxxxxx

Hi, Earl.

Sorry for the confusion.
By Googling for "HP a6130.me" from your original post, I got 48 hits,
including this one:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/me/en...-80230710.html

Among other facts about your computer there is this:
Processor type
a6130.me / a6120.me: Intel® Viiv™ processor technology
• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E4400
a6140.me: Intel® Viiv™ processor technology
• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E6550

So "Whatever that means" tells us that it is an HP computer, model a6130me,
and the HP website says it has a Viiv Core2Duo processor, which, like almost
all computers available today, is a 64-bit CPU. (While they pronounce it
funny, it looks to me like "Viiv" is just Roman numerals for 64: VI = 6; IV
= 4; so VI IV = 6 4.)

So you do have 64-bit hardware. It is capable of running both 64-bit and
32-bit operating systems. The choice is yours - or whoever installs Windows
on your computer.

If you install the 64-bit version of Windows - either WinXP x64 or Vista
x64 - then you can run both 32-bit and 64-bit software, such as Office or
Quicken - or your favorite games. So far, there are very few 64-bit
applications available, but 64-bit Windows will run the multitude of 32-bit
software without a hiccup.

If you install the 32-bit version of Windows - either WinXP Pro or Vista
x86 - then you can run all the 32-bit software you can find.

Do you have a "32-bit system"? Depends on how you define "system". You
have installed the 32-bit version of Vista, as the System Properties window
tells you, so I would say that you are running a 32-bit system on 64-bit
hardware. Since printer drivers translate between the printer hardware and
the operating system, you need the 32-bit drivers for your printer.
(When/if you install Vista x64, you'll need the 64-bit drivers.)


Why won't your printer work? As I said, I've never had a Canon, so I can't
say for sure. But, I suggest that you unplug the printer completely. Then
reboot Vista x86 at least a couple of times to let it "clear its head" and
forget that it ever saw a printer. Then plug the printer in again (both
power and USB cables, of course, and to an onboard USB port, not to a hub).
Reboot Vista x86 and watch the screen closely as Vista detects the "new"
hardware and installs drivers for it. The drivers MIGHT have come with
Vista; if not, Vista will probably try to find it on the Internet, so be
sure you are online at the time.

If it is still not working after that, please post back and tell us just
what you did (Just "I tried it" is NOT enough!) and what results you saw
("Didn't work" doesn't give us any clues to work with.), including any error
messages VERBATIM. I probably won't be able to help any more, but someone
here should have some ideas.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

"The Earl" <TheEarl@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2C04D094-ED76-4B4C-9916-09AEDE27FAA8@xxxxxx

Canon has both x86 and x64 drivers for his printer:

http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010324.asp

To make sure that ALL drivers for the printer are uninstalled go to Control
Panel (Classic view) > Printers > highlight the printer and press the Delete
this printer icon in the tool bar, AND THEN: Menu (ALT key if not visible) >
File > "Run as Administrator" > Server properties... > Drivers tab,
highlight the printer and press the Remove button, Apply. OK. Close Printers
window. REBOOT.

After removing all instances of drivers (Control Panel > Printers) and
applications (Control Panel > Programs and Features) for the printer and
rebooting, do NOT, repeat do NOT, connect the USB cable to the computer until
the downloaded driver install tells you to do so.


I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:01ADF37F-A8A9-414B-BBB5-27A1420F4CEA@xxxxxx