Windows 7 thinks printer is on network when it's on usb

This is an networking issue in reverse, the secretary of our society has
purchased a demo HP pc from currys but she is having trouble printing to
the society's Xerox Phaser 6180. It prints to her HP inkjet on usb alright.
The phaser prints a test page and is shown as being on usb003 virtual
printer but when printing from Word it cannot be found. I'm fairly
confident it is because Word is looking for a printer on the network the pc
was connected to at Currys and simply not finding it. I have removed it and
added it and Windows 7 has found it and installed drivers but still the
same problem.

How can I persuade windows 7 to find and use it as usb only?

AJH

On 7/23/2011 12:18 PM, andrew wrote:
> This is an networking issue in reverse, the secretary of our society has
> purchased a demo HP pc from currys but she is having trouble printing to
> the society's Xerox Phaser 6180. It prints to her HP inkjet on usb alright.
> The phaser prints a test page and is shown as being on usb003 virtual
> printer but when printing from Word it cannot be found. I'm fairly
> confident it is because Word is looking for a printer on the network the pc
> was connected to at Currys and simply not finding it. I have removed it and
> added it and Windows 7 has found it and installed drivers but still the
> same problem.
>
> How can I persuade windows 7 to find and use it as usb only?
>
> AJH

Here is something that might help with your problem.

Go to the printer using the "Devices and Printers" option from the start
menu or through the control panel.

When you get the list of printer devices on the scrreen right click on
the problem printer and pick "Printer Properties", not just "Properties".

Once that brings up the new window you need to go to the "Ports" tab.

Now if you have no actual networked printers using an IP address to
access them you need to go through the list of ports and click on the
ones with an IP address and use the "Delete Port" option on them.

Once you have cleared out all those pesky IP ports and assigned the
printer to what ever port type is left you need to go back up a menu
level, or start over, and delete the actual printer itself. It should
not be needed but a reboot after deleting the printer might not be a bad
idea right about now.

Last try re-installing the printer and if/when the computer asks how it
is connected to the printer tell it that it is a local printer device
and with luck your problem should be gone after it finishes
re-installing the beast.

GlowingBlueMist wrote:

> On 7/23/2011 12:18 PM, andrew wrote:
>> This is an networking issue in reverse, the secretary of our society has
>> purchased a demo HP pc from currys but she is having trouble printing to
>> the society's Xerox Phaser 6180. It prints to her HP inkjet on usb
>> alright. The phaser prints a test page and is shown as being on usb003
>> virtual printer but when printing from Word it cannot be found. I'm
>> fairly confident it is because Word is looking for a printer on the
>> network the pc was connected to at Currys and simply not finding it. I
>> have removed it and added it and Windows 7 has found it and installed
>> drivers but still the same problem.
>>
>> How can I persuade windows 7 to find and use it as usb only?
>>
>> AJH
>
> Here is something that might help with your problem.
>
> Go to the printer using the "Devices and Printers" option from the start
> menu or through the control panel.
>
> When you get the list of printer devices on the scrreen right click on
> the problem printer and pick "Printer Properties", not just "Properties".
>
> Once that brings up the new window you need to go to the "Ports" tab.
>
> Now if you have no actual networked printers using an IP address to
> access them you need to go through the list of ports and click on the
> ones with an IP address and use the "Delete Port" option on them.
>Thanks I tried that but no network printers or ip addresses found.

I managed to spend 1/2 and hour poking around and the problem is limited to
explorer8, word and excel. Notepad prints fine. There was not time to try
more programs. All print OK with her inkjet.

AJH