Missing driver for HP Photosmart B109n-z

[Suzie Hicks]

Hi
I bought a Toshiba laptop in February and loaded the above printer onto it no worries. Then three weeks ago, the printer dropped off my laptop and refuses to reload. Windows had a meltdown at the same time. I get constant messages saying that a driver is missing but I cannot download it from HP.
"Fatal Error -wStub 66296" comes up whenever I try to load either the cd that came with the printer or the latest version downloaded from HP. Two other Toshiba laptops and our Apple Mac are all still connected.
I am at my wits end and am hoping someone on Techspot can assist me.
Cheers

 

[Coodu]

That sounds pretty weird indeed, I've never had an issue with the drivers from HP, as they offer the complete software setup package so it's usually pretty easy to get back up and running.

Have you checked your device manager for any traces of the printer? Also check the printers section of control panel for any obsolete printer entries.

Also check your add remove programs or programs and features depending on your OS. Uninstall all HP printer related software and then do a fresh download from the website.

I must say I haven't seen that error before, might even be worth making a support call to HP.

 

[mike1959]

Hi, Would be useful to know why the printer became 'unknown' to Windows, but as a first go at making it work again, it's worth going into Control panel, Programs, Add/remove programs, and uninstall anything that appears to be to do with the printer.
Could be some type of photo editing software or similar. This won't be the printer driver though.
Then it would be a good idea to uninstall the current printer driver, in case it's the wrong one or damaged in some way.
That's Control panel, Hardware and sound, Device manager.
Look down the list for the HP printer entry, click on the small white arrow to the left of the entry, a new line will appear below, right-click on it, and choose 'Uninstall'.
Now you should be at the stage before the printer was installed.
If the printer is new and you have paperwork, it worth checking about the order of installing the printer.
It can be the case that the software has to be installed first, then restart PC, then connect printer, last.
Assuming using Windows 7, the Driver on the CD supplied may or may not be up to date, so the latest version should be available on the HP site.
When downloading a driver from the manufacturers site be sure to select the correct version, I will assume there will be a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version, and a choice of XP?/Vista/7.
Also as a general 'rule', the driver needs to be installed 'As administrator', even if you are the only user.
So there you would save the driver from the website, to a place on your pc you can find again, 'Downloads' is normal, but 'Desktop' is easier for temp files.
Right click on the driver and choose 'Run as Administrator'. It should install correctly.
If as I have found before, you would plug in the USB lead from the printer, last.
You may get a 'Found new hardware' ballon, let it do it's thing, and it should work after that.