installation problms....

[jeremy haneca]

hey guys... thanks for the help with my previous post, i got some good ideas. i got my new computer and am trying to install my laser via usb. im using a laptop with no serial port, and am running vista. so i plug in my explorer and in the bottom right it says successfully installed... i try to see in the control panel and its not there. nothing will print. i also have the inatallation cd. followed the prompts.. but when it asks for manufacturers and i go to "have disk" it doesnt recognize and of the folders... E:\explorer. has anyone had these issues?

[Frank Corker]

Jeremy there have been a few USB issues in the past and if you use the 'SEARCH' facility above you will find many entries. Also dependent on your machine, some people might be able to help you.

As a suggestion, I recommend:


Remove the USB plug from your laser.
Uninstall the drivers from your computer. (go to printers and uninstall)
Reboot your computer.
When the computer has restarted, put the USB back in the laser.
Then switch on the laser if it wasn't already on.
You should then get something on the lines of 'Window has found a new printer - do you wish to install the drivers'
Then re-insert the CD Disc and it should recognise it.

[Dee Gallo]

Jeremy,

I ran into a problem with USB also, and it was that the driver was installed for one specific USB port and my computer has several. You have to figure out which one you are plugging your laser into and make sure that's the one your driver is on or it won't recognize it. I have since changed to ethernet and it's a lot more reliable.

HTH, dee

[jeremy haneca]

Not too familiar with vista, having troubles uninstalling the drivers. Any ideas on how to remove them or where to find them? Thanks for the help so far

[Roy Brewer]

Any ideas on how to remove them or where to find them? Jeremy,

See note 2.) below

How to *really* remove a print driver in Vista (almost the same in other modern OS's).

Shut down any applications that might be accessing the drivers(e.g., Corel, MSWord, Acrobat).
Control Panel>Printers (if Printers is not shown in your "START" list)
Select the laser's printer icon and delete it.

With the Printer's Applet still up, right click in an empty area,
click on Server Properties
select the Server Tab at the top
find the driver for your GCC and then the Remove button.

Even in Vista, it is a good idea to reStart your system to allow it to remove any files that might have had a "hook" from some part of the OS.

Notes:
1.) I keep user control turned off so as not to have to fight all the "confirmations." Above instructs do not include those. Similarly: you, your PC vendor or your network administrator might have set your system up so that the above steps cannot be carried out w/o administrator privileges.

2.) Simply deleting a printer from the Printers applet, does *not* remove the driver!

Forum adminstrators: Fine to delete the following Axe Grinding, but with all the USB problems with modern OSs & modern PCs showing up on this forum alone, some might want to consider the hardware interface in the list of "which laser" determinants. [[...the lasers I distribute use Ethernet]]

[Mike Null]

Roy

No need to delete. It's a feature we all need to evaluate as we look at equipment along with OS, software and hardware compatibility.

A great deal on a piece of equipment may be negated by one or more of these conflicts.

[Kevin Huffman]

Hello Jeremy,

You are going to need to install 2 different drivers to get this working.

1. Is the windows printer driver for the Explorer laser (at least ver. 3.61). Go to the your resellers or the manufacturer's page and download the newest version of driver for the Explorer. You will end up with an Explorer as a printer in your windows printer folder.

2. You are going to need the USB driver for the USB connection. You can go to the resellers or your manufacturer's page and download the newest version of driver for this. The version for vista is 1.07_01.

Once you have these 2 installed and the laser turned on and plugged in to the computer.

In your device manager, under the USB (Universal Serial Bus Controller) section you should have a GGC (Something) Printer listed there. The something could be explorer/spirit/mercury or something else. If you do not see this, it will not work.

Then you will go into your Printers and faxes, ensure the port you are sending to the laser is GCCUSB0 and that you have the option to "Print Directly to Printer" selected (on the Advanced tab). If these two options are not selected it will not worik.

[Bill Cunningham]

Does vista give you the option (as in XP) to run software at a previous compatiblity? I.E I have old programs I wrote in 'C' twenty years ago that still run fine under the XP dos cmd.. and some old win3 programs as well.. Just wondered if vista has that option as well..

[jeremy haneca]

well im all setup now and have been running great, i got my photograve a little while ago aswell and that went well with vista . for any one else to read these posts later, my little brother fixxed me up along with some support from gcc....... kevins post is correct.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Forum adminstrators: Fine to delete the following Axe Grinding, but with all the USB problems with modern OSs & modern PCs showing up on this forum alone, some might want to consider the hardware interface in the list of "which laser" determinants. [[...the lasers I distribute use Ethernet]]

Roy,

I have to disagree with this statement if the USB connections are so horrible why would 90% of all computer accessories use USB.

My point being not all USB hardware is bad and if you search here on Ethernet problems you will probably find as much as the USB problems.

[John Noell]

Does vista give you the option (as in XP) to run software at a previous compatiblity? I.E I have old programs I wrote in 'C' twenty years ago that still run fine under the XP dos cmd.. and some old win3 programs as well.. Just wondered if vista has that option as well..Yes, Vista is like XP in this regard. Right-click on the application itself ("program.exe"), choose 'properties', then click on the 'compatibility' tab.

[John Noell]

Probably the most common problem I see with USB comes from the non-obvious fact that drivers often are port-specific (but not always!!). If the attached device actually uses something like RS-232 serial signaling, but connects thru USB via an adapter, the driver is bound to the specific USB port. Plug your peripheral into a different USB port and it will not work - which often mystifies people. "But it WAS working!!!!" Ethernet has address issues but USB is more like voodoo. :)