Error message when installing printer driver

Question

First let me say that I have been searching and trying solutions for about 10 days but cannot resolve the problem.

My HP P1102w printer is three years old and connected to my PC via USB cable. It isn't a shared printer. It worked properly until 10 days ago. Suspecting driver corruption, I downloaded the latest version of the driver from the HP web site. When trying to install it, I encountered this error message:

Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it.

The printer driver in not compatible with policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0

If you know the manufacturer of your device, you can visit its website and check the support.

My PC OS is Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate. Let me know what additional information might be needed.

Solution

It appears that the problem was caused by corrupted driver files that were not being replaced when I reloaded the drivers. I was able to solve the problem by deleting the driver files manually. I followed these steps:

step 1:

Get to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository and delete whatever related to the P1102w printer, like the hp1100.inf_amd64_neutral_56c36f106bed03b4 folder. If I remember correctly, there were two or three similar folders that I deleted.

step 2:

Then I searched for *1102 on the c:/windows/system32 path and deleted files that were related to the P1102W printer.

step 3:

I'm not sure this step is require, or you should do this step before the other steps. However, in this step I ran uninstall.exe from the HP driver CD that came with the printer. After about 10 minutes, I forcely closed the uninstall.exe process from Windows Task Manager because the uninstall process seemed to be hung.

step 4:

I ran setup.exe from the HP CD that came with the printer, and the printer installed successfully.

I hope this answer helps anyone with a similar problem.

Comments

[fixer1234]

I suspect that you have the wrong driver. Is this a shared printer? The error message relates to trying to use a "kernel mode printer driver" with a shared printer. A "user mode printer driver" is required for that. The printer specs say that the printer is compatible with Windows 7, and that should include sharing. Verify that this is the link you used to obtain the drivers: hpdriver.net/goto/http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/…

[msoa]

The driver is right 100%. isn't shared, printer is connected to computer with USB cable. The address id downloaded is: ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/COL32431/bi-80329-9/… that i think is true.

[msoa]

@fixer1234 My friend the printer was installed on my PC and it works very well, but the driver one day suddenly shut down. i have been bought the printer about 3 years.

[msoa]

Windows 7 ultimate. yes have the original CD driver. I tried disconnecting the printer, uninstalling the printer and drivers, but didn't delete driver files, where are the files ?

[fixer1234]

If you uninstalled the HP software/drivers from the control panel, hopefully, it removed all of the files. It's not an all-in-one so the HP files are probably in \Windows\System32\ and \Windows\System32\Drivers\ (hopefully no longer). If the files on the CD are not embedded inside an installer, you could spot check some by searching for them on the hard disk.

[msoa]

@fixer1234 dear friend before previous your comment the problem was solved. very thanks.

[fixer1234]

Glad you were able to solve the problem. Hope you don't mind that I formalized your answer a little.