JSI Tip 4559. How do I manually remove and reinstall a print driver?

When you uninstall a printer, the print driver is NOT removed from your disk.

If you suspect that a printing problem is the result of an old or corrupt print driver, use the following procedure to remove and reinstall it:

01. In Windows XP (NT 5.1), you can remove print drivers by choosing to delete the print driver on the Printers and Faxes / Drivers tab.

02. In Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) and Windows NT 4.0, use the Printers folder to to remove the printer.

03. In Windows NT 3.5x, use Print Manager to remove the printer.

04. Open a CMD prompt and type: net stop spooler.

05. Use the Registry Editor to navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPrintEnvironmentsWindows NT x86DriversVersion-x

where   Version-1 is for Windows NT 3.51 drivers        Version-2 is for Windows NT 4.0 drivers        Version-3 is Windows 2000+  drivers        and  is the name of the printer you are removing.

06. Record or export the values so you know the names of the files.

07. Select and delete the key.

08. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to %SystemRoot%System32SpoolDrivers

where  is Intel                     MIPS                     Alpha                    PPC

 and the sub-folder is: w32x86 : Intel Windows NT 3.1 printer drivers                         w32x861 : Intel Windows NT 3.5x printer drivers                         w32x862 : Intel Windows NT 4.0 printer drivers                         w32x863 : Intel Windows 2000+ printer drivers                         Win40  : Windows 95 printer drivers

and delete the driver files.

NOTE: You may wish to delete the printers unidriver files (Rasdd.dll, Pscript.dll, or Plotter.dll).

09. If you cannot delete the files or folder after stopping the spooler service, configure StartUp Type as Disabled and restart the computer. After you delete the objects, configure StartUp Type as Automatic.

10. Shutdown and restart your Windows NT x.xx computer.

11. Install the printer using the Printer folder for Windows NT 4.0+ and Print Manager for Windows NT 3.5x.