Solved Two printers after driver installation

mikolajek

Member
Member
Messages
65
Location
Warsaw, Poland
I've just set up a clean system installation (Win 8.1 PRo x64). As a part of it I obviously installed my printer driver. The printer is Lexmark E260d and I use Lexmark Universal Driver downloaded directly from Lexmark's webpage.

My surprise is that after installation I have two such printers available at my system:
- "Lexmark E260" - which is the name I gave during installation,
- "Lexmark International Lexmark E260d" - which is another device appearing as a printer.

I've got completely confused about that. Both drivers / devices (?) print correctly yet I can see some differences in their functionality descriptions, when choosing Properties / Hardware. Lexmark E260 device has there "Print queues" only while Lexmark International... device has three types "Printers", "Print queues" and "Universal Serial Bus controllers". Another thing is when I double click on devices icons in "Devices and Printers" window - Lexmark E260 brings well-known list of documents actually being printed and Lexmark International... brings printer configuration dialog allowing to see printing documents, customize printer setting and so on.

Anyone is able to explain to me why I have somehow two different printers appearing on my system? Should I remove one of them and which? How can I avoid duplicating devices when installing drivers?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Precision M4800
    CPU
    Intel i7-4900MQ
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4600 & nVidia Quadro K2100M
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2312HM & Dell 2408WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB & Hitachi TravelStar 5K750 750 GB
    Browser
    Firefox 32
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 15
When you fresh install indows 8, at the point where it says: "Getting your Devices ready", if your printer has been out in the market for a while, the chance that it is included in the ISO/DVD installation disk and it might have installed the driver for the printer (driver only, nothing else). For newer printers, if it is not included with the installation disk then you might have to go to Control Panel->Add Devices & Printers amd MS will updates all the printer drivers it has available but not yet bundled in the ISO/DBD disk and the last place to get the drivers is from the manufacturer website which sometimes includes the driver and all the extra stuffs that you might not need.Since your printer is working with both, you can delete one of them from Control Panel->Add Devices & Printers. Just right click on it and Remove
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Yup, I actually had 3 HP Laser jet 1300 instances, 1 plain 1300, 1 1300P and one 1300L, now, with somewhat modified drivers, it's 1300 Pro. as it should be.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
All right, many thanks for that tip! I've been also suspecting that next to my manual driver installation, MS setup might have run independently, but I've believed it would cease detecting drivers being installed. Apparently I put too much confidence into that :)

However, how to say which printer is "better", more appropriate etc., whatever we call that, and choose the one to be deleted?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Precision M4800
    CPU
    Intel i7-4900MQ
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4600 & nVidia Quadro K2100M
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2312HM & Dell 2408WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB & Hitachi TravelStar 5K750 750 GB
    Browser
    Firefox 32
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 15
All right, many thanks for that tip! I've been also suspecting that next to my manual driver installation, MS setup might have run independently, but I've believed it would cease detecting drivers being installed. Apparently I put too much confidence into that :)

However, how to say which printer is "better", more appropriate etc., whatever we call that, and choose the one to be deleted?
Windows drivers usually have less options than ones from the printer manufacturer, check their options and than decide. There's no harm in having both, one marked "default printer" will offer printing first in any program. I actually left two of them, usually don't need many fancy features factory one has.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Yep, I've been trying to recognize which driver is Lexmark native and which is Microsoft's, but it's a bit hard...

Anyway, for those interested I'm providing a screen with options comparison (see attachment) - as you see one of them has Polish interface and I believe this is the one installed by Windows itself, since when installing the driver manually I chose English language (as you see the "English" driver is also feature-richer which suggest it's newer).

Surprisingly the one I'm considering original Lexmark driver among its device properties has Microsoft as its provider :shock: and the other which I believe it's Microsoft's - contrary - list Lexmark as the driver provider. That's what causes my confusion...

Anyway, I believe my mistake was to connect the printer first and then install the drivers. I guess if I installed the driver first and only then connected the printer, the system would have detected it and recognized the driver as installed and would have not installed its own...
 

Attachments

  • printers.jpg
    printers.jpg
    78.7 KB · Views: 48

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Precision M4800
    CPU
    Intel i7-4900MQ
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4600 & nVidia Quadro K2100M
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2312HM & Dell 2408WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB & Hitachi TravelStar 5K750 750 GB
    Browser
    Firefox 32
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 15
Since the left one has many more options I would think it's Lexmark one, it's driver maybe only "MS certified driver " so it may display as MS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Indeed, that's what I did! Thank you for your help!

To be a little "pain in the a**" ;) I've opened a ticket with Lexmark support, let's see what's their advice on that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Precision M4800
    CPU
    Intel i7-4900MQ
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4600 & nVidia Quadro K2100M
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2312HM & Dell 2408WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 & 1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB & Hitachi TravelStar 5K750 750 GB
    Browser
    Firefox 32
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 15
Back
Top