Troubleshooting Printer Driver Installation Problems

If, during the installation, you got any error messages about a file
or driver already being in use, please read the section below called "Avoiding Install-Time Conflicts."

If you Experience Difficulty Printing

The help file accessible from within your printer driver includes a "Troubleshooting" section which contains a subsection called "Troubleshooting Printing Problems." This section lists critical settings
to check and a number of printing tests that will usually get you up and running quickly if you encounter difficulties.

Avoiding Install-Time Conflicts

Some Windows programs keep files open that the driver installation option (the "Add" button or icon) in the Windows Control Panel needs
to access during the installation of new drivers. Close all open Windows programs during driver installation! Any Windows program that is not first closed can possibly result in an unsuccessful installation of the driver, accompanied by a message about a printer driver or other file being "already in use."

Restart Windows

If you don't close all running Windows programs until after you have gotten an error message, you may continue to get that error message until you have exited from and restarted Windows. In order to ensure that the driver installation procedure does not encounter a file or driver "already in use" error, after you restart Windows you must still close any programs that were launched automatically before you again attempt to install your printer
driver(s).

The Microsoft Office "Short-Cut" Bar

Since the Microsoft Office toolbar (or "Short-Cut Bar") is itself a Windows program, it should also be closed before performing the printer driver installation. Sometimes, especially with Windows 3.1, you may need to temporarily disable the MS-Office toolbar and restart Windows in order to avoid an error message. The easiest way to do this is to temporarily remove the MS-Office icon from your Startup group or folder and place it into another group or folder. Once Windows has been restarted, and the driver installation is complete, you can put the toolbar back into your Startup group and run all your programs as you have in the past. (Although it is not typical, some people have their short-cut bar launched by a RUN command in their WIN.INI file, rather than through an icon in the Startup group. In this case, you will need to find the line RUN MSOFFICE.EXE near the beginning of the WIN.INI file (located in your Windows directory) and place a semicolon in front of it before you restart your computer. After installing your driver(s), you can remove the semicolon in order to start using your short-cut bar again.)

Use Your Other Programs Normally After Installation

As the above-mentioned conflicts are only a potential problem at install-time, after the desired drivers have been installed, you will once again be able to use as many Windows programs as you like. (Because the install-time conflict is inherent to Windows, and not a fixable "bug" in the driver, the preceding measures are the only available solution.)