There is a wide array of problems that may come to your printer. It ranges from a simple problem such as unclear printing, stuck paper, to the more technical one such as printer driver is unavailable. When you have this issue, chances are that you think the printer requires complicated treatment only techy person knows. But wait! This problem is actually simple if you know what to do.
When it comes to “Printer driver is unavailable” error, it indicates that the printer driver is not compatible with your computer or is outdated. It may also indicate that the driver is corrupt and it cannot be recognized by the computer. What should you do? There is nothing to worry about. The problem that seems to be complicated can be resolved in a few minutes.
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Printer Driver Is Unavailable Problem, Here is the Way to Resolve It
When the computer cannot recognize your printer driver, you will not be able to use the printer. It means the printing job will be unfinished. You don’t need to be a computer geek to cope with this problem. Basically, there are two easy solutions to bring your printer back to duty.
The first one, uninstall the printer driver from your computer and reinstall it back to the module. Second, update the driver for the outdated driver may also lead to such error. Follow the instructions below to resolve printer driver is unavailable problem.
1. Uninstalling the printer
Uninstalling the printer is effective to counter the error. When you see “Printer driver is unavailable” notification, you can uninstall the printer and all related software and reinstall the driver to the computer. Let’s say this action helps renew the system and remove all the problems. Follow these steps to uninstall the printer. The steps in each computer may vary.
- Press Windows + R then type ‘control’ in the dialogue box, press Enter. After opening the Control Panel, click Devices and Printers.
- You will see a list of all printers. Right-click on the right printer that causes the problem, select “Remove device”.
- Press Windows + R and type ‘devmgmt.msc’. Navigate to ‘Print queues’, right-click on the right printer and choose ‘Uninstall device’. The error printer may not be present after removing the printer.
- Press Windows + R, type ‘appwiz.cpl’ in the dialogue box then press Enter. All applications will be listed, right-click on the desired printer application. Select ‘Uninstall’.
- After doing the steps, disconnect the printer from your computer or disconnect from the router. Shut down the computer and printer. Plug out all the power supplies and wait for around 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, plug the modules back and turn on your computer. Connect the printer to the computer and wait until the device detected. Reinstall the driver to your computer.
- Navigate to control panel, right-click on the desired device and select ‘Set as default printer’. Check if the problem persists.
2. Reinstall the latest driver manually
After performing such methods but the problem persists, you may need to consider this method. Try to update the printer driver manually. In some cases, printer driver does not work properly due to Windows update. To counter the issue, you need to update the driver manually and install to the computer. Follow the instructions below to perform this method.
- Launch Run by pressing Windows + R then type ‘devmgmt.msc’ in the dialogue box then press Enter.
- Navigate to ‘Print queues’, right click on the desired printer hardware then select ‘Update driver’.
- You will see a pop-up dialogue box containing ways to update the driver. Select ‘Browse my computer for driver software’ and proceed.
- Select the driver you want to download.
- Check if your printer is working properly. Navigate to Microsoft official website and download ‘wushowhide.diagcab’.
- Run the package, click Next then select ‘Hide updates’.
- Select the printer update. From now on, Windows will not automatically update the printer driver until you permit it.
- Check if the problem is solved.
Those are two methods that you can use to resolve ‘Printer driver is unavailable’ error. You can start with the first method, which is by uninstalling the printer driver and reinstall it to your computer. If the problem persists, you can do the second method by updating the driver. Chances are that your printer driver is broken due to Windows update.
