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Question

How do I - turn off a USB printer?

Oct 8, 2013 10:56PM PDT

Do I use the "Safely remove hardware " option?

My first USB printer, the others I had were parallel cable connections.

USB cable to spare USB port on my laptop, setup was fine and the printer is working OK.

I used to simply turn off printers. But now, when I do that and turn it on later to print a document, Windows gives me the "Detected new hardware" message in the Notification Area, and searches for drivers. Not a problem as it finds the drivers already installed.

But my question really is, should I be disconnecting via the "Safely remove hardware" procedure, then turn the printer off when told it is safe to remove it?

Packard Bell laptop, Windows 7 Home Premium, Epson XP-215 wireless capable color printer and scanner.

Mark

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: printer
Oct 8, 2013 11:25PM PDT

Never needed to do that with any of my Canon USB printers. Once installed it stays installed, how often I turn it on or off. I don't really expect that to be different if I would physically disconnect it (which I don't do, because it's connected to a desktop, while you have a laptop), because disconnecting or turning off should have the same effect in my idea.

Kees

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Answer
USB issues
Oct 9, 2013 1:59AM PDT

I find USB issues can be all over the map. So do what it takes or if it works for you now, leave it be. In other words, don't fix it if it actually is working. Quite frankly, it could only lead to worse results once you really try to fix it and it maybe just the way its suppose to work. You've been warned... Wink

tada -----Willy Happy

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Answer
I think the "Safely remove hardware" message
Oct 9, 2013 4:15AM PDT

was to help prevent data loss with external drives prior to XP. It had something to do with the OS waiting for idle time before writing to the disk. Hitting the "safely remove..." icon just forced the write to complete. It really had nothing to do with printers. USB did and still does have some funny installation requirements. Often you need to install the drivers first. What could happen with printers, however, is that duplicate devices could get installed. One tip I can give is that some USB devices don't like to be transferred to another port without giving grief. This goes especially for USB wireless devices for which you've configured for security. In any event, I've not seen USB printers to cause problems due to shutdown sequences.