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General discussion

The Disappearing Printer

Jan 1, 2011 5:00AM PST

I have an Epson Stylus Photo R300 (M) printer and a 64-bit Windows 7 computer. I decided to try and rename my printer today so that I could easily distinguish it from others on the network (personal home network) and now all of a sudden, it has disappeared. I can not find any trace of it anywhere. No drivers to remove, no default settings, nothing.

After hunting and searching for a few hours, I was finally able to find it by going to Control Panel> Devices and Printers (go figure)> and at the bottom, I can see the printer that I renamed. I tried to rename it back to the original name and got nowhere. I have tried to uninstall (Remove Device) and start from scratch, and still have nothing. About 20 restarts later, I have decided to come here in hopes that someone can help me.

The Epson web site is no help either, because apparently Windows 7 already has the drivers installed so that it can auto play the printer. I just want someone to help me find that big "Start Over" button that fixes so many PC issues out there.

Discussion is locked

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Just an idea.
Jan 1, 2011 5:06AM PST

Try system restore to yesterday and see if it comes back.

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The Disappearing Printer
Jan 1, 2011 5:17AM PST

How do I do that on Windows 7? Last computer I did that on was either Windows 95 or 98 (back about the same time frame).

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Click on that orb.
Jan 1, 2011 5:22AM PST

And in the box type System Restore. As 7 searches you should be able to find that.

But can I ask you research such things on google? This would be something well discussed and documented where as your printer issue is not. Can we save the easy stuff for google since all this is volunteer and if you use the volunteers for the easy answers you slow down the search for the hard stuff.

Bob

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It hasn't changed
Jan 1, 2011 5:26AM PST

SR is in the same place in Windows 7 as it was in Win 9, 98, ME, XP and so on;

Start > All programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

The All programs listing in Win 7 has many similarities to other versions.

Mark