Help - I screwed something up and can not install my drivers now

[vince007]

I am having trouble Installing Win 2k drivers for a Panasonic KX-FLM600 laser printer.

I have a KX-FLM600 Laser printer / Fax that I am trying to install on my Windows 2000 Pro machine. I have downloaded win 2k driver install file from Panasonic, extracted the files and tried to run set-up. The Install shield launches and then I am told that I must reboot prior to running the setup program. I restart, launch the setup program and get the same result over and over again. Does anyone know what I can do to get the drivers installed?

Background information is:
I am running Win 2000 Pro with full admin rights.
I have tested the driver install program on 2 seperate machines (One XP and one Win 2k) and had the drivers install completely.
I did originally try to install the software that came with the printer (which I now know is not compatable with win 2k). Also I did set up another Panasonic laser printer in the hopes that the driver would work with the KX-FLM600. I did these things prior to realizing there was a driver update available.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

[eboyjones]

Welcome to Windrivershttp://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/wd/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Did you uninstall the software for the first 2 printers. Check Add/Remove programs in Control Panel. According to Panasonic site the software that came with the printer will not work with win 2000 as you found out. Here is a link to the driver for 2000 & XP see if it is the same you are trying to use.

http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/cs/en/telecom/fax/usa/table/us_e42ad.htm

Also if that does not work you can look in your registry and delete any printer software you installed. CAUTION! IF YOU CAN CAUSE YOURSELF A LOT OF GRIEF IF YOU DELETE WRONG ITEMS. So try first removing software in Add/Remove programs then let us know before going into registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ (printers name)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\(printers name)

[vince007]

Welcome to Windrivershttp://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/wd/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Did you uninstall the software for the first 2 printers. Check Add/Remove programs in Control Panel. According to Panasonic site the software that came with the printer will not work with win 2000 as you found out. Here is a link to the driver for 2000 & XP see if it is the same you are trying to use.

http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/cs/en/telecom/fax/usa/table/us_e42ad.htm

Also if that does not work you can look in your registry and delete any printer software you installed. CAUTION! IF YOU CAN CAUSE YOURSELF A LOT OF GRIEF IF YOU DELETE WRONG ITEMS. So try first removing software in Add/Remove programs then let us know before going into registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ (printers name)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\(printers name)



Thanks for the reply. The software that came with the printer never actually installed, so there is nothing in the add/remove programs listing. My guess is that it did try to install and then left behind someting that is causing the new software to abort. I will check the registry info, I suspected I would need to look at the registry, but did not know where exactly to check (now I do).

For the other printer I installed I just used another existing Panansonic laser printer driver that came with Windows. That has been deleted successfully.

And yes, the link you provided is to the same software I am trying to install.

Thanks for your help. I'll try to fix it tonight as the machine is at home, and post results.

[vince007]

There was nothing listed in the registry so nothing to delete. I still can not install the driver.

If I go to "add Printer" the KX-FLM600 shows up in the list of "available printers" to add but then prompts for a disk to load the drivers.

Any other thoughts / ideas would be appreciated as I would rather not buy a new laser printer just because I can not load the driver.

Thanks

[geoscomp]

If I go to "add Printer" the KX-FLM600 shows up in the list of "available printers" to add but then prompts for a disk to load the drivers.

Any other thoughts / ideas would be appreciated as I would rather not buy a new laser printer just because I can not load the driver.

Thanks


try going to add printer..to the kx-flm600..and then when it asks for the disk, just navigate to the folder where you extracted the items that you downloaded

[eboyjones]

There was nothing listed in the registry so nothing to delete. I still can not install the driver.

If I go to "add Printer" the KX-FLM600 shows up in the list of "available printers" to add but then prompts for a disk to load the drivers.

Any other thoughts / ideas would be appreciated as I would rather not buy a new laser printer just because I can not load the driver.

Thanks
Just curious are you trying to install the software that came with the printer. Because since none of this software works with your system all you can use is the printer and so all you need is the printer driver which I linked to you earlier. Do as the previous post says. Go to add printer and send windows to the spot you downloaded drives on your hard drive. Make sure you unzipped them before you try to add printer. Or if the new driver you downloaded has a setup program for the printer click on setup or the .exe file to setup. I don't know why it would not work.

[vince007]

try going to add printer..to the kx-flm600..and then when it asks for the disk, just navigate to the folder where you extracted the items that you downloaded

I am trying to install the new file. The problem is the the file you linked to (which is the same one I located) is an self extracting file that extracts 9 files, one of which is a setup file. At this point you are supposed to run the setup file which will then load the driver. It is this setup file that is not running. As the "Installwise" istall progrm kicks off it terminates the program and asks you to restart. I assume this is becasuse some file the installer or setup needs is currently in use which will not allow the installer to run. The install program assumes that by restarting that the file will then be available.

Why Panasonic could not simply provide the driver file I do not know. I asked them via e-mail, but that appears to be a waste of effort.

So ultimatly I guess I am trying to figure out what proccess is running, or what file is in use or present on the machine (or where to look) that prevents the install program from running. I am not sure if anyone is going to know that off the top of their head. I was hoping it was a registry entry.

Thanks again.

Bill

[vince007]

I installed the drivers on another machine and will try to copy them and manually install them on the machine that is giving me the headache tonight, but befort I do that I actually got a response from Panasonic support.

They sent a program which is supposed to clean off any and all previous references of the drivers / printer and then let me install the correct driver. I'll see if it works. I am very impressed that I actually got a response for Panasonic as usually sending in a e-mail for help results in no reply.

[geoscomp]

"I am trying to install the new file. The problem is the the file you linked to (which is the same one I located) is an self extracting file that extracts 9 files, one of which is a setup file. At this point you are supposed to run the setup file which will then load the driver. "


Have you looked at the other 8 files? I would assume that one of them is the *.inf file you need for the printer driver

[TripleRLtd]

Sounds as if this might be a Windows Installer issue.
Try downloading and installing this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b6140f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f&DisplayLang=en
Then run the Setup again.
If this doesn't work, wait for the disk from panasonic and try again.

[vince007]

The cleaner file that Panasonic e-mailed me did the trick. I assume it removed all previous traces of the software / printer. I was then able to install the correct drivers without any problem.

Thanks everyone who helped me out. I would be happy so send along the cleaner file to anyone who needs it or who is interested in posting it.

Bill