Microsoft KB Archive/254997

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Err Msg: The Printer Driver You Selected Is Not Compatible...

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Q254997

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

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SYMPTOMS
When you try to install a printer driver on your Windows 2000-based computer, you may receive the following error message:

The printer driver you selected is not compatible with your current version of Windows. Select a compatible driver from the list, or contact your administrator for help.

Also, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:


 * You may be unable to successfully install a printer.
 * Your computer may stop responding (hang) when you view Printer Properties or preferences.
 * You may be unable to print correctly, or at all.

CAUSE
This issue can occur if you try to install an out-of-date monolithic Hewlett Packard (HP) printer driver. Some of these printer drivers are not totally compatible with Windows 2000, and are removed or updated when you run Windows 2000 Setup to prevent potential problems.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, contact Hewlett Packard to inquire about the availability of an updated printer driver or fix for this issue.

MORE INFORMATION
The following is a partial list of the printer drivers Windows 2000 Setup removes, as noted where no Windows 2000 driver is listed. The first column of the following table lists Hewlett Packard's non-Windows 2000 compliant original equipment manufacturer (OEM) printer names, and the second column shows the equivalent Microsoft printer driver name as it appears in the Add Printer wizard.

NOTE: The mapping table can also be seen in the %windir%\inf\printupg.inf file. For some printer drivers, a date is added to indicate that only drivers before that date will be removed or updated. This is done to prevent new Windows 2000-compliant OEM drivers from being adversely affected. If there is no corresponding entry in the second column, it indicates that no Microsoft driver is available, and may not be supported by Windows 2000.

Installation of non-Windows 2000 compliant printers is prevented when the printer is installed locally, or on a network. If your printer is present in your Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based computer when you upgrade to Windows 2000, it may be replaced transparently by Microsoft's inbox drivers and an entry is added to the Setup.log file.

With a Windows 2000 Print Server and NT clients, if all functionality is not available via the Windows 2000 driver and attempts to install the NT driver result in the error message listed in the Symptoms section, you may be able to achieve the desired result by removing the Windows 2000 driver from the server and installing the NT driver only.

The third-party products discussed in this article are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

STATUS
This behavior is by design.

Additional query words: spoolss pnp

Keywords : kb3rdparty kberrmsg kbhw kbprint kbtool KBW2KHOME

Issue type : kbprb

Technology : kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000Serv kbwin2000ServSearch kbwin2000Search kbwin2000ProSearch kbwin2000Pro kbWinAdvServSearch