On 14/01/2016 11:56, therustyone wrote:
I had to restore my Sony Vista Laptop PCG-3D1M from its 3-DVD system backup a couple
of weeks ago due to a complete crash, these crashes happen every
couple of years.
Now it won't detect a Dell USB 1100 laser printer which used to work
before.

Not a great advert for either Sony laptops or Vista but then Vista
always was a dog (although nowhere near as bad as it was painted).

It goes ding-dong when plugged in, but gets no further. The printer still works
fine with other various computers so it seems OK, and the Sony still
works OK with
a Canon USB color printer and peripherals like mice so its USB ports
seem OK.

The most likely cause of this sort of behaviour is that the Dozy
registry has got itself in a tangle for this specific USB device. The
simplest fix is to uninstall the printer from the failing machine,
reboot the PC and then reinstall again from a clean slate.

You could go into the registry with a flint axe and hack the broken
misconfigured details but it is error prone and capable of bringing the
system to its knees if you make the slightest error. Vista was prone to
spontaneously corrupting its register leaving devices that would connect
OK and go bleep with drivers "installed" but not be usable.

My HP scanner used to fail with monotonous regularity on Vista after any
kind of wake up from sleep event.

I also tried adding a 4-port powered USB hub in case it was a power problem,
but that doesn't make it work either. So its a particular conflict
between
one printer and one computer. I have restored the complete system
like this
a couple of times previously and never had a problem with the printer.
There are no USB fault indications in device manager.

Any ideas?

Upgrade to a Win7 machines whilst you still can.
Avoid Win8.x at all costs. Win10 isn't too bad either.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown