# windows 7 cannot find devices and printers



## TWMurrel (Nov 23, 2010)

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.1
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional , 32 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz, x64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 3054 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, 128 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 88420 MB, Free - 24264 MB; E: Total - 476937 MB, Free - 102207 MB; 
Motherboard: LENOVO, 6459CTO, Not Available, VF1EL82L10V
Antivirus: Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Updated and Enabled


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## calvin-c (May 17, 2006)

If you're talking about the window being blank, that happened to me last night. In fact the entire control panel was blank. Everything came back on a reboot so I'm pretty sure the problem was one of the services I'd shut down. Probably the licensing service. Can't find the post I read last night, but it recommended running slui.exe to restart the service-I figured that if one service had failed to start there might be others so I tried a reboot to restart them all, and it worked.

But if that doesn't work for you then you might try running slui.exe


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## Mollie (Nov 2, 2002)

A little more info - what you posted doesn't explain anything. 

Are you trying to connect a printer? Do you have a printer connected? Wired or wireless? What brand? Have you gone to the printer website and downloaded/installed the latest drivers for your printer? Has Windows 7 detected the printer before this, and now it won't? 

A little info goes a long way.

Mollie


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## TWMurrel (Nov 23, 2010)

Hi Mollie,
Yes I have the printer connected and it prints without any problem however, I cannot access the printers or any usb devices when clicking on the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" tab. The page opens to "Open Devices and Printers". I click on that and the page stays blank and the green progress line continues to search. I have left it search for hours but it cannot find any installed devices. Also, I cannot access the printers to change the default through the control panel. Clicking on the "view devices and printers" results in the same blank screen with green progress bar searching and searching.
I would really appreciate any help you could provide.

Thanks,

Tom


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## Mollie (Nov 2, 2002)

You say it prints without any problem, so I guess I'm not quite understanding. What exactly are you trying to do?

Mollie


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## TWMurrel (Nov 23, 2010)

Hi Mollie,
Thanks for the reply. I am trying to change the default printer and remove USB devices safely from my computer. The printer is an all-in-one printer and it will not scan images to the pc. It will print. All instructions say to use the "device and printer" options in the control panel to change printers/devices etc. The system will not do that and I do not want to have to do a "clean" install of Windows 7 and have to re-install all of the programs.
I spent $60 with HP for help with this and they said it was a windows 7 Operating System problem. So I am stumped.


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## calvin-c (May 17, 2006)

I found this thread on a Windows 7 forum. http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/8157-device-printer-panel-does-not-load.html
Most of it says to auto-load the Bluetooth Support Service, although that doesn't really make sense to solve a printer problem, but another part of it says to stop & restart the Spooler service. Either way it sounds like some service that should be running isn't-but solutions seem to range all over the list of services.


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## Mollie (Nov 2, 2002)

To uninstall your printer from the devices and printers folder, right click on the printer you wish to uninstall then click on "remove device." That should uninstall the printer and its driver. However, knowing HP, there is probably a ton of software installed for your printer so to be sure to uninstall that software. You may even want to try uninstalling the HP printer software first to see if that helps.

If you wish to designate a printer as the default printer, right click on the printer you want as the default, then click on "set as default printer."

If you can't access your devices and printer folder to uninstall your printer, just shut down your computer, unplug the printer's usb connection from your computer and then start your computer again. What happens when you try to access the folder now?

Mollie


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