Installing an i9900 driver with Windows 7

[Orthoducks]

A friend gave me a surplus Canon i9900 printer. I'm trying to make Windows 7 operate it.

First I attached the printer to the computer and turned it on. Windows usually installs the driver for a USB device automatically when I do that. This time it just sat there.

I tried the "Add a Printer" dialog. It gave me two options: a local printer ("only if you don't have a USB printer") and a network printer. You're not supposed to need "Add a Printer" for a USB printer; therefore, you apparently can't use it.

I tried "Add a Printer" anyway. It listed dozens of Canon printers, including some rather old ones, but no i9900. Apparently the "no USB printers" notice is serious.

I visited Canon's support site. It offered me a "Printer Driver Add-On Module." This was not, as I first thought, a driver; it was a doohickey that adds color compensation and other features after the driver is installed. So, how do I install the driver? There was no clue.

I  looked at Windows' Printers and Other Devices dialog and noticed an icon for an unspecified "Inkjet Printer" which had to be the i9900, since all the other icons were accounted for. There was a yellow "trouble" triangle on it. I right clicked and selected the "Troubleshoot" option. Troubleshoot promised to install the driver for me. Then it thought for a while and announced that it had failed. The reason it gave was vague; it either couldn't find the driver, or it forgot that it promised to install the driver and gave up because the driver wasn't installed.

Has anyone gotten this printer to work on a Windows 7 computer? Any ideas how to do it?

[jrhoffman75]

Looks like you are not alone.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/canon-i9900-printer-wont-work-wi...

[Orthoducks]

This is discouraging. The support is out there, but very well concealed.

I found a download site (a Microsoft site, actually) that let me download a driver, and says it's Windows 7 dompatible. The only question is how to install it. It's in a cab file that contains a file named prnca00p.inf.

I found two stories about how to use the INF file. One is to right click it and select Install. When I do that I get a message that this INF file doesn't support this method of installation. The other is to open Device Manager, right click the device, and select Update Drivers. But Device Manager doesn't list the printer. acdtually it doesn't list my regular printer either, so this method probably isn't even supposed to apply.

FWIW, the file I downloaded is at http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/ScopedViewRedirect.aspx?updateid=3596a3b4-7a91-4919-a5e6...

[Orthoducks]

I revisited this tonight and tried the "Install a Printer" dialog with the INF file. It installed successfully, but does not print anything.

I ran the troubleshooter again. It worked for a very long time, then came up with a fix: making a different printer my default printer. I told it to skip that fix and try again. It suggested that I share the other printer with my homegroup so that other computers on the network would use  it. It seems to have decided that the i9900 was too hard to fix, so it would try to fix another printer instead.

I also tried the install dialog's "Windows Update" option. It hung the installer.

I'm fresh out of ideas. If no one else comes up with one, I'll see if I can find someone else who wants this thing.

[Ramona]

Hi Orthoducks,

For assistance with installing the i9900 on your computer, it is recommended that you contact live technical support by calling 1-866-261-9362, Monday - Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. ET (excluding holidays).  Real-time feedback during a live technical support call would be very beneficial in this case.  There is NO charge for this call.