Printer Properties error: Device Settings Cannot be Displayed

ID: Q172128

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51, 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

After you add a printer and attempt to print a test page, the following Printer Properties error messages may be displayed:

Test page failed to print. Would you like to view the print trouble shooter for assistance?

An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.
If you follow the print trouble-shooter and reload the printer driver or try to bring up the printer properties the following message appears:
Device settings cannot be displayed. The driver for the specified printer is not installed, only spooler properties will be displayed. Do you want to install the driver now?


CAUSE

Inadvertently adding the wrong platform printer driver, such as an Alpha or MIPS driver on an Intel computer, can cause the above error messages to occur.


RESOLUTION

To remove the wrong platform driver, perform the following steps:

  1. Delete the printer from the Printers folder.


  2. Add the same printer using the Add Printer Wizard.


  3. When prompted with the following message,


    4. "A driver is already installed for this printer. Would you like to keep the existing driver or use a new one? ....",
    click "Replace existing driver" and browse to the correct platform files for the printer driver.

This should install the proper files. If the error message still persists, use the following article to manually remove the wrong platform driver:
Q135406 Steps to Manually Remove and Reinstall a Printer Driver


MORE INFORMATION

If you obtained the printer driver from a self-extracting downloaded file, make sure the installation instructions in the Readme.txt or any other information file have been followed.

Some self-extracting files may need to be followed by switches in order for the files contained within to extract correctly. This is important when extracting files from executable files that contain multiple platform versions.

The Windows NT 4.0 Driver Library contains several executable files that must have the contents extracted using the '-d' switch. For example, when extracting the files for the HP DeskJet 850C, the following syntax should be used at a command prompt:

NT4DSK2.EXE -d
This allows the executable file to recreate the following subdirectories: Alpha, I386, MIPS and PPC. See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information on the driver library:
Q142643 Windows NT 4.0 Driver Library

Additional query words: prodnt drivers Alpha MIPS X86 PPC

Keywords : kbprint ntdriver ntprint NTSrvWkst
Version : WinNT:3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo


Last Reviewed: February 24, 1999
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