Old Printer, New Life!

I have a client that has a Brother laser printer, model MFC-7860DW He has used it reliably for many years across multiple computers with various versions of Windows. Recently he moved to a new powerful Dell Laptop and attempted to install the printer on his system. He went to the Brother downloads web page for the printer and selected the full driver and software package.

He started the setup and connected the printer via USB cable as instructed, like he had done with all previous computers. The install froze at that point and did not continue with the installation. He tried several times, then called me to help him.

When I arrived, I made sure that he had downloaded the correct setup, checked all the connections and attempted the setup myself. When prompted, I plugged the USB printer cable into the USB port and Windows chimed that it had a new device, but never indicated that it was installing drivers. The driver installation and software setup didn't proceed beyond the 'plug-in the USB printer cable' notification.

Hmmm, I checked the Printers and Scanners app and the printer was not listed. I rebooted the system and used a newer USB printer cable, but it made no difference. We did some online searching to verify that the printer is Windows 10 compatible and could find nothing to the contrary. We tried searching for installation problems, but nothing turned up. I told my customer I would do some additional research over the weekend to look for a solution. By every account, the printer is compatible with Windows 10.

Later that evening I thought about the problem again. Even though Windows 10 knew that something had been plugged into a USB port, it wasn't able to install it. I can't remember the exact search words I used, but it included something about USB, Brother Printer and Windows 10. Low and behold, I came across this page: Unable to print - USB - Windows 10

Where it states: "This issue may be caused by a problem that affects machines connected to a USB 3.0 port on Windows 8, 8.1, or 10." Now we are getting somewhere! Further down it states: "Verify that the firmware version is at leas Version J" Fortunately, as part of my troubleshooting at my customer's house, I made a note of the firmware version, it was 'B'.

Aha! The article lists the steps to update the printer's firmware. There are more detailed

instructions at this web page: Update the Firmware using the Firmware Update tool Since my

customer's computer has only one USB-3 port, I had to use one of my older Windows 10

laptops with USB-2 to do the update. The steps I took were:

1. Download the driver and software setup from the downloads page to my laptop.

2. Start the setup (so much slower on an old laptop!)

3. Plug-in the USB printer cable when prompted.

4. Let the setup complete and print a test page.

5. Download the 'Firmware Update Tool' at the bottom of the downloads page and run it on my old laptop.

6. Unplug the USB printer cable from my laptop.

7. Start the driver and software setup on the customer's new Dell Windows 10 machine.

8. Plug the USB printer cable into the USB port. Windows acknowledges the printer and the Brother software setup continues on its way.

9. Let the setup complete and print a test page.

Voila! The old reliable Brother MFC-7860DW laser printer was given another life with the next generation of laptops with USB-3.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. I hope that anyone who stumbles across this post finds it useful.

Stay safe; be well.

Phil