Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
8/22/21 - I just recently tried to install the A6210 USB adapter on my HP 2000 Lap Top runnning Window 8.1. The PC has 8GB of RAM and it is 64 bit. All the USB ports are 2.0. The A6210 is supposed to work on USB 2.0 though. On another USB port on that same computer I am attached to my HP 1012 deskjet printer. There is no Windows 8 driver for the printer so I have to install it using a Win Vista driver and adding a local port. Upon installing the A6210, my printer stopped working. I had to uninstall the A6210, completely uninstall the printer, and also remove all the root hubs in device manager. I reinstalled the printer (made sure it was working) then reinstalled the A6210 from the provided CD ROM and the printer stopped functioning again. Some how the install of the A6210 on this computer causes the printer to fail (you get a failure trying to send a print job to the printer). I suspect conflicts in the USB domain. Anybody see this phenomenon before or know what is causing the failure?
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
I say no, and I base that upon the fact that I've been using this HP1012 printer for years without issue in this manner. I've used other USB gear on this computer as well and they never interferred with the printer so the only change has been trying to install the A6210. By the way, using the VISTA driver is the recommended solution from HP and other end users. ...and really the only purpose of a driver would be to translate instructions from the OS to the hardware. I would think each driver is set up for a specific device and the driver for the AC6210 is specific to that hardware and it should not conflict with the printer.
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
so try it without the printer installed. Or try it on a different computer.
Does it work fine? if so, the common thread would be the sketchy driver. And its a sketchy company who recommends using a vista driver on a windows 8.1 device. If they were that great at support, they'd simply update it.
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
Yes, the AC6210 works on the HP2000 after installed (that is not the issue) but, the install causes the printer to fail. As I said previously, the purpose of a device driver is to act as an interpreter between the app/OS and the hardware. The install of a new device should not corrupt the install of another working device. The device driver is not common between the two devices. The OS would only interoperate with the WIFI adapter and call the specific WIFI driver when it needs it and the same with the printer. So, since the drivers are both unique and used for different operations, it does not make sense that the printer device driver itself, is the issue.
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
I disagree with that.
Again, this printer driver has been functioning and working alonside other USB hardware for years. Why HP did not make a driver after VISTA for this printer I can't say. WIndows 7/8 is really just an incremental upgrade to VISTA, that is all it is. Win 10 did turn a new corner.
What I think is happening is that the AC6210 driver is conflicting with other devices in memory, that is the AC6210 is seizing memory that it should not which is in use by other devices. So, because the printer driver has beem working alongside other devices for years and along comes this new device, I think it more likely that the new device, the AC6210 is creating the issue.
Had to chase around to see that we are really talking about the A6210, which claims to have drivers from Windows 10 down to Vista and XP.
This may well mean that the native drivers in Windows will support the adapter. Try it without adding any drivers from Netgear.
As you have fixed this with a new adapter – and one designed to work with current versions of Windows rather than one from the ark – you may not need to dig any deeper. But another factor that hasn't come up so far is the chipset drivers for your USB. These are the motherboard-level drivers that Windows rarely picks up when looking for updates. Motherboard makers have a habit of burying these drivers in the depths of their support sites. And PC makers may not even bother to get the updates.
The same warning applies to wifi and Ethernet drivers for motherboards.
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
I have not tried to simply plug and play the A62100.
Should I remove or disable the Linksys first?
I did not understand your comment "and one designed to work with current versions of Windows rather than one from the ark"
are you implying there is something ancient or not up to date with the Netgear driver/install?
Lastly, I went into device manager and checked all the USB drivers down to root hub. Windows tells me the drivers are up to date. Did I do this correctly or is there a better way to do this?
I did not understand your comment "and one designed to work with current versions of Windows rather than one from the ark"
are you implying there is something ancient or not up to date with the Netgear driver/install?
The A6210 is six or seven years old and was designed for older versions of Windows. I'd hope that something you bought today would be a bit more current.
By now the A6210 may be well behind the wifi technology that your router offers.
These USB adapters are low-end widgets that don't get, or even deserve, massive investment in keeping them up to date with whatever Windows throws at us. (Have you looked at the requirements for Windows 11 yet? Are you ready for TPM? Me neither, until I read about it.)
I have not tried to simply plug and play the A6210.
Should I remove or disable the Linksys first?
Your call. I wouldn't uninstall anything. Simply unplugging the Linksys and plugging in the A6210 should persuade Windows to install its "native" drivers.
Lastly, I went into device manager and checked all the USB drivers down to root hub. Windows tells me the drivers are up to date. Did I do this correctly or is there a better way to do this?
That is my point. Windows won't find these things.
The best way to do it is to find out who made the motherboard. The visit the support pages for that.
You can even dig deeper by finding out who made the various on-board chips and then seeing if they have updates. Graphics,audio, Ethernet, USB, wifi and so on come from one of the usual suspects. Most time these won't be any great deal, but sometimes they can be the difference between a working device and a crash.
When you roll your own PCs you get into the habit of checking these things.
Re: Model A6210 (AC1200 USB Adapter) Install causes HP printer to fail
I tried your experiment. I unplugged the Linksys AC1200 and simply plugged in the A6210.
Windows installed it and it worked (without running the Netgear install CD). I'm using it now.
Happily I can also report that the printer also still worked!!!
So, is the smoking gun, the Netgear driver for the A6210?
It seems so to me ......and that it is a reasonable next step for someone at Netgear to look into this.
I hope someone from Netgear is looking at this thread and noting this discussion.
It seems the installation software/driver for the A6210 is flawed.
The only other point I will make is that from a performance perspective, I did not see any advantage of the Netgear over the Linksys. They both had approximately the same through put. The Linksys AC1200 is $10 cheaper.
Does anybody have any experience with the Netgear Night Hawk adapter (AC1900)? Supposedly it is also backwards compatible with Win 8.1 & USB 2.0. Does it really have significantly improved throughput and overall performance (connectivity, range, etc)?
Does anybody have any experience with the Netgear Night Hawk adapter (AC1900)?
There is no such thing.
AC1900 is not a reliable guide to model number. Many devices come with an AC tag, but it is essentially a label that Netgear, and other brands, attach to hardware to describe wifi speeds.
Perhaps you mean the A7000 USB adapter.
As with anything wifi, there are various factors that affect performance. Slightly younger than the A6100, at least the A7000 does not promise to support 20th century operating systems. It also supports Mac OS X, although Netgear seems to be incapable of producing timely updates for Mac OS. Maybe it is the usual Apple trick of blocking off third party brands from its world.
