'New hardware found'. Then lost. Then found. Then lost.

PhylPho

Gawd, this is driving me nuts. I almost -- almost -- junked my perfectly good Canon MP600 inkjet printer until realising, it's not the printer but soddin' Windows that's at fault. Background:

The Canon has worked perfectly for almost three years but then stopped functioning because Windows reported 'unknown device' every time I trid to use it. Literally hours and hours were spent by me, re-setting the printer to factory default, going to Microsoft Support and disablilng all USB controllers so that they'd re-set on restart (actually, very flawed advice: my mouse is USB-wired so once disabled, I couldn't even use it to re-start -- and Windows couldn't find my wireless drivers, either. Thanks, Redmond. Brilliant as ever.)

I've uninstalled and re-installed the most up-to-date Canon drivers time and time again and then -- finally! -- the printer started to work again. No longer was it "an unknown device"; Windows "found new hardware", asked me if it could locate and install the drivers; I clicked yes and, bingo, it did.

And just to be on the safe side, I re-started the computer, created a new restore Point, and that was it. All OK. Except no. No. It isn't.

Every time I turn the printer on, Windows reports 'new hardware found' and needs to go looking for the Canon drivers. I've rolled back to the appropriate RP but it makes no difference.

WHY does Windows keep finding, installing, losing, finding, installing, losing???????

Advice appreciated. The OS is Vista Home Premium SP2. And yes, the computer has been thoroughly checked for virus / malware, up to and including a rootkit scan on boot. It's all clean.

:mad::mad::mad::mad: