Although Microsoft tries to make its operating system error-free or as few as possible, every so often new failures appear in Windows, ready to cause more than a headache. We can find a wide variety of errors in the operating system, of all kinds. Some of them are the typical ones that block or restart the computer. But others are most curious and can even leave us without USB ports on the PC , as with this new, newly discovered failure.
Microsoft has recently informed users of a failure in the operating system, related to printers, that can cause us to run out of available USB ports on the PC. This error appears when we connect a printer to a computer with Windows 10 version 1903 or higher (it affects even the new version 2004). The printer is installed and fully functional, as always. However, if we turn off the computer and disconnect the printer from the USB port, Windows can no longer use that port on the computer.
The list of ports used for printers can be found in the Configuration menu, entering the Devices> Printers and scanners> Properties of the print server section, and in the “Ports” tab that will appear in the window that opens.
When disconnecting the printer from the USB port, this port will not appear in the previous window. And, therefore, the printer does not work in Windows through this port. We would have to connect it to another USB port in order to use it.
How to fix this error
At the moment, Microsoft has not given much more information about this failure or how to fix the error when trying to use the printer. The only thing Microsoft has said is that it is working on a patch that will end this problem when printing, but we do not know when it will reach users.
The way to mitigate and avoid this error is to make sure to connect and turn on the printer before starting Windows 10. This way, Windows will detect and recognize the printer and its port and will be able to use it without problems. A very manual solution, but, for now, the only one.
Other errors affect Windows 10 users
In addition to this peculiar printer failure, Microsoft’s operating system currently has a significant number of recognized bugs affecting users of the operating system. These errors can be followed through Microsoft’s new Health Dashboard panel. This website allows us to see all the faults detected and admitted by Microsoft for each of the versions of Windows 10 and their status, to know if it has already been mitigated or if Microsoft is investigating or working on it.
Using as reference the 2004 version of Windows 10, the latest May 2020 Update, we can see that some of the errors have already been fixed, such as the “Always on” error and the problem with the DISM tool. However, there are still a significant number of bugs in this version of Windows 10 related, for example, to the IGPU, to the audio, to the NVIDIA drivers, to the Bluetooth and other components of the operating system.
The good thing about this panel is that it allows us to keep a close eye on all these issues and to know when Microsoft starts to develop the patch and when it completely mitigates it, along with which KB patch the fix has come from.