How to Find Printer Drivers XEROX, Samsung, HP, EPSON, CANON, Brother and other Printers

On the road, I encounter situations where I have to find Drivers for Computers that may be very old, a trend that forced me to pen the Geezam blog article entitled “How to locate Missing Drivers for Older Laptops and Computers”. But from time to time I come across something that’s more difficult to find a Driver for; Printers.

Printers, antiques of the Computing age, are still around and still relevant here in Jamaica, despite out American Friends going Gaga over Tablets and apparently killing them off along with the mouse as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets”.

In fact, it’s best to keep the original OEM (Original Equiptment Manufacturer) CD for the Printer that you purchased. But many times I’ve come across people who just simply didn’t seem to get the memo when it comes to storage of these important CD.

Possibly it may be because of our culture as Jamaicans. We don’t seem to put a value on Digital information, especially CD’s or DVD’s. I’ve come across people who store their CD in stacks, rubbing on top of each other; should any dirt or ingress get in-between, they’d go bad in an instant.

Worse if they’re kept in a hot or damp environment that will cause moisture to gather on the CD.

Best to keep them in Jewel Cases in a environmentally controlled environment or better yet, back them up on a External Hard-Drive as noted in my blog article entitled “How to do Physical Backup using DVD and CD and a Listing of the best software Burning DVD and CD’s”.

The fact is CD storage in their current format is not safe for the Data. But a customer are not that forward thinking, then it means that I have to be proactive and walk with downloaded copies of Printer Drivers or at least know the location of the resources from which to download the Printer Drivers.

How to locate Printer Drivers – Company Websites and other Resources

So how do you find Drivers for Printers? Quick answer: Google albeit it isn’t as straightforward as that. Printer Drivers are needed in any Computing and Networking environment, as many time Computers will have to print. First, get the name of the Printer, the Serial Number and the Operating system of the Computer upon which the Printer Driver is to be installed.

Most printers are made by one of the following manufacturer, making this a great list to keep handy as it lists almost every possible Printer imaginable:

1.      Brother

2.      CANON

3.      Casio

4.      EPSON

5.      HP

6.      Konica Minolta

7.      Kyocera

8.      LEXMARK

9.      Mitsubishi

10.  Panasonic

11.  Pantum

12.  Ricoh

13.  Samsung

14.  Sharp

15.  XEROX

The Model number is needed to find the exact Driver, as without that information, you’ll end up having to wade through a huge list of different Models. Some Printer manufactures require that you have the serial number in order to ensure that you’re really someone who had purchased a Printer from them.

This information can be found either on the front of the Printer or look at the back on the nameplate sticker that will have the Model number and serial number affixed. Armed with this information, search the above websites for the Printer Driver.

Another great resource is my eternal favourite, Softpedia. They have an ENTIRE page dedicated to Printer Drivers. Bookmark this website for future usage, as they enable great coherent downloads from multiple Servers online.

Remember to do the Test Print after the Printer is installed to demonstrate to the customer that the Printer is working. Using this list and my habit of keeping organized copies of all software that I come across, any Printer Problem is easily fixed.