Problems with a printer driver.

Windows 10 Ver 21H1

I'm a card maker and routinely use a digital cutting machine (Silhouette Portrait) but also routinely have a frustrating problem that I can't identify the source of.

The cutter attaches to the Laptop via a printer lead but when it's switched on the printer driver routinely shows an error leading to me having to either keep reinserting the USB lead to resolve it, or sometimes using the Troubleshoot this driver to try and fix it which then requires a restart. Sometimes even that doesn't resolve the issue. The printer cable was initially pointed to as a likely issue, so I got a new one but again, still no resolution. Silhouette gave me a whole page of possible fixes to try which ranged from clearing caches, through reinstalling the driver, but again, it only provided a temporary fix. So while I can get the cutter to connect maybe once in 15 attempts sometimes it will be ready to work immediately after a cold boot.

So I'm just wondering now if anyone here has any other ideas on what to try.

Reviews for the ASUS S56C Ultrabook go back to 2012, suggesting possible compatibility issues with later versions of Win 10.
Older models of the Silhouette Portrait also go back to 2012. Maybe time to upgrade both for reliable use?

(My wife uses a Cricut cutter).

Thanks guys - yeh it has the same fault in the 2nd USB port too . The only time it works for more time is just after a Win 10 reinstall/reset which I hate doing given how much hassle it is then afterwards getting things back to where I want them. And I appreciate the idea Fireberd but unfortunately no funds for either option, plus my time of card making is slowly but surely coming to a close sadly so looks like I may just muddle on as I've been doing. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't perhaps missing something else I could have tried. :)

Thanks Fabler2 - but those are the things I've already done (or as many as I could manage) but still the problem continues so perhaps it is indeed something to do with the devices themselves given their age. Appreciate the thought tho :)

Hmm great Q's TV2 and thanks for your interest - I can't remember exactly but have a suspicion that indeed it might have worked better with Win 7 than 10 - as I said, when I first reinstall Win 10 it will work for a few goes but maybe no more than it ever does possibly before the problem arises, And that's the frustrating oddity about it - that it will work maybe 1 in 10 tries one time and other times it's ready to go from startup of Windows. There's no real rhyme or reason to it. I can't find any info on a specific driver as it appears to just use the USB Printing Support driver which is the one that seems to always be the problem.

Googling, I came to a German hobby site, offering drivers. Latest drivers were for W7. Maybe installing such driver in compatibility mode helps.