Here are some common causes why your printer driver is unavailable:įaulty drivers: Occasionally, manufacturers accidentally release driver updates containing bugs or glitches - particularly if they’re rushing to patch up a security exploit. That’s why it’s important to learn how to hunt down drivers to boost PC performance and fix common driver problems in Windows. There are many reasons why you might be encountering a printer driver error, including problems with the driver itself or issues with your operating system.

If you're experiencing slowdowns, check your computer specs and be sure to update your graphics drivers. For example, faulty graphics drivers can slow down your streaming and cause your games to lag or crash. The same is true for other hardware components, although you may not always receive a driver unavailable message. But if there’s a problem with the driver, communication breaks down, causing the “Driver is unavailable” error to occur.

The drivers translate requests from the operating system into commands that the printer’s specific make and model can understand and execute. For your system to interact with a printer, dedicated software known as drivers are needed to act as an intermediary between the PC and the printer.