Surface Pro Communicating to Laser Printer

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Hi Thomas Simmons,

Thanks for reaching out.

Since your Surface Pro uses a Snapdragon (ARM-based) processor, printer communication may sometimes be affected if the manufacturer doesn’t provide a driver that’s fully compatible with this type of system. This can result in the printer appearing installed but not responding or printing.

To narrow this down, I recommend first testing the printer with another computer, if possible, just to confirm whether the printer itself is still working normally or if the issue is specific to the Surface. After that, please remove the printer completely from your Surface, including any associated driver packages and then restart your device. This helps clear out any corrupted or incompatible drivers that might be preventing communication.

Once the device has restarted, try reinstalling the printer. If Brother provides a Windows 11 ARM-compatible driver for your model, please use that; otherwise, you can select the built-in Microsoft “IPP Class Driver,” which often works reliably on ARM devices even if some advanced features are limited.

If your printer is connected over Wi‑Fi, it can also help to add it using its IP address instead of relying on automatic detection, as this bypasses common discovery issues and help restore communication more consistently.

These steps help rule out both printer hardware issues and driver or connection problems, which are the most common causes in this scenario. If you’re able to share the exact Brother printer model and whether it’s connected via USB or Wi‑Fi, I’d be happy to take a closer look and guide you further.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. While moderators and contributors (including Microsoft employees) are here to help, we don’t have the ability to directly access or modify Microsoft services or back-end systems. Our role is to provide guidance and share troubleshooting steps based on the information available.

If you still prefer to contact a live Surface support agent:

• Go to Contact Microsoft Support and sign in with your Microsoft account
• Type "Customer Support" and select Get help
• Scroll down and choose Contact support
• Under Products and services, select Surface
• Under Category, choose your Surface model, then select Confirm
• Pick your preferred option:
  • Chat with a support agent
  • Request a call back
  • Submit a repair request

They’ll be in a better position to run in-depth checks and guide you on the next steps.

Please feel free to update me with any results or questions along the way. I’ll be happy to help further.

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