HP OfficeJet Driver issues (after the fact)

[Romaniac]

What I thought would be an easy fix/driver re-install turned into a nightmare.
I must be missing something.

*NOTE* I do not have access to the printer anymore. I can't let this go, and thought I would ask for help. It's kind of lengthy, and I'm not sure anyone will be interested, but it's worth a shot.

HP OfficeJet 6500 All-in-One Wireless, E709n; Toshiba with an i5; Windows 7 Home Premium x64.
Printer was working fine, until the lady took her laptop to another location, and saw her customer had a similar/same printer. Plugged the printer via usb into her laptop, and it worked - she printed.
When she returned home, her printer did not work anymore - no print, no scan.


I think to myself, easy fix - driver un-install, and re-install. Driver, or registry or something else got mixed up by the two printers. Of course, it's HP, so it was not that easy. I hunted down any and all HP related things, including registry - manually.
I used the basic print driver from HP, and it works. But she wants the suit, so she can easily scan and print, and go about printing the way she knew how.

So I uninstalled basic driver, and got the full suit. Stuck at 'configuring product'.
I had to kill the process. Uninstalled, and tried again. Used HP scrub utility, Level 4, etc. Same issue.

I noted that during the installation, when asked to insert the printer via USB, Windows would detect the device, and start installing drivers. I have no idea if this was supposed to happen - usually, Windows installing its own drivers causes problems.
I tried to stop this via "never install drivers", but it of course did it anyway; guessing from DriverStore. I let it do its thing.

Same error.

I tried the regsrv32 atl.dll registering, and msiexec.exe check, and the steps HP suggested.

There are quite a few folks on the forums at HP with similar issues. Apparently the x64 platforms have issues with their drivers.


Last night, I got it to print, but the scanner was not working. I forget if I even restarted before I had to leave because it was too late.

Here's the kicker. She went somewhere close to her house, and they fixed it in just over an hour (who know how much she paid; she paid enough to ask to re-evaluate how much she will pay me; I told her I will not be cashing her check).

I don't know what I was doing wrong, and what they did right. The thing is, there is a chance I did mot of the work, and the the other people just finished up the end-game - as the printer was installed and printing.


What was I missing? What do you guys usually do with HP printer/printer drivers?

PS: Also, staying away from HP will be something I will probably tell my client when it comes to printers (heck, and laptops too).

Thanks!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I have the same printer and I believe the instructions said to leave usb unhooked until instructed to connect. Maybe that was an issue? I use Ethernet so I didn't have any issues there.

 

[FremontPC]

Arrgh! I wonder if they simply did a system restore...

 

['putertutor]

I have dealt with that model hp more than once, and it is never as easy as it should be. The uninstall never catches everything, and often leaves crap behind that interferes with next install. Though it sounds like you covered your bases, here's what ended up being my best run at that line (6500, 8500, 8505, 8600, etc all wireless).

+Download latest full install from hp
+Uninstall with Revo (this might take a while and sometimes ran through a couple reboots). This also meant uninstalling similar printer's features (if more than one hp printer installed, might have to reinstall both)
+If printer is to be wireless, do not plug it into computer
+Reinstall from downloaded

Honestly, there were times when this took an hour, and others when it took 2 or 3. There were also time when I could just pop in the original install disk and go through the 'install new features' (or whatever they call it) and all would be fine. I don't know why. But I do know that I never, ever recommend hp inkjets anymore, though.

@FremontPC: System restore also worked, but sporadically.

 

[Romaniac]

Hey guys, thanks a bunch for taking the time.

@Slaters Kustum
I waited until the install wizard prompted me to plug the printer USB in. That's when Win7 also detected it, and did its thing. Still not sure if that's supposed to happen/be part of the HP install process.
I wanted to try ethernet also, because I was thinking I may be able to avoid Win7 from detecting and installing its drivers.
I only brought my USB tool kit with me. Learned my lesson - bring all tools.

@FremontPC
Turned out her system had system restore of for whatever reason. She did mention she had someone 'clean it', but who knows what that meant.
So I don't think they did that.

@'putertutor
Thank you for your guide. I did hear and think about Revo, but I just thought the HP scrubber was good enough if not better.
Again, I was pressured on time.
PS: Hah, I just noticed an interesting parallel between our text signatures.


Again, thank you all for the feedback. If anyone else has more tips, please add them!

 

['putertutor]

PS: Hah, I just noticed an interesting parallel between our text signatures.

So, you're saying you still have more mistakes to make? Well, I'd hurry up and get those over with if I were you.

 

[Romaniac]

So, you're saying you still have more mistakes to make? Well, I'd hurry up and get those over with if I were you.

Haha, eeeeek!
Hey, I learned one just with this incident - just bring the whole kit; you never know when you're gonna need what!
Also, even the nicest ladies can just change their minds overnight.

 

[Tekguy]

Funny to see this thread, I just had the same thing happen to me with an Officejet J4680 printer. Customer wanted to use his scanner so I showed him how to use the scanner software built into Windows which worked, but he wanted to use the scan button on the printer which didn't work.

I uninstalled the software & ran the HP removal utility, rebooted & installed the full HP driver package, minus all the extra junk. Printer got stuck on "configuring" for well over 5 minutes & then timed out. I was able to get the printer & scanner working again, but the scanner only worked using the utility built into Windows.

 

[JustInspired]

I absolutely hate HP all in ones as they have the worst software problems and communication issues of all the brands of printers I have worked with.
Just got one in today with a laptop. Printer works fine but scanner reports a communication error. Gonna have some fun with that tomorrow.

 

[Romaniac]

@ALL Thanks for pitching in guys. This thread is also making me feel a bit better. I have messed up before, but I always made it to some type of resolution. This time, it got swept away from under my feet.

@JustInspired
That's where I got it to, I believe - scanner was bonked.
If you got it/get it that far, to wehr printer works but not scanner, it may be worth a restart and then try to actually follow the HP steps. I didn't have time, an I was skeptical, but it may be worth it...

Let us know what happens, please!

 

[bertie40]

I had a 6500 for years. Yes it was glitchy and it filled me with dread everytime I scrubbed and reloaded the drivers and software.

As mentioned, it always left some residual stuff.

Having said that, it was a little workhorse and churned out copy for a good 4 years. It took some hammering on occasion but it delivered.

 

[Tekguy]

@ALL Thanks for pitching in guys. This thread is also making me feel a bit better. I have messed up before, but I always made it to some type of resolution. This time, it got swept away from under my feet.

I know the feeling, this is a crazy business. One day you're on top of the world having a solution for every problem then the next day you get one of these weird problems that seems impossible to fix without reinstalling Windows.

 

[Romaniac]

Update: Lady contacted me, saying she still wants to send me some cash for my time; I didn't request this.
It's not even that much about the money (remember, I'm on the side, and have a day job) - I just wanted to get the darned thing figured out.

Still deciding if I should take any or not.

 

[johnrobert]

Being there done that with HP
400 meg drivers that wont let you do custom install

I tell my customers to stay away from HP everything
I love Canon printers

 

[mm201]

I had a similar problem with an HP printer and it was due to some leftovers from another HP printer that was installed on the system. There were some things that Revo wasn't catching and I ran across the Windows Installer Cleanup Tool and it did the trick rooting out the leftover files and then I was able to complete the installation of the new software.

Here's the link for the tool if it will help anyone out:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4459

 

[Romaniac]

Cool, thanks for the link.

Seems to be an abandoned project, and we are to use MS Fix It. I think I will DL it though, as you can see what it's doing..at least that's what I gather form the video.

Thanks again all, and if anyone has more feedback/advice, keep adding! Who knows who will find this thread and find something useful.