a print driver

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This is probably not going to happen BUT I’ll ask anyway. My elderly neighbor purchased an HP OfficeJet J4540 All-in-one printer without looking at the requirements. It has print drivers for Win2000 and up but her system is still Win98. HP doesn’t have any for Win 98 either. I didn’t find any way to make it work and the short time I hunted on the web, I didn’t see any way to work around the print driver problem. Does anyone know of a driver that would be compatible with Win 98 and run this fax, printer, scanner combo?

I guess she’s had the printer since August because she thought her son would help…… And now she’s lost the receipt for it……. I told her I’d ask but for her not to get her hopes up.

Thanks for any ideas about this problem.

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Unsurprisingly, you have no replies yet, so I guess you are out of luck.

If it was just a printer, I would suggest trying generic OfficeJet printer drivers, but I honestly don’t think you are going to find a workaround.

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I kind of figured it was pretty much hopeless but I figured I’d have nothing to lose by asking!
Thanks for replying. It is always fun “talking with you”!

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If HP don’t have a driver I doubt you’ll find one elsewhere. It’s a long shot but you could try HP drivers for older / earlier models in this series. They might give you at least some functionality. A quick call / email to HP might give you a hint as to which older drivers might be a good starting point for this experiment.

Ken

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Hi Ken

I’ve advised my neighbor that there didn’t seem to be a solution to her problem. She investigated further and found that our local “brick and mortar” store may take it back so long as the bar code can be scanned. It should show that it was purchased from them. If it does, they will give her a gift card for the amount of the purchase so she can spend it again in their store. If she had her receipt, they would have refunded her money in cash. Hopefully, since she knows what to look for on the box regarding requirements now, she can find a printer, scanner, fax combo that suits her and that works with Win98. They might be scarce – if there are even any out there anymore?

Thanks for the suggestions however.

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A quick Google on “printer scanner fax win98” turns up various hits that imply such beasts do exist. For example I found this link to a UK on-line store:
http://www.memory-express.co.uk/733785__Of…ner-Copier.html%5B/url%5D
However, HP list this as a discontinued model.

It might take awhile but you may yet find something that is Win 98 compatible. Happy hunting!

Ken

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It could be much easier to encourage the user that she needs to update her computer O/S. Thanks for taking time to hunt up an option. I did locate an HP OfficeJet 6310xi Combo for around $100 at our warehouse shopping center. Truth be known, my hope is that she does decide to upgrade – she did mention the possibility.

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It all depends on what the user is actually doing on their PC.

At home my ancient Win98 box that I built myself in 1998 is still more than adequate for my family’s needs. I reluctantly bought (at my wife’s insistence) a decent laptop for my teenage son and his school work. It’s new and shiny and runs Vista and what’s he done with it? Just as I predicted. He’s turned it into a £600 jukebox holding Gbs of music. He has left a few Mb spare for his school course work. Then there is my father. He had a Win ME box but then he bought a digital SLR camera and the PC couldn’t cope with the images. I found him something appropriate running XP Home and all it did was confuse him and within a month he’d somehow corrupted the SYSTEM registry hive.

Sometimes old is good! Like an old slipper, comfortable.

Regards,

Your friendly (not so local) dinosaur

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I agree with you about “old is good” – depending on what it is and who it concerns. I also have a Win 98 computer that I like to use but it is me who is supporting my own stuff.

I am a bit divided about trying to support another user who is still using this O/S. Trying to fix someone else’s stuff, making changes she may not want, so I can get items to work, etc. can be frustrating when she says “why this or that”? When I returned home from an errand today, I had a phone message from her saying that she found a Brother brand printer and should she get it. I’ve never worked with this type, I don’t know the ease of use, etc. I think I’ve reached the point that if the user wants “free” support to continue from me, she’ll need to consider updating. Win XP, Vista are just that much easier to maintain since information on the web is easier to find. I haven’t been able to ring through and give her my thoughts about this subject yet, because she is surfing on the internet – she has a “dial-up” connection! All of this is her choice of course but I don’t believe I want to get mix up in the middle of trying to load yet another printer that I am unfamiliar with onto a system that is out-of-date.

Sounds like you have a typical teenager who loves his music and a father who may still need a guiding hand regarding his new toy! Families are such a joy at times!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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