Windows 7 and HP Printer Drivers

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I sure hope that no one else runs into this.
This afternoon, I updated the drivers for my Photosmart C4280 printer for Windows 7. The printer worked fine, but the scanner would not work. After several tries using their uninstall and re-install I got them into a chat session and that was fruitless as well. I asked them if they had heard of Revo Uninstaller and they said no, but that their uninstall went deep into the registry, so that should not be a problem. They had me delete one portion (HP Solution Center) that required a reboot. I went ahead with that to no avail, and since the chat session ended when I rebooted I decided to give good ole’ Revo a shot. It found 700 plus registry items left over! I deleted everysingle one of them (yea I know thats taking a risk) and not for the faint of heart, but after a triple bypass my heart was strong enough! reinstalled the new software, and Voila!! everything is now back to normal here in the Rose City.

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This is a problem with HP drivers (they are not alone) and NOT a Windows 7 issue. The new drivers for some reason are NOT going in and removing EVERYTHING of the older drivers and then then new ones do not get installed fully. It seems that this happens MORE with the scanner part of these different OEM,s and their drivers.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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This is a problem with HP drivers (they are not alone) and NOT a Windows 7 issue. The new drivers for some reason are NOT going in and removing EVERYTHING of the older drivers and then then new ones do not get installed fully. It seems that this happens MORE with the scanner part of these different OEM,s and their drivers.

Yea what a way to find out!

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Yea what a way to find out!

On that you can rely, of this you can be sure: new operating systems are bedlam in the driver department.

I have exactly the same peripheral as you and your post may be of assistance to me. Personally, I am desperate for the HP LaserJet 1020 support, and so are many others. That series of LaserJets must have a gigantic user base, along with the toner cartridges that go with it, and HP may take a significant hit in the pocketbook as a result of their failing to provide support for it. (They make their money on the cartridges, not the printers.) They promised support, and I think they had better provide it pronto.

Edited to add that the first place to check is All Programs/HP. I just got ‘something’ at that progam. The first place of all to check is Windows Update.

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On that you can rely, of this you can be sure: new operating systems are bedlam in the driver department.

I have exactly the same peripheral as you and your post may be of assistance to me. Personally, I am desperate for the HP LaserJet 1020 support, and so are many others. That series of LaserJets must have a gigantic user base, along with the toner cartridges that go with it, and HP may take a significant hit in the pocketbook as a result of their failing to provide support for it. (They make their money on the cartridges, not the printers.) They promised support, and I think they had better provide it pronto.

Edited to add that the first place to check is All Programs/HP. I just got ‘something’ at that progam. The first place of all to check is Windows Update.

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On that you can rely, of this you can be sure: new operating systems are bedlam in the driver department.

I refuse to buy HP printers today, especially the multifunciton printers. I installed drivers for a wireless HP all-in-one. On a laptop that wasn’t too fast either (mostly in the HD department…). I wasn’t happy after 15 minutes it finally uncompressed what it was trying to install, then the 3 minutes it took to install, and then another 15 minutes to decompress the next part. About an hour later, it had finally finished! It takes me 10 minutes to install everything for my Epson Artisan 800.

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I refuse to buy HP printers today, especially the multifunciton printers. I installed drivers for a wireless HP all-in-one. On a laptop that wasn’t too fast either (mostly in the HD department…). I wasn’t happy after 15 minutes it finally uncompressed what it was trying to install, then the 3 minutes it took to install, and then another 15 minutes to decompress the next part. About an hour later, it had finally finished! It takes me 10 minutes to install everything for my Epson Artisan 800.

I thought this curious but wasn’t interested until I discovered that I didn’t have the 4280 installed on this computer, so I just did it myself.

I downloaded it, and because the full package is over 200 MB in size HP issues warnings about the download time. I seem to have a decent connection speed for ADSL (but streaming video is pushing it) and I have a download accelerator, which helps greatly. (I have Download Studio, which has paid for itself many times over.) It’s also the middle of the night here, which means much less traffic. I had the file in a matter of minutes.

HP’s installation advice included:

1. Be sure your computer meets the minimum requirements. I don’t even know what they are, but I am sure this computer exceeds them by a mile.

2. Turn off any anti-virus software for the duration of the installation. Failure to do so can greatly slow the installation.

I think there were assorted others, which I forget, but in my case the computer obviously did a lot of work in performing the installation, so I can see where a less powerful computer might take a lot longer. More importantly, if you have your anti-virus turned on or lack the free space needed for the large and complex set of programs to decompress and install, or if you are installing it offline, then it may take ‘forever’. In my case I didn’t try to time it, but it was probably five minutes or so.

In registering it online, a required field is the date of purchase. Now THAT is enough to provoke a boycott.

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I refuse to buy HP printers today, especially the multifunciton printers. I installed drivers for a wireless HP all-in-one. On a laptop that wasn’t too fast either (mostly in the HD department…). I wasn’t happy after 15 minutes it finally uncompressed what it was trying to install, then the 3 minutes it took to install, and then another 15 minutes to decompress the next part. About an hour later, it had finally finished! It takes me 10 minutes to install everything for my Epson Artisan 800.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t even read to the very end of this thread.
I just had to reply to this very good post.

I’ve said this for years, that HP Printer software must be written in some foreign country that hates us, (maybe N.Korea or Iran) because it’s absolutely the worse software I’ve ever seen in 29 years as a computer tech. When anyone complains about problems with HP printer software (drivers) I have a one word solution for them, , , , “EPSON“.

I have four Epson printers (two AIO’s & two CD Printers) in this house and I’ve never had one moment of trouble with any
of them. For Windows 7, the Epson Vista drivers work just fine.
I get all my ink carts from http://www.InkSell.com at way below store prices. I’m just sayin’ …….

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!

The Doctor

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I had the same problem, and delayed upgrading from vista because of it – finally got fed up with replies from HP support that were either blindingly ignorant or downright lies so went ahead and found to my surprise that the printer worked without problem in win7 with the vista driver. I think the issue is not with the driver but all the other rubbish that HP now insist on loading. Many years ago I was in the European HP User Group (in the mini computer days), and it was really noticeable how proud the US employees were to work for HP – it must be a sad thing to have watched the company degenerate to where it is now.

On that you can rely, of this you can be sure: new operating systems are bedlam in the driver department.

I have exactly the same peripheral as you and your post may be of assistance to me. Personally, I am desperate for the HP LaserJet 1020 support, and so are many others. That series of LaserJets must have a gigantic user base, along with the toner cartridges that go with it, and HP may take a significant hit in the pocketbook as a result of their failing to provide support for it. (They make their money on the cartridges, not the printers.) They promised support, and I think they had better provide it pronto.

Edited to add that the first place to check is All Programs/HP. I just got ‘something’ at that progam. The first place of all to check is Windows Update.

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Just a follow up and hopefully some finality. After going in and removing everything with the REVO and installing te latest software, everything appeared to be running smoothly. Well! I came up with another issue. The printer was going to sleep, and not waking up to print. The only way I could get it to print was to click on print, then re boot the laptop and voila we had print. <Hmm something is wrong with that. I had time this morning and got HP back on line, and the technician asked me if I had the printer plugged into a strip or USB. I told them a strip with Surge Protection.
I was told to upnplug it and plug it directly to a wall socket. Yep I read that twice. But went ahead with it. And I am still scratching my head, because now the printer works again. Comes uot of sleep mode to print and scan.
Every printer, scanner, and computer is plugged into a similar device and never once have I had a problem.
Still skain' my head and lets hope that the issue is resolved.

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Just a follow up and hopefully some finality. After going in and removing everything with the REVO and installing te latest software, everything appeared to be running smoothly. Well! I came up with another issue. The printer was going to sleep, and not waking up to print. The only way I could get it to print was to click on print, then re boot the laptop and voila we had print. <Hmm something is wrong with that. I had time this morning and got HP back on line, and the technician asked me if I had the printer plugged into a strip or USB. I told them a strip with Surge Protection.
I was told to upnplug it and plug it directly to a wall socket. Yep I read that twice. But went ahead with it. And I am still scratching my head, because now the printer works again. Comes uot of sleep mode to print and scan.
Every printer, scanner, and computer is plugged into a similar device and never once have I had a problem.
Still skain' my head and lets hope that the issue is resolved.

That's kinda wild! Even if the surge protector had an operated MOV on that particular outlet, I can't see why it would affect the printer in that way? Strange!
Have you tried to plug it BACK into that outlet just to verify the "fix"? I would, just for the information gained.

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Just a follow up and hopefully some finality. After going in and removing everything with the REVO and installing te latest software, everything appeared to be running smoothly. Well! I came up with another issue. The printer was going to sleep, and not waking up to print. The only way I could get it to print was to click on print, then re boot the laptop and voila we had print. <Hmm something is wrong with that. I had time this morning and got HP back on line, and the technician asked me if I had the printer plugged into a strip or USB. I told them a strip with Surge Protection.
I was told to upnplug it and plug it directly to a wall socket. Yep I read that twice. But went ahead with it. And I am still scratching my head, because now the printer works again. Comes uot of sleep mode to print and scan.
Every printer, scanner, and computer is plugged into a similar device and never once have I had a problem.
Still skain' my head and lets hope that the issue is resolved.

My Photosmart C4280, and I presume yours, has a plain old-fashioned ungrounded-pair plug with a transformer in the line between the plug and the printer. It will fit any standard wall outlet. Your power bar presumably has U-ground outlets, as do mine, and if something upstream of that is wired backward you may have some sort of ground fault or half-wave or some other crazy problem, in which case the printer is the least of your worries. You can buy (for a couple of bucks) a little gadget with three lights on it which will test the output of any U-ground outlet, and it might be a sensible investment in a case like this, just to be on the safe side. (I'm not an electrician so I don't really know, but you have got me interested since I have the same device.)

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My Photosmart C4280, and I presume yours, has a plain old-fashioned ungrounded-pair plug with a transformer in the line between the plug and the printer. It will fit any standard wall outlet. Your power bar presumably has U-ground outlets, as do mine, and if something upstream of that is wired backward you may have some sort of ground fault or half-wave or some other crazy problem, in which case the printer is the least of your worries. You can buy (for a couple of bucks) a little gadget with three lights on it which will test the output of any U-ground outlet, and it might be a sensible investment in a case like this, just to be on the safe side. (I’m not an electrician so I don’t really know, but you have got me interested since I have the same device.)

Peter,
I don’t know if that HP printer runs on AC or DC. DC can be reversed and cause bad problems.
Your suggestion is possible but not very probable unless the surge protector is brand new and being used for the first time and is wired incorrectly.
Even with a two prong power plug, the two pins are indeed polarized with a small enlargement on one of the pins that will only allow plugging it in one way. You would have to go out of your way to defeat this and force the plug in backwards. The inline transformer is an AC device and meant to handle Alternating Current. ( you can’t really reverse AC )

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Peter,
I don’t know if that HP printer runs on AC or DC. DC can be reversed and cause bad problems.
Your suggestion is possible but not very probable unless the surge protector is brand new and being used for the first time and is wired incorrectly.
Even with a two pronged power plug, the two pins are indeed polarized with a small enlargement on one of the pins that will only allow plugging it in one way. You would have to go out of your way to defeat this and force the plug in backwards. The inline transformer is an AC device and meant to handle Alternating Current. ( you can’t really reverse AC )

No, it is an older style 2-pronged plug with identical prongs, and I am incredulous that you would have no devices with such a plug among your computer goodies. You can reverse whatever is going on by unplugging it and rotating it 180 degrees before plugging it back in if there really is difference in the sides of the source. The ‘polarized’ plug to which you refer is line and neutral, and a U-ground plug is line and neutral and ground. At one time in this part of the world virtually all homes had duplex outlets that would only accept the equal pronged plug, and unless they have have been rewired, most still do, and many of us curse devices with that wider prong that won’t fit them, or that require a U-ground. (Major appliances have their own wiring at double the voltage, I think.)

Yes, a transformer will give you no output at all with DC input, and it’s typically single-phase AC that is available. I did raise the possibility that ‘something is wired backward’. I also disqualified myself by saying that I am not an electrician. Now consider this: if one prong is hot and the other is ground, you have converted the primary side of the transformer to a choke, and the current is travelling from live (AC) to ground (DC). I think we would both welcome a contribution from any knowledgeable source who can shed some light on this, if you will pardon a few puns.

This may be Greek to many readers since there is so much variation worldwide, as any traveller who has had to carry a set of adapters will realize.

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No, it is an older style 2-pronged plug with identical prongs, and I am incredulous that you would have no devices with such a plug among your computer goodies. You can reverse whatever is going on by unplugging it and rotating it 180 degrees before plugging it back in if there really is difference in the sides of the source. The ‘polarized’ plug to which you refer is line and neutral, and a U-ground plug is line and neutral and ground. At one time in this part of the world virtually all homes had duplex outlets that would only accept the equal pronged plug, and unless they have have been rewired, most still do, and many of us curse devices with that wider prong that won’t fit them, or that require a U-ground. (Major appliances have their own wiring at double the voltage, I think.)

Yes, a transformer will give you no output at all with DC input, and it’s typically single-phase AC that is available. I did raise the possibility that ‘something is wired backward’. I also disqualified myself by saying that I am not an electrician. Now consider this: if one prong is hot and the other is ground, you have converted the primary side of the transformer to a choke, and the current is travelling from live (AC) to ground (DC). I think we would both welcome a contribution from any knowledgeable source who can shed some light on this, if you will pardon a few puns.

This may be Greek to many readers since there is so much variation worldwide, as any traveller who has had to carry a set of adapters will realize.

No, I don’t have any of the older style plugs because…. they are old.
We are talking about AC here. On 1 half cycle in one direction, next half cycle it’s reversed.
A transformer is NOT a choke. One of it’s windings could be wired as a rather inefficient choke but then it’s no longer a transformer.
So far as a knowledgeable source, I am an Electronics Engineer and been in the communications field all of my working life. This is basic electricity in this discussion. Or maybe I’m not explaining this basically enough.

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Hopping back to the origins of this post,back in October.
HP do not have a good reputation in the software department.
Uninistalling their drivers is often a nightmare, even with their own uninstall/reinstall routines.
And it’s not unknown for an upgrade to fail to uninstall a previous version and then fall over because some registry reference was left behind. So you can’t use your printer at all. Until you manually sort through the registry.

There’s no shortage of posts about that sort of thing on the net.

BTW the 7 drivers for my 4in1 won’t be out until January (Officejet J6400 series). Obviously they were taken by surprise when MS brought out a new OS, because it was so sudden.

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Two comments: Revo Uninstaller is not a registry cleaner per se; it searches the registry for entries specific to the application/driver/utility that your are uninstalling. These entries are marked in bold, and completely safe to delete. I have in the past uninstalled hp software by manually editing the registry to remove the hp entries, and there are hundreds of them. Revo is much faster.

The other comment is regarding the transformer for the printer. It doesn’t matter which way it is plugged it, but it sometimes can make a difference where it is plugged in. The current draw on a power strip that has PC, monitor, high-speed modem, router, speakers, etc. all plugged in and running could be just enough to lower the voltage slightly on the rail. The slightly lowered voltage will also reduce the DC output from the transformer slightly. This slightly lowered DC input to the printer may be right at threshold voltage, or just under, for the printed circuit board that processes the sleep/start signal. Plugging the transformer directly into an outlet can increase the voltage just enough to stay above threshold.

Satisfy your own curiosity by plugging it back into the power strip and see if the wake-up problem recurs.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Two comments: Revo Uninstaller is not a registry cleaner per se; it searches the registry for entries specific to the application/driver/utility that your are uninstalling. These entries are marked in bold, and completely safe to delete. I have in the past uninstalled hp software by manually editing the registry to remove the hp entries, and there are hundreds of them. Revo is much faster.

The other comment is regarding the transformer for the printer. It doesn’t matter which way it is plugged it, but it sometimes can make a difference where it is plugged in. The current draw on a power strip that has PC, monitor, high-speed modem, router, speakers, etc. all plugged in and running could be just enough to lower the voltage slightly on the rail. The slightly lowered voltage will also reduce the DC output from the transformer slightly. This slightly lowered DC input to the printer may be right at threshold voltage, or just under, for the printed circuit board that processes the sleep/start signal. Plugging the transformer directly into an outlet can increase the voltage just enough to stay above threshold.

Satisfy your own curiosity by plugging it back into the power strip and see if the wake-up problem recurs.

This thread was started two days after the public release of Windows 7, and that is pretty early in the game to complain about drivers, which continue to be released daily. Is this the ghost of October past?

I do not want to be drawn into battles over electrical standards, but, said he, going into battle:

If it doesn’t matter then why did they switch from having unpolarized plugs to polarized plugs, at great expense to the homeowners who may have had to upgrade their wiring to accommodate their own new appliances (a toaster, let us say), and probably cheating by skipping the ground if they just replaced the outlet? Further to that end, are you acquainted with ‘cheaters’, which is to say a type of dongle that lets you connect a ‘grounded’ plug to an ungrounded outlet?

Now look at your power bar. Does it have a filter (EMI/RFI)? Does it have a reset button, which is to say a circuit breaker for overload protection? At what load is it set to trip out? How fast is it set to trip?

Think of ordinary old-fashioned household fuses: 15A, 20A, 30A for the small stuff. For air-conditioners, again in the plain old screw-in fuse box, think of the slo-blo fuses with a time-delay built in.

At the other extreme we have giant breakers that are set to trip as fast as present technology will allow, in part as a result of the blackout of August 14, 2003. Look up a few details of the extent and cost of that blackout and you will understand why it matters.

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If it doesn’t matter then why did they switch from having unpolarized plugs to polarized plugs

UL proposal regarding safety. Ideally, a disconnect (switch) should disconnect only the hot wire, and leave the grounding circuit connected. That eliminates any shock hazard to only those foolhearty enough to disassemble the switch itself while it is plugged in (which is probably a relatively small number of folks). Appliances wired correctly with a polarized plug have only the hot wire disconnected by the appliance switch, eliminating any potential for current being back-fed through the electrical circuitry of the appliance. With an unpolarized plug, the switch/disconnect (hot wire or ground wire) was random. The potential for a shock hazard was there; the ground could be disconnected, but the appliance itself would be potentially hot (back-fed) through the applicance circuitry to the switch, and the idiot sticking the fork in the toaster would complete a separate path to ground through his feet. Having a polarized plug and approved household wiring (polarized outlets with the hot wire connected correctly) eliminates that potential shock hazard.

The 3-hole outlet (grounded outlet) when wired correctly with two conductors plus ground wire carries an uninterrupted dedicated ground through the round third hole back to the main disconnect, the box that is being fed by the power company’s meter. The main disconnect is grounded through the service ground (the bare wire coming from the pole) and the ground rod(s) driven into the earth near the meter location and connected directly to the ground buss of the main disconnect box with a bare solid wire. 125V-rated appliances and tools that are equipped with a 3-prong plug are grounded through the cabinet or tool body being wired directly to the third wire that terminates in that third prong, either round or U-shaped. In the event of a short circuit energizing the cabinet or tool body, this bare ground wire (not to be confused with the insulated “neutral” wire) provides a dedicated path to ground which will cause the circuit breaker to trip and denergize the faulty appliance or tool.

That being said, the difference in which way a two-prong plug is inserted into an outlet boils down to whether the switch disconnects the hot wire or the ground wire. There is no difference whatsoever to the actual electrical circuit function when the switch is on; AC current is a sine wave at 60 Htz in the US.

A DC power supply that plugs into an AC outlet serves to step down the voltage, chop off the negative half of the sine wave, limit the output amperage to the requirements of the appliance it is meant to power, and complete the path to ground.

great expense to the homeowners who may have had to upgrade their wiring to accommodate their own new appliances (a toaster, let us say), and probably cheating by skipping the ground if they just replaced the outlet? Further to that end, are you acquainted with ‘cheaters’, which is to say a type of dongle that lets you connect a ‘grounded’ plug to an ungrounded outlet?

It’s commonly called “grounded outlet adapter”. I keep a few handy for calls. And “downgrading” a new appliance to fit older household wiring amounts to filing down the wide blade. Most are only wider at the insertion tip, anyway.

Now look at your power bar. Does it have a filter (EMI/RFI)? Does it have a reset button, which is to say a circuit breaker for overload protection? At what load is it set to trip out? How fast is it set to trip?

Think of ordinary old-fashioned household fuses: 15A, 20A, 30A for the small stuff. For air-conditioners, again in the plain old screw-in fuse box, think of the slo-blo fuses with a time-delay built in.

Most modern code household wiring is 20A for all 125V outlets (limit 6 per circuit breaker in most places), GFI breakers for outlets in bathrooms and kitchens, and outside outlets. The more important question in this discussion concerns the voltage coming into the meter from the power line. Is it 110V, 115V, 120V, 125V? How many houses are on the same transformer? How much voltage fluctuation occurs over the course of the day? A DC power supply made on the cheap won’t compensate for those things. If the incoming AC voltage is lower, the DC output voltage will be lower in proportion. Plugging it directly into a wall outlet instead of a power strip can make a difference; it puts it on a different “rail” from the “rail” the power strip (and everything else plugged into it) is on.

At the other extreme we have giant breakers that are set to trip as fast as present technology will allow, in part as a result of the blackout of August 14, 2003. Look up a few details of the extent and cost of that blackout and you will understand why it matters.

That blackout was triggered by low voltage. If the routing could have been switched fast enough, there never would have been a blackout. Plugging the printer power supply directly into a wall outlet routes the power supply to higher voltage.

On single phase 120V the only difference in which way a plug is inserted into an outlet is whether the plugged-in appliance’s switch disconnects the hot wire or the ground wire. The completed (switched on) electrical circuit functions identically in either case. On a low output DC power supply, you would be hard-pressed to find one that is polarized (has a wide blade), since the polarity of the DC voltage is not affected in any way by the AC polarity, and there is no real safety factor involved. Many peripherals use DC power supply plugs for two main reasons: the peripheral can be smaller and lighter by not accomodating the power supply internally, and it’s cheaper.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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UL proposal regarding safety.

Thank you for the welcome explanation of home wiring; about the only thing you might have added is the difference between two-prong and U-ground. Distribution voltages are being upgraded to 13.8 KV here, as I presume elsewhere in North America. Transmission lines are going to ever-higher voltages, and there is an interesting pair of DC lines in Manitoba, although they may have been surpassed by now elsewhere.

As for The Blackout, with so many likely suspects it took a long time to figure out what really did go wrong, and I am sure suspicions linger. Whenever I travel the highway that passes two nuclear generating stations I think of Homer Simpson in the control room.

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Thank you for the welcome explanation of home wiring; about the only thing you might have added is the difference between two-prong and U-ground.

I edited my post to include that explanation.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Well said!
You must like to type though. I would be too lazy to go through all that explanation. You get a 3.8 on it!

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This thread was started two days after the public release of Windows 7, and that is pretty early in the game to complain about drivers, which continue to be released daily. Is this the ghost of October past?

There were lots of early and beta versions around for a long time, also RC versions and of course developers copies. The big players would have been in from the start
So HP had plenty of time to get their Vista drivers tested, amended or rewritten.

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