Disappearing HP Printers

These days, it is almost impossible to purchase up-to-date software and the first priority with any new computer or peripheral device is to download the software updates.

With most printers, scanners and other devices, I don't usually bother with the supplied CD and go straight to the manufacturer's web site where there is a fair chance of finding the most up-to-date software.

Having recently purchased a new Windows Vista (Ultimate Edition) PC for my own use, I naturally went to the HP site to install my HP 2710 'all-in-one' wireless printer which had been working happily in partnership with my Windows-XP Professional machine for 2 or 3 years.

Having duly downloaded a massive 163 megabytes of HP Officejet and Photosmart software, the printer worked fine for a couple of days when it suddenly 'disappeared' from my PC though it still worked perfectly well from the old XP machine.

Initially, I misdiagnosed the problem as being related to the subsequent installation of my Epson Precision scanner which I purchased a while back for scanning photographs— the HP 720 series all-in-one I had at the time was just about OK for scanning photos but the Epson offered a much higher resolution with a backlight for scanning negatives and slides.

Sorry Epson—it did cross my mind that installing your software might have knocked-out the competitive product.

Having re-installed the HP software, everything was fine for a couple of days when the printer did it's 'vanishing act' once again.

A quick 'Google' search revealed a number of users with this problem on various HP wireless printer models and further perusal of the HP site revealed a'critical update to prevent unexpected printer uninstall'.

'Touch wood', this appears to have solved the problem though it is a mystery why this 'fix' was not included in the 'latest' software or generated by the standard 'HP Update' routine.

A few tips for installing HP printer software

1. It is important to uninstall previous versions of the relevant software before you start—for some models, the HP web site offers uninstaller software which is more thorough than that available via the Windows 'Control Panel' 
      
2. The HP full-software packages are generally massive and can easily take a couple of hours to download—even if you have a fast broadband connection, internet congestion can considerably reduce the effective speed  
   
   Also, software installations of that size can go wrong for a variety of reasons 
   
   It's not a bad idea to 'Save' the download before installing, in case you have to repeat the process
    
3. Pay close attention to any 'Windows' or 'Internet Security Software' messages as well as the selections offered by the HP installation process—it can be a bit of a performance to recover once you have clicked 'deny' when you should have clicked 'allow'
     
4. After installation, look directly on the HP web site for any relevant 'critical updates'
     
   Reboot the main installation before these are applied—rebooting is often a critical part of the installation process but this doesn't always happen automatically
    
5. Test both printer and scanner functions thoroughly—there are generally more problems with scanning than printing

I have always found HP printers to be very reliable once they are successfully installed but it can take a lot of faffing about to get them working properly in the first place.

Just do a Google search on 'HP Printer Problems' if you don't believe me.   

HP United Kingdom   

Comments

[Father Brian]

My current and previous desktop PCs have been HP and I've been pleased with them, that is until my current PC started inexplicably turning itself off without warning.

My technical knowledge is rather rusty so I asked my techie son-in-law to help me. He found the power-saving settings with some rather odd values, set them all for "never" and said "give it a try".

It worked fine for 36 hours. I turned it off last night and rebooted this morning when it ran for 6 minutes before switching off! I emailed H-P technical support and, to be fair, they responded with a procedure that appeared to work for a while. I became suspicious when I found I had to jolt the case after pressing the "on" button! The latest email from technical support tells me it's a hardware fault (surprise, surprise) and to expect communication from their regional office.

At least they're addressing the problem but I get the feeling HP kit isn't what it was.