HP DeskJet no longer recognized, and can't reinstall

[Curtis Coleman]

I installed WinXP Home (full version) about a month ago,
and it automatically detected my HP DeskJet 812C.
Everything was fine, until today when I went to print
something and discovered that the printer wasn't shown
anymore. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the USB
cable, and Windows makes the new hardware noise on both
events, but it still isn't shown under Control Panel >
Printers And Faxes or the print dialog for apps.

I noticed the following message in the Event
Viewer: "Printer HP DeskJet 812C failed to initialize
because a suitable HP DeskJet 812C driver could not be
found." So I went into the Device Manager and uninstalled
the printer's driver. I then removed and re-inserted the
USB cable, and Windows acted like the printer was a fresh
device. The installation goes fine until the end, when I
get the following error message:
---------------------------------
Cannot Install this Hardware

There was a problem installing this hardware:
HEWLETT-PACKARDDESKJET 810C

An error occurred during the installation of the device
The environment specified is invalid.
---------------------------------

What does this mean, and how can I get around it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Curt

 

[Eric Booth]

I installed WinXP Home (full version) about a month ago,
and it automatically detected my HP DeskJet 812C.
Everything was fine, until today when I went to print
something and discovered that the printer wasn't shown
anymore. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the USB
cable, and Windows makes the new hardware noise on both
events, but it still isn't shown under Control Panel >
Printers And Faxes or the print dialog for apps.

I noticed the following message in the Event
Viewer: "Printer HP DeskJet 812C failed to initialize
because a suitable HP DeskJet 812C driver could not be
found." So I went into the Device Manager and uninstalled
the printer's driver. I then removed and re-inserted the
USB cable, and Windows acted like the printer was a fresh
device. The installation goes fine until the end, when I
get the following error message:
---------------------------------
Cannot Install this Hardware

There was a problem installing this hardware:
HEWLETT-PACKARDDESKJET 810C

An error occurred during the installation of the device
The environment specified is invalid.
---------------------------------

What does this mean, and how can I get around it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Curt

Curt
It sounds as though you havent installed the HP XP driver. When Windows XP
came out it included basic drivers for many HP printers but to get full
functioning you need to go to the HP web site and obtain the XP driver. Be
very careful that you follow exactly HP 's instructions re installing the
software
Eric Booth

 

[Curtis Coleman]

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, I already tried this. HP's website
says "The printer driver is built in to your Operating
System." No alternative driver is provided. They do have
some installation instructions, which I followed, but ran
into the same problem.

Thanks,
Curt

 

[FredP]

Curt ... sounds like your printer driver has become 'mucked up'. There are
no HP drivers for XP available for this relatively old printer but there are
basic drivers built in to XP. You'll need to uninstall completely the
drivers ... follow exactly the following instructions which I've unabashidly
'lifted' from www.coribright.com and full credit goes to her.

1. Disconnect the printer from the PC

2. Go to the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Highlight any
Printer Software that is listed here. Select Remove.

3. From the Control Panel, click on Printers & Faxes. Right click the
printer in question and select Delete

4. Look at the Toolbar. Select File, then Server Properties. Look in the
Drivers tab. Highlight the printers drivers listed here and click on Remove
for each one.

5. Reboot the PC. Do NOT reconnect the printer!

6. Go to the Printers and Faxes and click on 'Add a printer'. When you get
to the 'Install Printer Software' menu, select HP in the left pane and the
HP DeskJet 812C from the right pane. (AFAIK there are no updated drivers
for your printer so there's no sense in clicking on the 'Windows Update'
button). 'Next' your way to 'Finish' and close the menu.

7. Turn off your computer, plug in your printer, and then turn on the
computer and XP should find the new printer and inform you. Print a test
page and it hopefully should be fine. If not, I have no other suggestions
(other than a new printer).

 

[Curtis Coleman]

Alas, no luck. It's at the end of step 6 of the procedure
you outlined, when I hit 'Finish', that an error message
pops up. The error is very generic: "Printer driver was
not installed. Operation could not be completed."

The fact that I hit a failure before I even plug the
printer in tells me that it is XP that is messed up
rather than the printer. I even found the actual driver
files and deleted them to force XP to grab them off the
XP install disk again. This would ensure that they
weren't corrupted. Unfortunately, even after the files
were freshly copied off the CD, it still didn't work. (In
case you're curious, I just looked in ntprint.inf to find
the driver files used for my printer, and searched for
them under the Windows directory.)

I went to the website you gave credit to
(www.coribright.com), and noticed she blames a lot of
printer issues on the print spooler service not running.
In my case, though, it is already up and running.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Curt

 

[FredP]

Curtis ... the message you received indicates the attempted installation of a Win95/98/ME driver ... see the following MSWEBSITE titled "Error Message: Printer Driver Was Not Installed; Operation Could Not Be Completed".

Did you, at one time, try to use the CD that came with the printer for the install? If so, those are not XP compatible and may still be loaded on your computer. It sounds like the drivers you uninstalled are the XP drivers, not the older ones.

I'm sorry I can't help you further, but the level of expertise at this point is beyond my job description ... but perhaps someone else might have a suggestion.

Good luck ... Fred

 

[Curtis Coleman]

I've never installed a Win9x driver, just the XP one. The
error is so generic, I'm wondering if it applies for more
than one situation.

Thanks for your help anyway. I appreciate it.

- Curt

-----Original Message-----
Curtis ... the message you received indicates the

attempted installation of a Win95/98/ME driver ... see
the following MSWEBSITE titled "Error Message: Printer
Driver Was Not Installed; Operation Could Not Be
Completed".

Did you, at one time, try to use the CD that came with

the printer for the install? If so, those are not XP
compatible and may still be loaded on your computer. It
sounds like the drivers you uninstalled are the XP
drivers, not the older ones.

I'm sorry I can't help you further, but the level of

expertise at this point is beyond my job description ...
but perhaps someone else might have a suggestion.