HP Photosmart C4200 All-in-One series , HP Laptop, UBS, Uninstalls

[Carrie]

Hi,

I have a HP Photosmart C4200 All-in-One series hooked up to a HP laptop via
a usb cable. Each time i unhook the usb cable and take the laptop anywhere,
come home and hook up the usb cable again the printer automatictly
reinstalles the printer software and drivers, requesting me to insert the
disk once again. This never fails, i've probably reinstalled my printer
drivers a dozen times since its purchase with never actually uninstalling it
myself. Is there a reason why it does this? is there any way to prevent this?
Any advise would be very helpful. Thank you.

Carrie

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

It's unfortunately perfectly normal. Some USB devices have a unique ID
encoded into their hardware, in that case, Windows will recognize that it's
the same device it had installed before and just reinstate the drivers. If
the unique ID is not encoded into the device, Windows cannot tell that it is
exactly the same device and will reinstall the drivers as if it's a new
device or a second instance of the same device. No workaround, sorry.

 

[Carlos]

Carrie:
Are you using HP's latest drivers (October 2007)?
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2100&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3619474&lang=en

If you are using an older version (I don't know if there exists one) you
might try uninstalling it first, following these HP's instructions:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...33&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3619474&lang=en

Carlos

 

[Quaoar]

It's unfortunately perfectly normal. Some USB devices have a unique ID
encoded into their hardware, in that case, Windows will recognize that
it's the same device it had installed before and just reinstate the
drivers. If the unique ID is not encoded into the device, Windows
cannot tell that it is exactly the same device and will reinstall the
drivers as if it's a new device or a second instance of the same
device. No workaround, sorry.

So, Microsoft has changed the behavior of USB devices, deliberately?
With XP, things just worked. Now we have an entire newsgroup reporting
the same thing: eventual failure of USB devices to register on both the
original port or another port.

This behavior of Vista is abysmal. Note that SP1 release candidates do
nothing to correct this problem.

This problem is too serious for "no workaround, sorry". This is the one
problem that Microsoft needs to correct, NOW, without delay. It is a
problem inherent in Vista, it can be corrected.

Q

 

[christophermcculloch]

So, Microsoft has changed the behavior of USB devices, deliberately?
With XP, things just worked.  Now we have an entire newsgroup reporting
the same thing: eventual failure of USB devices to register on both the
original port or another port.

This behavior of Vista is abysmal. Note that SP1 release candidates do
nothing to correct this problem.

This problem is too serious for "no workaround, sorry". This is the one
problem that Microsoft needs to correct, NOW, without delay.  It is a
problem inherent in Vista, it can be corrected.

Q

Having this same problem with the C4200 on a HP Laptop. There was so
many copies of the printer installed it would no longer print
correctly. Stopping the print spooler, deleting the files in the print
spool folder, nothing will let us delete all of the printers they're
just sitting there "Deleteing - Offline" as the status. Now the system
wont even allow us to install the printer again to use it.

- Christopher McCulloch CompTIA A+ MCSE+Security