HP PSC1210 installation on Win98

[Stan Brown]

(followups set to comp.periphs.printers)

First, what I want to do, then why. Comments welcome on either!

Can I install only the drivers, and not the extra applications? I
have Print Shop Pro to manage scanning for me, and the regular
Windows Print Manager is adequate for my needs. Is there any back
door on the CD-ROM (or HP download file) to install only the drivers
-- and is that likely to cause any other problems?

Background:

It's Win98 original (not SE), with 96 MB.

My PSC1210 install disc doesn't seem to give any options at all
about what to install. I did the default (only) installation, and
after the required reboot the Task Scheduler was running, plus about
half a dozen new HP processes were shown in Task Manager. Also it
put some status indicator that I'd rather not have in the system
tray.

The HP Director software that the CD-ROM installs doesn't seem much
use to me -- for instance, ink cartridge status says it "can't
establish 2-way communication with the printer" over my USB cable,
even though I've printed and scanned. And I don't even know what
"Memories Disk" might be, so why would I want it?

Finally -- and this is the kicker -- after the install my system was
seriously unstable. For instance, during boot I got an error in
Spool32! Other programs took _way_ longer to open, and finally I bit
the bullet and wiped the drive then restored from my backup.

 

[George Bolgar]

There are probably people more qualified than me to answer this, but
I'll give you what I know, and everyone else can then rubbish me.

Firstly, I was recently looking at this issue for a friend who was
looking to buy a new printer. I had a look at some of the user reviews
on amazon.com, and they do not have very many complimentary things to
say about the HP drivers. I was looking at the PCS2410, which may be
different, but from the sounds of what you describe, not that different.

But one thing that was mentioned, and having looked at the HP web site,
I can confirm this is the case, that you can download a minimal set of
drivers from the HP web site (don't have the address offhand). The
download site had two sets of drivers for download, a big one, and a
little one. It sounds like you want the little one.

As I indicated above, this is all theory to me, as I have not actually
tried it myself.

Again, as I said, I looked at the 2410, not the 1210; but the
description of the software you are using sounds not unlike the software
that came with the 2410.

Hope it gives you something to work with.

George.

 

[Stan Brown]

Stan Brown wrote:

(need help finding plain Win98 drivers for HP PSC1210, without all
the big heavy software)

But one thing that was mentioned, and having looked at the HP web site,
I can confirm this is the case, that you can download a minimal set of
drivers from the HP web site (don't have the address offhand). The
download site had two sets of drivers for download, a big one, and a
little one. It sounds like you want the little one.

First, thanks for responding. I'm actually embarrassed that I didn't
think to look at www.hp.com on my own. But when I did, after reading
your note, the only option for Win98 in English is a 166 MB
download.

Somebody else? Please?


The CD-ROM has about fifteen "drivers" directories, so I suspect
what I need is actually there, if only I knew which set(s) to use
out of these plausible candidates:

Z:\Drivers
Z:\drivers\dot4
Z:\drivers\Scanner
Z:\drivers\dot4\win98
Z:\common\drivers
Z:\enu\drivers

Most of those directories have *.sys or *.dll in them (and I can
post full dir listings on request); there are a few *.dl_ and *.sy_
which I presume have to be manually unpacked somehow.

Since I posted my query, my old LJ IIIp finally bit the dust, so I
now have no printer. Help!

 

[Stan Brown]

Probably nobody's reading this thread, but in case someone else has
the same questions I did, here's the answer:

HP tech support says in e-mail that you cannot install scanner
drivers without installing the whole HP software suite. Period.
Without that suite, which crashes my computer, you cannot use the
scanner functions of the PSC 1210.

Just on the off chance that I was overthinking this whole problem, I
decided to hook up the USB cable and let Windows detect the device.
Win98 was able to find the printer drivers on HP's supplied CD-ROM,
but could not find scanner drivers.

To top it off, the documentation for the printer states that it will
not print from any DOS programs, not even from a DOS box running in
Windows. This restriction is nowhere mentioned on the box in the
lists of printer features and system requirements.

The device goes back to the store today.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

 

[JR]

FWIW, not exactly a fix, but... I installed my 1210 to a Win98 system also
(also 96MB). It just doesn't have the resources to run all that stuff. I
killed the task scheduler, then unchecked everything HP in the startup tab
of msconfig. Printer still prints without a problem. The only downside is
I can't start a scan from the printer, I have to manually launch the scan
from the HP director. No big deal.

When I installed to a second computer (WinME), sharing the printer over a
network, I skipped the step about testing the connection and the
installation skipped all the stuff that loaded up the first system.

JR

 

[Mark]

Probably nobody's reading this thread, but in case someone else has
the same questions I did, here's the answer:

HP tech support says in e-mail that you cannot install scanner
drivers without installing the whole HP software suite. Period.
Without that suite, which crashes my computer, you cannot use the
scanner functions of the PSC 1210.

Just on the off chance that I was overthinking this whole problem, I
decided to hook up the USB cable and let Windows detect the device.
Win98 was able to find the printer drivers on HP's supplied CD-ROM,
but could not find scanner drivers.

To top it off, the documentation for the printer states that it will
not print from any DOS programs, not even from a DOS box running in
Windows. This restriction is nowhere mentioned on the box in the
lists of printer features and system requirements.

The device goes back to the store today.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

You won't find any devices that use USB that will work with DOS programs.
DOS doesn't have USB support!

 

[Stan Brown]

You won't find any devices that use USB that will work with DOS programs.
DOS doesn't have USB support!

That's true enough. By itself it would not have been enough to
reject the PSC1210, but it's another cherry on the sundae.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/