Printer Keeps reinstalling...

[gmaof3]

I have an HP4200 series all in one at home and the same printer at work. I
use a laptop with Vista Home Premium 32 bit. Most of the time my computer
tries to reinstall the printer when I move from one printer to the other, or
if I disconnect from one of the printers and then reconnect, it does the same
thing- tries to
reinstall. Sometimes I end up with 3 or more copies of the same printer being
installed.

I've deleted the printers and the printer files and downloaded the latest
drivers. That seemed to make a difference for a while, but now it wants to
reinstall when I connect to the printer.

When I disconnect from a printer, I usually just unplug the USB cable. I
have a feeling I should be doing something differently...

Any ideas?

 

[RaisingAlexis]

I am having this same problem with my HP 6210 series. Will be watching this
post to see what the solution is.

 

[lucy]

Me too - HP PSC 1310 Series

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

It's not necessarily something that you are doing wrong. Some USB devices
have a unique ID encoded in their hardware so that Windows can recognize
that the same device that was previously connected, has been reconnected.
If that unique ID is not present, Windows does not know that it is not the
same device and will always try to reinstall the drivers (asking for their
location if necessary). It's not possible to tell from looking at a printer
whether or not it has that unique ID, only HP would know.

 

[lucy]

I went to the HP website and emailed tech support regarding the problem, they
emaiedl me back with (quite a few pages) instructions on how to fix it.

 

[huwyngr]

they 
emaiedl me back with (quite a few pages) instructions on how to fix it.

Can you give us an idea of what they said to do? Or point to any of their
documents?

 

[lucy]

I run VISTA now, and this is an outline of sorts, of what HP wrote:
1) Turn off the Terminate and Stay Resident programs MSCONFIG in VISTA.
2) Disable HP device discovery service.
3) Uninstall the All-In-One software.
4) Turn off firewall and antivirus.
5) Reinstall the latest software for the All-In-One.
Hope this helps.

 

[huwyngr]

Yes that is a help and I can see why <s>

Did they also say to install the software before plugging in the
printer? With USB connections that is usually essential. I've just had
confirmation somewhere else that observing this sequence made the
difference.

 

[lucy]

:

Did they also say to install the software before plugging in the
printer?

No mention of that.
Glad it helped!

 

[huwyngr]

 Did they also say to install the software before plugging in the 
 printer? 

No mention of that.

I suggest you adopt it as standard practice when installing USB
connected devices. This is particularly the case when there is a driver
supplied with VISTA "out of the box" since these are often much less
featured than the ones that came along later when the hardware
manufacturers started to catch up and issued complete software packages
for VISTA.

If you just plug the printer in, VISTA will immediately install its
built in driver without asking you and then when you come to install
the later version it finds one already there and does not seem to adopt
the "I am newer so I'll replace it".

Thanks again for the help.

 

[lucy]

....and thank you.

 

[Qiaozhi]

Solution to problem

If your HP USB printer keeps trying to reinstall itself, then here's the solution:

I have a Windoze XP machine with an HP PhotoSmart C4280. Everytime the printer is switched off and on again, Plug and Pray decides that this is a new USB device and wants to reinstall it. I have noted that many other people have the same problem with different HP printers and also with Vista. There does not appear to be a solution posted anywhere, and HP Support are clueless. So ... after some head scratching, I've managed to fix it, and here's what you need to do:

1. Go to Control Panel > Printers and Faxes and delete the printer.
2. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties > Hardware tab > Device Manager.
3. Right-click on Universal Serial Controllers and uninstall DOT4USB (or similar).
4. Switch off the printer and disconnect the USB cable. Then reboot.
5. Insert the HP Printer CD.
6. Select Uninstall Devices from the menu. Uninstall everything shown in the menu and reboot.
7. With printer still switched off and disconnected, start the installation from the HP Printer CD. Note: there should be no option to Uninstall in the menu.
8. Select Easy install, and wait ... and wait ... and wait .... for HP's bloatware to load.
9. When complete, print a test document.
10. Switch off the printer. You should see a message that the printer is disconnected.
11. After a short period, switch the printer back on, and there will be a message that the printer is ready.

Hope this helps some of you with this annoying problem.

By the way, you can also use the HP PhotoSmart C4280 with Ubuntu Linux. either directly or over the network.