drivers for older printers

[T5]

Hi all,
I have vista set up on my PC but cannot install my HP Photosmart 1000
printer, is there a work round or driver available for this?

 

[Richard Urban]

HP would know. Remember, it took them a year to come out with new drivers
when Windows XP was released to the public. Even then they decided that some
models were going to be left for dead - no drivers were ever released for
those unfortunates that had those printers.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Travis King]

You can try the XP drivers for it, but I can't guarantee it will work and it
could even possibly make more harm than good, but it's worth a shot. In the
past, HP does a bad job about drivers in my opinion. (Especially the
Photosmart printers like the one you have.) My mom has the Photosmart P1100
(basically the same printer) and it has always been a nightmare for driver
installation even back when Windows 98 was around. The instructions for one
were wrong and it didn't really work right for another year until HP
released updated drivers for Windows 98. We called HP once to get it set
up, and even with them, it took three hours on the phone for them to finally
figure it out. (Yes, three hours on the phone long-distance with HP.)
Thank goodness they sent us a phone card for all that time. Windows ME was
even worse to set up. XP was the easiest, but the drivers still weren't the
greatest and we even had to reinstall the driver for it once when out of the
blue, the printer would not print anymore. Some of HP's all-in-ones also
are having problems with Vista right now. Those photosmarts are fairly
popular printers, so I would hope that HP would be making Vista drivers
eventually, but otherwise, my parents will have to get a new printer
(probably a Canon) when and if they decide to upgrade to Vista. That
Photosmart is built well mechanically (except it occasionally eats two
sheets of paper at once instead of 1), it's just that HP has trouble making
good, quality drivers for it. My mom uses that printer to death and has
since day one. I wouldn't buy a new HP printer seeing how thin and flimsy
the plastic is on them now - even my mom agrees. I had an HP Deskjet 3420
for 9 months before it quit already. It had cartridge cradle problems and
then one day, when I got done printing a document, I heard a snap noise and
it never worked again. (The cartridges would no longer slide back and
forth. It was a small, cheap, plastic piece that broke because we tore the
printer apart to see what was wrong.) I then went looking up on CNET, and
found many people complaining about the same thing happening to their
printer as what happened to mine - many more experiencing the same problem
before I did. I immediately bought a Canon after that. I guess I should
quit voicing my opinion as I'm sure others will disagree.

 

[Bill]

I have an HP 7760 - won't work with Vista - I agree on the HP driver
situation - not good.
My HP4+ is working fine - I think it has been with me since Windows 95<G> -
excellent machine.


You can try the XP drivers for it, but I can't guarantee it will work and it
could even possibly make more harm than good, but it's worth a shot. In the
past, HP does a bad job about drivers in my opinion. (Especially the
Photosmart printers like the one you have.) My mom has the Photosmart P1100
(basically the same printer) and it has always been a nightmare for driver
installation even back when Windows 98 was around. The instructions for one
were wrong and it didn't really work right for another year until HP
released updated drivers for Windows 98. We called HP once to get it set
up, and even with them, it took three hours on the phone for them to finally
figure it out. (Yes, three hours on the phone long-distance with HP.)
Thank goodness they sent us a phone card for all that time. Windows ME was
even worse to set up. XP was the easiest, but the drivers still weren't the
greatest and we even had to reinstall the driver for it once when out of the
blue, the printer would not print anymore. Some of HP's all-in-ones also
are having problems with Vista right now. Those photosmarts are fairly
popular printers, so I would hope that HP would be making Vista drivers
eventually, but otherwise, my parents will have to get a new printer
(probably a Canon) when and if they decide to upgrade to Vista. That
Photosmart is built well mechanically (except it occasionally eats two
sheets of paper at once instead of 1), it's just that HP has trouble making
good, quality drivers for it. My mom uses that printer to death and has
since day one. I wouldn't buy a new HP printer seeing how thin and flimsy
the plastic is on them now - even my mom agrees. I had an HP Deskjet 3420
for 9 months before it quit already. It had cartridge cradle problems and
then one day, when I got done printing a document, I heard a snap noise and
it never worked again. (The cartridges would no longer slide back and
forth. It was a small, cheap, plastic piece that broke because we tore the
printer apart to see what was wrong.) I then went looking up on CNET, and
found many people complaining about the same thing happening to their
printer as what happened to mine - many more experiencing the same problem
before I did. I immediately bought a Canon after that. I guess I should
quit voicing my opinion as I'm sure others will disagree.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Funny you should mention that. The one printer I have had for over ten
years (an HP 4) is the only one that every single of edition of Windows has
had the right driver for out of the box.

 

[Bill]

Colin,

I've had mine a long time too - I just printed a self test report and found
I have printed 35620 pages - that's a lot of pages. I did about 15,000 one
day when the printer at work died and I had to get some reports done - it
was a long day. If the HP4+ ever dies, I may have to go with it (

The 7760 works fine in XP - but it and Vista don't play well together.


Funny you should mention that. The one printer I have had for over ten
years (an HP 4) is the only one that every single of edition of Windows has
had the right driver for out of the box.

 

[T5]

Thanks guys, I'll try mailing HP and see if they have any fix for this.
I really like my Ps 1000 and would be loathe to send it to the knackers
yard, after all I am only evaluating vista. Mind you, saying that I have
just gone back to xp pro on my pC (have vista on my laptop) and it looks as
dull as ditchwater in comparison to vista.

 

[Guest]

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software7/COL13996/oj-39336-1/x64Drv5.64.0.17.exe

try that file from hp// it worked for my photosmart 7960 and it does have
drivers for the p 1000 as well