HP Vista Print Drivers

[David A. Lessnau]

Interesting. I've been monitoring the HP site for my LaserJet 1012 printer
to see when they issue new Vista drivers. Prior to today, they've noted
that Vista includes some functionality built-in and that a full version will
be available RSN. Today, the page doesn't even have an entry for Vista. I
wonder if HP has just given up producing print drivers for older printers
(though mine is just two and a half years old) since the built-in support is
"good enough."

Has anyone with other HP printers seen the same thing happen on their
printers' HP web page?

 

[Peter M]

Yes, happened to me with my photosmart 7150. They had up to some days ago
posted a work around and now the page states " there are no drivers and they
are working on drivers".

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

I see that HP have drivers for the LJ 1200 dated 23 Feb 2007 .....

They are still saying "to come" for the 1012 but did you see this:

NOTE: If your printer currently uses either a PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript
XP driver you may download the current XP driver from HP to provide
printing functionality. Windows Vista printing is very similar to
Windows XP and most print drivers supported in XP environment for
LaserJet printers may also work in the Windows Vista operating system.

Since they just posted PCL 5 & 6 drivers for the 1200 why not try them?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?
lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=29790&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=29789&swLa
ng=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093

You can always uninstall .....

 

[David A. Lessnau]

Thanks for the reply, but, yes, I'd already seen that. I wasn't complaining
about my printer not working. I was just wondering if HP's change to their
web site might indicate they no longer intend to produce full drivers for
these older printers.

I assume that when you said, "They are still saying "to come" for the
1012...," you meant "for the 1200" since the 1012 page no longer says that
(I just double-checked by navigating to the page a different way than I
normally get there):

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...odTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=377934&taskId=135

All mention of Vista has been removed from the page (no link to a Vista
subpage, no blurb about basic driver included in Vista, no "Obtain Software"
link that used to be there (useless as it was).

For the very small amount of printing I do (a couple of pages a month), I
haven't had any problem with the Vista-included drivers. But, if I ever
have to print anything complex, or for other people who routinely do print a
lot, it'd be nice to know that HP was actually working on a full driver set.

 

[SteveC]

This link is no longer good but I found what I think you meant. They are 16 meg files and apparently will work with any HP printer in PCL5 or 6 compatibility mode. I think I will go back to the XP driver first to see if it works. Will try tomorrow.
I see that HP have drivers for the LJ 1200 dated 23 Feb 2007 .....

They are still saying "to come" for the 1012 but did you see this:

NOTE: If your printer currently uses either a PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript
XP driver you may download the current XP driver from HP to provide
printing functionality. Windows Vista printing is very similar to
Windows XP and most print drivers supported in XP environment for
LaserJet printers may also work in the Windows Vista operating system.

Since they just posted PCL 5 & 6 drivers for the 1200 why not try them?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?
lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=29790&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=29789&swLa
ng=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093

You can always uninstall .....

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

This link is no longer good

Please see if it works if you click on the last line of the multiline
link -- that works for me.

It would help if you would tell me whether at the beginning of lines 2
and 3 you see a little Carriage return symbol -- a bent arrow in square
brackets.

My Off line Reader, VAOS, has made some changes to deal with a problem
with some multiline URLs and I'm seeing this behavior. By a coincidence
the message I dealt with just before yours was with their development
team about this "feature" <g>

I'll appreciate your feedback on this, and could you say what you are
using to read the newsgroup when you see the URL that does not work --
Internet Explorer, Firefox etc or some other reader.

Here's a link to a message I remember seeing before:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?
threadId=1083285&prodSeriesId=29789&admit=-
682735245+1172525983392+28353475&prodTypeId=18972

which says to try the driver for the HP LJ6L !

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

I still find what I was referring to at the following page which I got
to from:

Support / Download drivers / Search [laserjet 1012 +VISTA]

This brings up a listing of OS's which does not include VISTA but if
you click on a link you get to:

http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/cache/454897-0-0-225-121.html

where there is a link to a matrix which is at:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?
objectID=c00808536#N107BC

and if you follow the links you find:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

6 - Yes. Your product is supported. Drivers for HP printers are
included with the Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System. Additional
software will be available soon.
HP has a driver solution available for your product.

HP is committed to providing the best experience for HP products in the
Windows Vista operating environment.

Currently, a full-solution driver is not available for your product.
However, we do have an alternative driver solution that you can
conveniently find in Microsoft Windows Vista. This driver will enable
your product's basic functions to work and can be used until the full
driver solution is available.

Full-solutions will be available as early as January 2007. HP expects
to complete the certification process for applicable software by July
2007. Solutions will be posted as they become available.

Click here to receive e-mail updates from HP when a solution is
available.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

and then goes on to the suggestion to use a PCL5 or PCL6 driver.

Note my message to Peter and the suggestion of using a HP LJ6L driver.
I've seen this before as well as suggesting trying other different
printer drivers ......

See also what I say to Peter about the links I'm posting not working --
if you see this (or don't) I'd appreciate any feedback.

 

[David A. Lessnau]

Don't forget Ebay. You can re-coup some of your cost, anyway.

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

That's rough!

Well at least you know about B&H !

The PS 8250 is a lovely printer. I got one about a year ago and the
performance is wonderful, and it runs under VISTA.

PS Is yours the 7150 printer or the C7150 All in one? I see they have
VISTA software and driver for the latter. I wonder what happens if you
try out the single driver or even the full software set? It's not
unknown for drivers for later models (or earlier models) to work!

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?
os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1153751&lang=en

PS If that URL seems not to work try clicking on the second line and if
that doesn't work copy paste the two lines into the address box of your
browser.