WindowsXP and HP 7350 USB Printing Woes

[Guest]

Since mid-December I have been fighting a USB printing problem with an HP
7350 PhotoSmart Printer... if anyone has had a similar problem and has found
a solution I'd sure appreciate some help.

Here's the problem:
-The printer will print a test page and go through a cleaning and alignment
page from the print driver toolbox.

-If I try to print from any program in WindowsXP Multimedia the first page
tries to print; it goes through the motions like it is printing a couple of
lines then ejects the page like it is finished. There is nothing printed on
the page.

-The printer will print correctly when I unplug the USB cable from my XP PC
and plug it into my Fedora Core 3 Linux machine... it doesn't skip a beat.
The printer DOES WORK.

-My USB ports work fine, I've plugged in cameras, PDAs, keyboards and mice
into all my available USB ports and all work OK.

Here's what I've tried:
--Uninstalled the HP Print Drivers through the HP uninstall icon and
reinstalled
--Uninstalled the HP Print Drivers through the Windows XP "Add/Remove
Software" utility and reinstalled
--Uninstalled all print drivers using "cleanspl.exe" in the Windows Resource
Kit Tools and reinstalled
--Manually deleted any reference to HP print drivers in the registry using
regedit and reinstalled

And yes, I did reinstall my driver software before connecting my printer to
the USB port...

At my wits end with this printer, any help would be appreciated

Tom R

 

[Guest]

It sounds like you connected the printer to the PC PRIOR to installing the
software. You must install the software first, during the installation you
will be prompted when to connect it to the PC and when to turn it on.
Uninstall & reinstall Printer
http://www.coribright.com/windows/Article One.htm

Printer prints part of a page
http://www.coribright.com/windows/Article One.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the speedy reply but read the second to last line of my original
post. This printer worked a year and a half prior to it suddenly stopping in
December. No new software installed, no major "crash"; printed one day,
didn't the next. The only possible SW change might be Windows Update...

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

You don't have to do much to corrupt the print drivers. I'd definitely
uninstall and reinstall first.

Do the USB ports all work fine with other USB devices?

 

[Guest]

I have one more question for you. You state that your PC is WindowsXP
Multimedia, was it that OS from the beginning or was it XP Home or XP
Pro before? If you changed your OS your drivers may not be compatible.
Also check your printer properties and click the Port tab, now see if it is
connected to a USB port and not a LPT, or even a Com (Serial) port.

 

[Guest]

Yes Cari, as mentioned in my original post the USB ports work fine with
multiple other devices and as also mentioned in the original post I've
unistalled and reinstalled multiple times using multiple methods (please
read original post below for details). And I have been to your website early
in this Microsoft mis-adventure. My Redhat computer prints to the printer in
question without missing a beat.

I am not a newbie and have been a sysadmin for a database business that I
was partner in and currently work in the PC and industrial automation field.
I was working with personal computers before IBM got into the game (can you
say TRS-80?) This is not a run-of-the-mill uninstal and re-install
situation. I'm trying my best not to perform a wipe and reinstall of the OS;
you know what a pain that can be.

Thanks for the suggestion but been there and done that several times
already.

 

[Guest]

Nope, it's new Dell 8400 PC that I got about a year ago with WindowsXP
Multimedia pre-loaded. And as mentioned in my original post, it was working
previously on the USB port.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Are you using Windows XP Pro or Windows Media Center 2005?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

P.s. If this is MCE 2005, it's a bug we discovered recently..... in the HP
drivers. They're working on it.

Email me offline (address at the website) if you need further info.