Of course I got drivers for Windows XP. They do the same
thing. I had this problem when I had Norton Antivirus
running, I have tried to run scannow, the system will
also not run that. They've sent me two different discs
to run scannow, neither works. I'm not trying to "blame"
them, I just want to know who to talk to, what part of
the system is creating this message on the printer test
page. Since I got the blaster worm when I had Norton
Antivirus running, my confidence in them is virtually
nil. I've got two firewalls running and never open
attachments, so theoretically, I should not have a virus
problem anyway. I still have a program called MSBLAST on
my services file, which I have unchecked, but after
Microsoft's fix, it was still checked. Maybe I am being
unrealistic, but I expect those who sell software to be
able to troubleshoot it. Somebody should be able to tell
me why I have this message, and nobody seems to know even
where it comes from. This should not be a huge problem.
Anyway, if somebody could just tell me where to go to
find this out. I've already restored my system once, it
is a huge project, and if I can just find out how I can
replace a few programs, the drivers HP sent me would
probably work. Talk about blaming the victim. I'm not
out corrupting other people's software, I'm trying to
either recover from it or recover from some deficiency in
the system HP sent me.
I suppose that you have eliminated the obvious answer to your problem:
If your printer won't print in color, perhaps the color ink cartridge is
empty or the color print head is clogged. I'm not familiar with your
particular hp printer, but most of them have the print heads built into
the cartridges, so a new cartridge should not have a clogged head. In
any case, you should be able to disconnect the printer from the computer
and cause the printer to print a self-test page which will show whether
or not it's printing in color. See your manual (or download one from
hp) for directions on printing a self test page (this is NOT the same as
the Windows XP Printer Test page).
I'm not on a WinXP system right now, so I can't tell you if reporting
the environment as NT x86 is correct or not, but you should be aware
that Windows XP is merely an newer version of Windows NT.
If you still have a file called MSBLAST, you probably haven't completely
removed this worm. Follow the directions at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/blast.asp especially
including running the Blaster Worm Removal Tool.
Although you mention that you have Norton a/v, neither NAV nor any other
a/v program will help you very much if you do not keep it updated. You
MUST run LiveUpdate no less than once/week, and preferably have it set
to do automatic updates.
At this point, you should totally uninstall your printer drivers,
following Cari's advice at
http://www.coribright.com/Windows/Article One.htm and then install the
Windows XP drivers you got from hp.
I don't understand what you mean by "They've sent me two different discs
to run scannow, neither works." Do you mean you have two WindowsXP
install CDs? If not, what are the two disks you received? In any
event, what happens when you go to Start > Run and type in sfc /scannow
and press enter? If sfc asks you to insert your WinXP CD, what happens
when you do that? When sfc asks you to insert a WinXP CD, have you
tried clicking the "browse" button and pointing sfc to C:\i386 (assuming
that you have such a folder on your hard drive)?
You should not be running two firewalls simultaneously. This may lead
to problems, although I've never heard of it causing the effect you
describe. What firewalls are you running? Assuming one of them is the
WinXP Internet Connection Firewall, try turning the other one off
(although once you get things sorted out, the other firewall will
probably be the preferred one to keep).
After you have LiveUpdated NAV, run a complete system scan. It's best
to do this from "safe mode." To get to safe mode, either press F8
immediately after you turn your computer on (before the WinXP logo
appears). If you can't get the timing right, go to start > run, type
msconfig and press enter. Then on the boot.ini tab, check /safeboot.
In addition to viruses, there are other sorts of malware that typically
do not get detected by antivirus programs. download Ad-Aware
(
http://www.lavasoftusa.com) and/or Spybot Search & Destroy
(
http://www.safer-networking.net/). As with antivirus program, be sure
to get the latest "definition" files for each of these applications
before running them. These programs also will benefit from being run in
safe mode.
Finally, your comment about whether the problem is in the operating
system or the driver is based on a misunderstanding. In effect, the
driver is part of the OS. Although the hp drivers for WinXP often have
reduced functionality compared to the drivers for Win9x, the ability of
a color printer to print in color is supported by all WinXP drivers.
