Losing Networked Printer in Vista

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Guest

One of my customers has Vista Home Basic installed on his Sony laptop. He has
an HP All-In-One. I installed the printer/scanner software and everything
worked fine. He rebooted and now it is missing in action. Anyone familiar
with this problem and have an idea of how to fix it.
 
Hi,

I'm not sure what you meant by everything worked fine, and what went wrong,
so just to share my own experience of PhotoSmart 2610 with Vista Ultimate:

After installed the latest all-in-one software for Vista from HP, I couldn't
access to the scan function - and only the scan function while fax, print,
and copy all worked fine.

It took my 3 days and a lucky guess to find out that it is because the
inbuilt firewall is turned OFF. Yes, - OFF.

I need to turn on Vista's firewall and added each and every all-in-one's
software into allowed list. After that, I can access the scan function
without problem.

What a deal? No is No, but when you said No to Vista, it has its own mind.

Hope this helps.

I am not sure about Home Basic though.
 
Yes, it is the Vista driver that I obtained straight from HP. What happens is
that I installed the driver, test bot the printer and the scanner (it's an
All-In-One) and everything. I believe that after the customer shuts down the
computer and restarts, everything disappears (both printer and scanner). The
printer is a stand-alone network printer and I connected to it using the
setup HP Software. Usually this an easy setup. I have the printer setup to
obtain its IP through DHCP. Should I hardcode an IP address into the printer?
 
When I initially install the latest Vista driver from HP EVERYTHING works
initially. I believe what is happening is that when the customer reboots, the
printer and scanner disappear and if you go to the HP Solution Center, the
printer no longer shows up in there. At first, I thought maybe the customer
might have done something but this has happened twice.

Thank God for Vista. It will keep me employed for quite some time.
 
Thank God for Vista. It will keep me employed for quite some time.

LOL.

Plug and Pray never dies and Plug & Play never comes.

Good luck but I still suspect it has something to do with firewall. Are
there any 3rd party firewall installed? At this time, I have no other 3rd
party security software installed because if both firewall are enabled, I
know there are likely another new problems coming out.
 
He is using the Windows Firewall. I will be visiting this gentleman later on
today and turn it off, reboot, and see what happens. Whatever I find out,
Good or Bad, I will post it back here.
 
i am having exactly the same problem, i installed with disk then went onto
the net to install driver for vista. have been having problems ever since.
have installed and re installled several times.

i am also having difficulties opening saved word documents. what about you.

i think the problem is with vista but not sure who to contact.
 
I went back over to the guy's house. I hardcoded the IP address on his
printer and then set his DHCP server to an IP range past where the printer
is. I completely uninstalled all software and then reinstalled. I even
chatted online with HP Tech Support who told me to do all the same things
that I was doing.

I was guessing that when the IP address changed that Vista LOST the printer.
I thought that perhaps that Sleep or Hibernate might cause this. After
everything was done, I rebooted, put in Sleep and Hibernation modes several
times. Everything seemed to work but the next day I get a call and everything
has disappeared again.

I AM STUMPED so any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm pretty sure this
is a Vista problem. The fact that it happens over time seems to almost point
to some type of virus like activity but nothing has been found nor have I
heard of that type virus. Is talking to Microsoft support going to even help?

This gentleman has Works on this computer but I have shown him how to save
in DOC mode and we seem to be able to open things from Works just fine.
 
Hi,

Sorry to hear the bad news and you may also try for help:

microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices

Besides, it may not help but the following is how I solve "unable find
device" error for HP 2610 and shared in Vista group. For your reference:


(1) Make sure Windows Firewall is running by checking Services under
Administrative Tools,

(2) In Control Panel, click Windows Firewall, and then click Change
Settings,

(3) Click Exceptions and then Add Programs

(4) Click Browse and then browse to where the program installed (usually -
C:\Program Files\HP)

(5) Manually select:

C:\Program Files\HP\Photosmart Essential\HP_IZE.exe
C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\Product Assistant\bin\hprbui.exe
C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\bin\hpqdirec.exe
C:\Program Files\HP\HP Software Update\HPWUCli.exe


PS: You can get the above information by right-click, se HP Photosmart
Essential link in HP folder under All Programs and check for its properties.
That's how I learned which is which of each component and then added it to
the exceptions list.

Hope this helps.





Good luck.

PS: Maybe he wishes to pay you more overtime? :)
 
Yes, it is the latest Vista driver for the HP Photosmart C6180 that I
downloaded directly from HP.. The printer works initially. I can reboot, put
into sleep and hibernation and bring the laptop (Sony PCG-7X1L) back up and
everything will work fine. But between 6 - 24 hours later, I will get a call
that the printer is no longer installed. It and C6180 Printer and C6180 Fax
icons are no longer visible. Now this is connected as a stand-alone network
printer that I have since hardcoded the IP address in to ensure that changing
the IP does not cause this. If this was happening on an XP machine I would
think virus. Since I have seen some strange behavior in Vista, this might be
a Vista issue.

One thing I have NOT done yet is set it up as a USB printer because it is
physically in another room from where the laptop is used. I can try doing
that and see if the printer STAYS and at least it will show that it is a
network related problem.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Well I have seemed to have solved this problem using good ole MAGIC (as
usual). I reinstalled the driver in both USB and Network and ran that for a
few days. The network side disappeared but the USB side stayed. I remapped
the USB to the network address.

I also took off that wonderful 60/90 trial of Norton and put on Avast!
instead. This was under the theory that this was happenning at SOME POINT
during the day and Norton was one thing that would RUN after hours.

I'm not sure which of the fixes did the trick but my customer has been
problem free for over two weeks now so I'm counting it as a success. I always
love it when I put on my wizard's hat and play Harry Potter with a system.
 
For the HP Photosmart C6180, HP has a software update that eliminates the
unexpected uninstall of network printing software. In fact, the download
selection title is titled to that effect. My HP C6180 keeps re-intalling
over and over again on my PC. HP doesn't have an easy way to contact them
for help. I just don't have the time and patients to deal with a poorly
English-speaking overseas tech. They do more harm than good. My HP C610 has
re-installed on Vista 11 times now. I don't know how to stop it.
 
We had a post before. That may help.
Vista lost network printer after ...
Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: Vista lost network
printer after ... of the Vista PC, both printers would be offline. In
Printer properties, ...
www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?p=7349&sid=4827b201d5fd09b858ae7608cbabee6c


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
 
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