P4P800 and Officejet d series

[John]

I seem to have a big problem with the P4P800 and an Officejet d series
printer, this setup is running on Windows 2000 Pro with the latest service
packs and using USB for the printer.

My problem is, as soon as I load the HP drivers for the Officejet d series
printer, the system becomes unstable. i.e. the system reboots randomly. I
was able to load the hp printer drivers only. no other software was loaded.
(This HP printer is a multifunction printer, so I can't use the faxing,
scanning of this printer now with this setup.)

I emailed, HP and got a response back, saying there drivers are fine, and
that the problem lies in the USB port on the P4P800 board. (I have connected
numerous usb devices to the P4P800 without problems, except for the
Officejet.)

I think, HP doesn't want to be bothered and just pointing fingures at the
motherboard manufacturer.

My question is, has anyone else had similar problems with the P4P800 and any
HP multifunction products using the USB port?

 

[Ken Fox]

I seem to have a big problem with the P4P800 and an Officejet d series
printer, this setup is running on Windows 2000 Pro with the latest service
packs and using USB for the printer.

My problem is, as soon as I load the HP drivers for the Officejet d series
printer, the system becomes unstable. i.e. the system reboots randomly. I
was able to load the hp printer drivers only. no other software was loaded.
(This HP printer is a multifunction printer, so I can't use the faxing,
scanning of this printer now with this setup.)

I emailed, HP and got a response back, saying there drivers are fine, and
that the problem lies in the USB port on the P4P800 board. (I have connected
numerous usb devices to the P4P800 without problems, except for the
Officejet.)

I think, HP doesn't want to be bothered and just pointing fingures at the
motherboard manufacturer.

My question is, has anyone else had similar problems with the P4P800 and any
HP multifunction products using the USB port?

I think maybe you have a coincidence on your hands. Weird stuff like this
in my prior experience has come from bad RAM. I think it also could come
from a bad memory cache on your processor.

You could try that memtest86 program; being as it doesn't run in Win2K, if
it finds errors you know the problem is hardware, not software, related.

ken

 

[Paul]

I think maybe you have a coincidence on your hands. Weird stuff like this
in my prior experience has come from bad RAM. I think it also could come
from a bad memory cache on your processor.

You could try that memtest86 program; being as it doesn't run in Win2K, if
it finds errors you know the problem is hardware, not software, related.

ken

Try plugging the printer and the computer into the same power strip. Maybe
it is a grounding problem.

HTH,
Paul

 

[John]

Thanks guys,

I ran memtest86 and it passed all the memory tests. The printer is plugged
into the same power bar as the computer, and the printer prints ok with no
TSR's loaded, only when the tsr's are loaded do I have the problem of
unstability.

I doubt it's a memory issue, as all apps work perfectly, i.e. office,
wordperfect, internet explorer, etc... Only the HP drivers!

John
=================

 

[Jody]

I seem to have a big problem with the P4P800 and an Officejet d series
printer, this setup is running on Windows 2000 Pro with the latest service
packs and using USB for the printer.

I emailed, HP and got a response back, saying there drivers are fine, and
that the problem lies in the USB port on the P4P800 board. (I have connected
numerous usb devices to the P4P800 without problems, except for the
Officejet.)

Interesting problem.

Although some may question the 'ethics' of this, fake a
motherboard..say a certain msi something or other...and ask HP the
exact same question (from a second email address if you have one).

They may give a different answer that applies to the situation. If
they give the same one, you know they are full o...

jo

 

[Jody]

I seem to have a big problem with the P4P800 and an Officejet d
series are
fine, and for

Actually, the more i think about it, the stranger it gets. IIRC,
the lion's share of programs, you install the software before
plugging the peripheral in the usb port. The software can run
without the usb port (without much purpose, granted).

System performance should not degrade no matter if it
detects..Possibly errors in the program itself, but not system
wide errors.

Why not try running some kind of USB Port tester? I've never tried
one, but two hasty links i get from google are:

http://www.hhdsoftware.com/usbmon.html
http://www.uxd.com/qtusb.shtml

Make sure you are installing the latest version from the web of
the hp software, and if it lists an uninstaller, use that to get
rid of any of the previous gunk first.
jo

 

[Jim Banks]

I seem to have a big problem with the P4P800 and an Officejet d series
printer, this setup is running on Windows 2000 Pro with the latest
service packs and using USB for the printer.

My problem is, as soon as I load the HP drivers for the Officejet d
series printer, the system becomes unstable. i.e. the system reboots
randomly. I was able to load the hp printer drivers only. no other
software was loaded. (This HP printer is a multifunction printer, so
I can't use the faxing, scanning of this printer now with this setup.)

I emailed, HP and got a response back, saying there drivers are fine,
and that the problem lies in the USB port on the P4P800 board. (I
have connected numerous usb devices to the P4P800 without problems,
except for the Officejet.)

I think, HP doesn't want to be bothered and just pointing fingures at
the motherboard manufacturer.

My question is, has anyone else had similar problems with the P4P800
and any HP multifunction products using the USB port?

Have you tried searching the User Support Forums on HP's site? About a year
ago I had a problem with software for an HP PSC750 multi-function printer (I
think that was the model). It wasn't causing instability; it was sucking up
all the CPU cycles...100 % CPU utilization. A search of the HP forums
revealed this to be a widely known problem for almost a year, with no fix
from HP. Another user took it upon himself to analyze one of the programs,
fix the problem (1 line of code), and then he published the fixed file on
his web site. Solved the problem for all involved, no thanks to HP. I just
noticed a couple of weeks ago that HP finally fixed the problem themselves.

The point here is that you stand a better chance of finding a solution on
the user forums then you do directly from HP. I was a fan of HP printers
until I had this problem and saw HP's lack of interest in correcting such an
obvious and simple to fix problem. I think HP has gone downhill since the
merger with Compaq. I doubt that I ever buy another HP product again.

 

[Ben Pope]

Thanks guys,

I ran memtest86 and it passed all the memory tests. The printer is
plugged into the same power bar as the computer, and the printer
prints ok with no TSR's loaded, only when the tsr's are loaded do I
have the problem of unstability.

Sounds like crappy software to me... I hate all those tray icons and
programs running that monitor things.

I would be very tempted to just install the drivers, leaving all that crap
off... most of the programs included to monitor the device are there to
allow you to press buttons on the device for "quick fax", "quick copy" or
whatever... usually the quick version has the wrong set of options and you
end up doing it again the hard way. I always do it the hard way anyway...
that way I know it'll come out right (or at least have a much better
chance). Then there's the crappy cut-down "special edition" (as in special
needs) software supplied which is rubbish... just get PSP or something.

I doubt it's a memory issue, as all apps work perfectly, i.e.
office, wordperfect, internet explorer, etc... Only the HP drivers!

I take it the device is USB?

I can't see there being any problems as the USB drivers should be the same
for all USB controllers. If you're using USB2 you could make sure that you
are using the MS USB2 drivers from XP SP1 or Win2K SP4.

Ben