HP USB Printer woes

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

You might try the following:

MAke sure that the pritner is not conencted to the PC. Add a printer in
the normal way instead of through the driver CD. Tell it that you are
printing to "File" as a port instead of USB/LPT1 etc. When you get to
"Have Disc", browse the CD and install the driver without all the other
gubbins that comes with the printer (photo managers etc). When you have
installed it, go back to the printer properties and change the
connection to USB and then connect the cable to the printer. It should
discover it and at least you'll be able to print.

--
Mushroom


mattdymock@msn.com wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I have just purchased a hp deskjet 3745. I have no issues with the
> printer itself - it works perfectly - rather with the driver
> installation. I am well aware that the hp cd must be run through the
> system before the printer is connected, and that the add hardware
> wizard (windows 98) offers no facility to connect usb printers.
>
> My problem is this: the computer that the printer *must* be installed
> upon is a pentium-100, with 16 megabytes of RAM. Thus the hp cd refuses
> to install the software. I don't even care about the software (!) all i
> want is the usb drivers to make the printer work.
>
> My question, therefore: is anyone aware of a way to get this printer
> working thru a manual installation of the driver, or am i stuffed
> completely?
>
> Somebody please help. Please!
>

To rainer7,

First, did you check the minimum hardware required on the printer. HP has that for a reason. But this is under warranty--its got free HP tech support--call them up and see if they have suggestions.

But one wierd other suggestion--when you get all those pop up dialog boxes.
Try pressing ctr alt del and then try killing the top most running process.
Sometimes that gets the printer over the hill and it then finds the USB port.

But your computer is now really old--new hardware assumes it won't be installed on anything that old-----so it may be get a new or used computer time.--try ebay or the newspaper for used.--but for the price of a printer you may be able to get a used computer that will pull the printer.

Sorry rainer7,

Got you confused with the person with the pentium 100---but do try the ctr alt del trick during install.--it can't hurt.

But HP software often does cause problems--sometimes you have to download special printer deinstall software from the HP website--or remaining drivers cause conflicts.

Sometimes it just takes trial, error, and luck. So good luck--but do check HP tech support. They have troubleshooting sections.