Problems with HP and their printer drivers

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Allan" <pabroon@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:u_89e.3702$9G.304735@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Just to make you aware of HP's practice.
>
> I have a HP 7960. I created a business card, 10 to a sheet, using
> CorelDraw.
>
> On my W98se computer, the first two cards are printed then the sheet is
> ejected. However, I have no problems printing to my HP4p laser.
>
> On my XP computer, the file prints properly to either printer.
>
> Clearly a problem with the W98 driver for the 7960.
>
> When I contacted HP, I was informed that since my 7960 is out of warranty,
> they will not offer any help. The fact that the driver is only a few
> months
> old did not matter.
>
> So, HP's practice is to ignore any driver problems if your hardware is out
> of warranty!
>
> Allan
>

And you think thats unusal for a printer manufacturer? I assure you - that
story, and others like it it, could, and probably did/will/does apply
equally as well to Apple, Brother, Canon, CMS, Epson, Genicom,
Konica/Minolta/QMS, Kyocera, Lexmark, Okidata, Panasonic, Ricoh, Sharp,
Tektronix, Xerox, Zebra and Others

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Allan wrote:


> Clearly a problem with the W98 driver for the 7960.
>
> When I contacted HP, I was informed that since my 7960 is out of warranty,
> they will not offer any help. The fact that the driver is only a few months
> old did not matter.
>
> So, HP's practice is to ignore any driver problems if your hardware is out
> of warranty!

If it was just a matter of obtaining the correct driver, the warranty
on the hardware shouldn't matter at all. All HP's current drivers are
free for all to download.

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

I think the problem is that like Windows 3.1, Windows 98se is long past
it's day.

Microsoft has abandoned support for Win98se and I'm *guessing* it's not
cost effective for third parties to develop drivers for obsolete operating
systems.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Yes, I know W98 is old and the printer has been superseded but the driver is
for W98. The printer is supposed to work with W98.

I am also aware that other manufacturers are probably not any better in this
respect - probably worse.

During my conversation, the following was said to me;

* We have no record of this problem - when asked if they had checked, the
answer was no!

* Email correspondence goes to a different group in a different location.
There is no information connection between them and the phone-up group. The
email group did get the phone-up group to call me but did not give them
access to my email correspondence.

In this instance, the phone-up group ignored the fact I had contacted HP via
email while the printer was in warranty. I was told I should have phoned,
and since I had not, they would not address my driver problem.

The point I am trying to make is HP will not support you for driver problems
if your hardware is out of warranty even when the driver is new. This would
also apply if I had the problem with the WXp driver.

I was just posting this for the groups info. I don't expect any solutions.

BTW, the printer does give excellent results.

Anyway, enough said.

Allan




"Allan" <pabroon@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:u_89e.3702$9G.304735@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Just to make you aware of HP's practice.
>
> I have a HP 7960. I created a business card, 10 to a sheet, using
CorelDraw.
>
> On my W98se computer, the first two cards are printed then the sheet is
> ejected. However, I have no problems printing to my HP4p laser.
>
> On my XP computer, the file prints properly to either printer.
>
> Clearly a problem with the W98 driver for the 7960.
>
> When I contacted HP, I was informed that since my 7960 is out of warranty,
> they will not offer any help. The fact that the driver is only a few
months
> old did not matter.
>
> So, HP's practice is to ignore any driver problems if your hardware is out
> of warranty!
>
> Allan
>
>
>