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  #1  
Old 02-11-2006, 03:22 AM
JohnE JohnE is offline
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Default Installing a printer (HP Deskjet 3500)

A friend of mine has just bought an all-in-one device which she's installed on her main computer. This gave her the opportunity of removing her old printer so it could be attached to an old PC which, until then, hadn't had a printer. The old printer is a HP Deskjet 3500. I went through the installation process which is as follows:-

1) Make sure that the printer is disconnected from the PC.
2) Run the installation program.
3) At a certain point, it asks you to connect the printer so the installation can continue.

The printer is a USB device. Unfortunately, when I connect it, the installer program doesn't recognise it. It just sits there, waiting for the printer to be connected. Device Manager, however, does recongnise the printer - coming up with an "Unknown device" called Deskjet 3500.

The installer program issues a dire warning about never running the app with the printer already connected. However, because it wouldn't work by the "recommended" method, I tried connecting the printer first and then running the install app. However, that didn't make any difference.

My friend told me that when she first bought the printer she asked another friend to install it (on the first PC) and he had exactly the same problem. It finally took him about 7 hours to figure out a way to install the thing.

I don't want to waste 7 hours. Can anyone think of a way to get the darn printer installed??
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Old 02-11-2006, 12:39 PM
Jason425 Jason425 is offline
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update the driver manually through device manager...
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Old 02-11-2006, 12:56 PM
JohnE JohnE is offline
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Thanks Jason - however, that isn't as easy as it sounds. The only actual file I've got is the install program itself, which is a standard executable. It does seem to unpack some files and put them somewhere (presumably, these are the driver files) but I don't know where it puts them. In any case, once the installation realises that its been unsuccessful, it seems to unwind everything and the files get erased.

The only thing I can think of is to find the actual driver file(s) on the other machine and manually copy them onto the Win 98 machine. Then I'd do as you suggest and try a manual installation.

However, the problem with that is that the other machine is running Windows XP - so the drivers might not be suitable.

At my own house I do have a Win 98 machine, so I could try installing the drivers onto that and then copy them to my friend's machine.... but do you know which files I'd need to copy?
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Old 02-11-2006, 05:39 PM
Jason425 Jason425 is offline
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are there any new drivers on HP's website?

Usually those drivers make a folder in either C: or C: (printer name) or something like that.
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Old 02-12-2006, 02:45 AM
JohnE JohnE is offline
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Yes - the same exe (i.e. the install program) is available on HP's web site. I just had a good look around my own system and there seem to be 2 folders containing printer drivers - i.e

C:\Windows\System32\Spool\drivers\w32x86 - and

C:\Program Files\Hewlett Packard\OfficeJet G85\bin

Under Windows 98, the files are mostly VXD's and DLL's. Under Windows XP, they're mostly ".GPD" files and DLL's.
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Old 02-12-2006, 07:50 PM
Jason425 Jason425 is offline
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are there any .inf files? If so, point device manager to them and see what happens.
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  #7  
Old 02-13-2006, 02:54 AM
JohnE JohnE is offline
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Thanks Jason. The ".INF" files seem to be spread aroind all over the place but I suppose it's worth a try. To be honest, I'm inclinded to suggest that they simply network the 2 computers together so that both PC's can then share the new printer.
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Old 02-14-2006, 11:34 PM
Jason425 Jason425 is offline
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that's probably your best bet... I didn't think of that.
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