Incredible problems getting new C8180 All-in-one working

[BobA]

I purchased a C8180 All-in-one printer towards the end of September. When I connected it and installed the software everything seemed to function OK (I didn't test printing a photo from the computer at that time), but after a short period of time printing from Microsoft Word and Wordpad failed, started working and then failing again everytime I reinstalled the software to try and solve the problem. Then started a long series of emails with HP technical support. In the next two weeks I must have uninstalled and reinstalled the software 6 or 7 times in several different ways under HP instruction. But it never succeeded in getting Word and Wordpad working properly. Finally, again under HP instruction, it worked using a dummy HP Deskjet 990C printer installation. Then I noticed that it was no longer possible to scan documents and transparencies to the computer, except by using a memory chip as intermediate storage. I then went on holiday having spent about 30-40 hours of the previous two weeks emailing and phoning HP technical support.

Returning from holiday in the third week of October I took up the issue again with HP support. Again I spent hours and hours writing emails and reinstalling the software but to no avail. HP finally proclaimed this a difficult problem and said it would raise the level of support. A gentleman named Sylvester emailed that someone would phone on a pre-arranged day to see what more advanced techniques could be applied to the problem. Needless to say the phone call didn't come despite my cancelling several appointments to wait in for it (I should have known better they had promised to phone me back several times before and never did).

I finally called the customer services department at HP's local office. (At least you can get through to them without having to listen to music for half an hour at the cost of 5p per minute.) They said they would ensure someone would contact me and would monitor the call to make sure it occurred. A week later I' d received no call, and I got back to the local customer servcies department. The issue was raised to higher management level, and finally after a couple of more reminders from me they managed to get a senior technician, called Natheem, in their Cape Town technical department to call me.

He was very helpful (and actually phoned me a few times), and eventually he got me to go through the complicated process of getting Microsoft in India (via a conference call with Cape Town and myself  - apparently this would have cost me a lot in phone charges, but I haven't yet had the bill) to advise on how to downgrade my Windows XP to service pack 2, and my internet explorer to IE6. I reinstalled the C8180 software yet again. No difference, still the same problems, except now Microsoft Word would work with the HP C8180 printer driver.

At this point Natheem said that it must be a hardware fault and arranged for the unit to be replaced.

The new unit arrived last Thursday. I again carefully uninstalled and reinstalled the software, connected the machine, and got the same problems, but again with Microsoft Word unable to print with the C8180 printer drivers.

I tried to contact Natheem again in Cape Town this afternoon. After a further half an hour of expensive music I got through to someone named Waleed who said that Natheem was on a call but he would get him to call. No call came.

So from the forum I would like any technical advice on what to do with a a new HP C8180 All-in-One printer which:

1. doesn't print Word documents (except by using a deskjet 990C driver)
2. won't scan documents or transparencies to the computer
3. won't print photos from the computer using neither HP photosmart essential nor other photo editing software

I'm also rather fed up with the help provided by HP. When you do get through to them they always try and help, but getting through, particularly to someone who knows your case is most frustrating (and costs). In order to try and get the thing I have also had to downgrade my computer OS to Windows XP service pack 2, and my internet explorer to IE6. I've also probably spent 50-60+ hours of the last two months trying to get the thing working.

Any advice on what to do next would be most welcome. 

BobA

[grdnr]

Hi BobA, any luck with advise?  I am experiencing the same problems except I can print photos and they're beautiful.  But I bought the printer for its wireless capabilities and if it doesn't work with word 03 and the scanner doesn't scan to the computer what good is it.  I did the same hours of computer support, call to India, nothing resolved.  It looks like this has been going since 2007, I am really dissapointed in HP support for not solving this problem already.

[dhansen]

I have had this printer for over a year tech support can't seem to help! It is about to turn me off to HP products

I have a Sony Desk Top running XP has never  worked with this computer. I just gave up.

Toshiba Lap Top running Vista won't scan to this printer and prints only in B&W And today has stopped printing all together

Won't every work with my HP Lap top running Vista won't scan to this PC

Have reinstalled uninstalled and reinstalled to many times to count.Unloaded patches- uploaded updates still huge problems spent hours with tech support no resolution I have a job can't spend 8 -10 hours a day on the phone or instant messaging with tech support?

This HP printer cost over $400 but I have a cheap little Cannon for 6 years guess I'll have to hook it up to print my boarding pass my flight leaves tomorrow!BecauseI know the Cannon will always work!

HP when are you going to recall this printer?

I dying to buy the new HP Touch Screen Desk Top PC to upgrade my Sony but I'm afraid to since this Touch Screen Printer has been so disappointing and HP doesn't seem to know what to do about it!

I just purchased a HP laser printer for my boss hopefully it works better that this one or I could lose my job but if I do I'll have more time to email tech support at HP to fix the C8180 because it's a full time job!

David Hansen

[BobA · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

Well my story had a happy ending. I stopped trying to sort out the printer after spending about a man-month of working hours at it, including many phone calls to SA and responidng to dozens of emails. But then I bought my wife a Toshiba laptop for Christmas - and that worked perfectly first go. Anyway my computer was in a bit of a mess particularly after the messing around I'd done on it for HP support, so I decided to reload my operating system (after reformating the hard drive), which I've just finished. And guess what the C8180 works perfectly (at least so far anyway)! I only upgraded my OS to Service pack 2 (according to HP support the C8180 has problems with SP3), and I kept my Internet Explorer at version 6 (higher versions - 7 I think - again can cause problems according to HP support). I any way use Firefox. But now its working, its quite an impressive machine.

I would like to say the the individual personnel in HP support SA are fine, always very friendly and helpful. Its just that by phone, it costs and you often have to listen to music for quite a long time, its very difficult to get hold of the same person again, so you spend hours repeating the details of your problem, and despite vehement promises they rarely call you back - probably because they are too busy. Its the support system thats very poor, not the support staff.

Anyway you have a different problem. If your printer doesn't work on two computers with different operating systems. I would say that you have a good case for either getting a new printer or your money back under the guarantee.

Good luck

BobA

[BobA]

Hi grdnr,

Sorry for the late reply, but if you read my reply to the next message you will see that for me the problem has been solved, hopefully for good. Perhaps this is the solution for you - but don't give up its a nice machine when it works,

Best of luck,

BobA

[grdnr]

Hi Guys, my story has a happy ending too.  After going back and forth with HP over and over the tech was going to escalate the rpoblem up, but asked to do do one more thing (they're so nice it's hard to say no).  He had me unplug the printer, and then re-plug while pushing the "print photo" button at the same time.  That seemed to really mess things up because the computer then said the printer was not connected.  Then he had me go into printers and faxes and delete the printer, and then restart the computer and do the wizard to find the printer.  Low and behold it worked.  All the stalling and word printing problems disappeared.  So did the scanning problem.  When you scan a document it now asks where you want to save it.  Photo scans automatically go into the scan folder in the HP folder ( which I never would have known if he didn't tell me).  I'm still using my 6 yr old, 1.37 G, windows XP unit.

Good luck, I agree, when it works the printer is great.

[Geebis]

I have just purchased the HP C8180, I'm no IT fool, but installing this printer can be a real nightmare! Like everyone else the sotware failed to find the device (printer) on the network. If on the original software installation the device is found then no problems, but watch out if it fails!

The answer is on the HP Support site and you will find it here

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01611159&cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3204788

The problem arises when the device is not found even though it is correctly setup, plugged in, and switched on. You can chose to not connect to the printer during the installation and manually connect using windows, no problem, it finds it straight away and your off, but as I said before only oneway. It seems to be that the computer will talk to the printer but the printer won't talk to the computer through the software (HP Solution Centre), thus the scanner and Photo tray all fail to work.

The above fix does work, but its long winded and somewhat scarry for the newbie.

When you purchase a £300 printer (RRP) then this should not happen!

Be patient and you will be rewarded with a printer that does what it says on the can. Photos print out very well indeed.

Just an after thought, if you select a wireless connection it takes a minute on start up to connect and be ready for use. 

OS = Vista Premium 64 bit.

[j_onyx]

For some reason very few people in this forum include in their posts mention of what Operating System or what exact version of Windows they are using.

I am not a PC pro but several families consider me their gadget guru. I have fixed many system problems for many people since Apple & IBM sold their first personal computers. There is a lot I do not know and I know it!

Having said that, I offer this for whatever its worth. In my experience, when a new or fairly new major make printer will not work, one way or another the fault lies with Windows, especially if your Windows is Vista. Vista is the worst designed, programmed, and released version of Windows since Windows 3.1 (what a dog that was!). Out of the gate, a lot of existing hardware and software would not install properly or work with Vista. Many updates and a few SP later, people still complain of this or that NEW hardware or software or driver not installing properly or working with Vista. To often, the wrong party is blamed, namely the major brand hardware maker. The culprit is more often Windows. This has resulted in Microsoft reluctantly extending the sale and support of Windows XP, even Windows XP Home three times. It's still sold and supported! After a few Linux distrobutions, Windows XP Home fuels the netbook PC explosion. 

Vista was made and released in several versions. System 7 (released recently in beta form) promises to be ...more Vista! I advised those who rely on me for Computing advice and help to stick with Win XP Pro. Those who insisted in going with Vista merely because it came installed on their new budget PC (Acer, eMachine, etc) I warned them I would not help anyone with Vista, as I choose not to waste my time when there is a much more reliable Windows out there, namely XP

Something I always do before I install a major program or drivers (for new hardware) is run some good registry utilities (which I run a few times a week) & do a thorough disk defrag. I advise all those I help to do the same. I have no problems installing or using major brand name hardware of any kind. I make single use copies of DVD movies and Games, about a few each month. I have yet to end up with a useless used DVD R, what DVD burners call a "coaster".

Windows has several major flaws, flaws Microsoft has done little or nothing about. Like GM, Ford, & Chrysler, Microsoft ignores the same model flaws year after year. 

1) It has and uses a registry -- the cause of most slow downs, freezes & crashes 

2) the poor basic system design results in too many hard disk read/ writes per minute and constant hard drive file defragmentation, the second major cause of slow downs, freezes, & crashes.

3) Numerous known and unknown security wholes.

Then, Microsoft insists on including a poor set of utilities with Windows. The defrag utility has to be the absolute worst ever widely distributed. Regedit is weak. Add & Remove is a bad joke. Batch Files were important to MS-DOS power users. Microsoft never did better than include CopyCon for Batch File programming. CopyCon was created by a beginner who did not include capability to go back and change anything! A single typo meant deleting your work and re-typing all your commands! 

What I advise for anyone who uses Windows XP or Win 2000 Pro (in my opinion, the all around best Windows Microsoft ever distributed) are the following free utilities

Glary Registry Repair, Glary Utilities, & Glary Registry Defrag

Auslogics Disk Defrag and/ or Smart Defrag  (I use both)

These utilities are not only free and excellent but they are fast (probably lightning fast compared to any similar utility you've used)

I run all of them DAILY. I run them either before I began using my main PC for the day or before I shut down for the night.

I do not run the disk defrag daily except when my grandson has used my PC for a few hours of online gaming.

You will be surprised how many registry errors Windows racks up in just one day.

Try doing the above and then install your printer software and drivers. 

--J 

[medicro]

I bought an imac because I hated Vista - and couldn't get a new machine with XPSP2 installed.

I'm beginning to wonder if macs are not all they are cracked up to be.

Wonderful as the graphics and general operation are - 

this one seems to be showing all the worst behaviour of Vista regards compatibility.  

 I have just bought my C8180 as it was well reviewed for iMacs.

It hasn't worked on OS X 10.6 and won't work on my Snow Leopard upgrade - which I upgraded yesterday hoping it would settle these faults.

I thought it might be the Roxio software supplied by HP - but contact with Roxio told me the Software supplied is unsupported legacy software.

No help there then. 

It would seem the problem is HP itself.

I've read so many problem posts - and they surely can't ALL be hardware problems?

I'm at my wits end as I have work to do.

I can print from my computer - but not scan to the computer.

I am given the message - 'no scan option found' when I try to scan from the touch screen -

and when I try to scan from the computer - HP Pro software hangs and freezes my machine.

HP device manager allows me to enter OCR - but when I try to scan gives the message - 'sorry - unknown fault has occured'.

Hmmm. Not a lot of help then. 

I see mention of the HP solution centre.

Is this supposed to be installed as part of the software package?

Or is it an online utility I can't find?

I have neither.

I have emailed HP - but no reply as yet - I will not be calling support after the reports I have read in the forums.

I simply don't have that amount of time to waste.

I have uninstalled and re-installed the software at least 7 times yesterday - and twice this morning.

What use is a printer that is 'great when it works' if it won't work?

It's not a new problem - I've read posts going back many months.

HP should have this sorted out or stop selling it. 

[Mega_burn]

I'm having the same problem. My C8180 scans fine when I run OSX 5 but since upgrading to OXS 6 Snow Leopard the scan function does not work. I get the same errors. I have reinstalled my old OSX on a different drive and my printer scanner works fine so I can only conclude that the upgrade to Snow Leopard is the problem.

Will HP update their drivers / software to resolve these issues?