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HP Recommended

Hello,

 

I have a brand new Officejet 6500 that prints, faxes, and copies flawlessly.  It is connected wirelessly to two different computers.  However, I cannot for the life of me get the scanner to work - and the errors are the same on both computers.  No matter what I do, the scanner software opens and begins working but the scanner itself never does anything (no noise, nothing) and eventually I get and error message that says "Scanner Error" with a bunch of steps to try and fix it.  I have tried ALL the steps, from relaunching the software, to resetting the printer, to to unplugging, re-plugging, re-booting, and even re-installing the software - still nothing.  Once I even set it up via USB cable just to make sure it wasn't a wireless issue, and it is not; I got all the same errors.  I have spent two hours on the phone with HP tech support and after changing a bunch of firewall and other securit settings, still nothing.  I don't have anythign fancy; just Windows XP, Windows Firewall, McAfee Suite.  Any ida what could possibly be causing the scanner errors and why there is zero communication between the computer and the scanner?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

After countless hours of soul-sucking troubleshooting with HP's alleged "Technical Support" I managed to at least narrow this problem down myself and find a solution that works.  I have found that the scanning problem presents itself only if either the printer OR the computer is connected to the network wirelessly.

 

The solution is to TURN OFF the wireless radio and connect to your network via an ethernet cable.  Then try to scan with a computer that is connected to the network also via an ethernet cable.  Note that this will NOT work if either connection - printer to router or computer to router - is connected wirelessly; both connecitons must be via ethernet cable.

 

This is obviously a software problem that HP has not and will never fix.  So if there's no way to connect your AIO to your router with an ethernet cable (e.g., if the priter is in a different room) you are SOL and should probably try another printer, as HP will never fix this.

View solution in original post

76 REPLIES 76
HP Recommended

After countless hours of soul-sucking troubleshooting with HP's alleged "Technical Support" I managed to at least narrow this problem down myself and find a solution that works.  I have found that the scanning problem presents itself only if either the printer OR the computer is connected to the network wirelessly.

 

The solution is to TURN OFF the wireless radio and connect to your network via an ethernet cable.  Then try to scan with a computer that is connected to the network also via an ethernet cable.  Note that this will NOT work if either connection - printer to router or computer to router - is connected wirelessly; both connecitons must be via ethernet cable.

 

This is obviously a software problem that HP has not and will never fix.  So if there's no way to connect your AIO to your router with an ethernet cable (e.g., if the priter is in a different room) you are SOL and should probably try another printer, as HP will never fix this.

HP Recommended

I'd like to recreate the problem you had with scanning over a wireless connection.

 

What type of wireless-router are you using? Is your network encrypted?

 

I know you had trouble scanning; did you have trouble printing over wireless?

 

The printer has an internal web page that you can access by browsing to its IP address. Were you able to scan using the J6500's web-based scan interface?

Regards / Jim B / Wireless Enthusiasts
( While I'm an embedded wireless systems engineer at work, on this forum I do not represent my former employer, Hewlett-Packard, or my current employer, Microsoft )
+ Click the White Kudos star on the left as a way to say "thank you" for helpful posts.
HP Recommended
I have a Linksys 802.11(g) router (forgot the model number, its whatever T-Mobile was offering about a year ago).  Other than the specific problem I described regarding scanning, everything else works PERFECTLY, including printing over the wireless network (regardless of whether the printer, computer, or both, are connected wirelessly).  And yes, I was able to scan using the web interface without any issues. 
HP Recommended
Sorry, yes, the network uses WEP encryption.  But as I said, installing the printer wirelessly and printing over it was no problem.
HP Recommended

I just found this thread, and I have the same problem.  I like the 6500 wireless,  It prints and faxes and copies great, but I cannot scan with it.  Even if I try from the aio front panel It gets to select computer, and that is as far as I can get. 

I have a Vista laptop and an XP main computer.

When I enter the ip address on the h p all in one hardware? and save it to favorites, I can click on that and do a scan and print, but I cannot save the document.

Mike

HP Recommended
I had the same problem with the scanner install with a wireless system. We have two laptops in a wireless setting and the install worked with one, not with the other. I spent 11 hours on the phone over three days with HP and they finally advised that they could not solve the problem. Sadly, no one at HP indicated early on that it was a problem not unique to me and that is disappointing. However, HP did eventually step up to the plate. I will be exchanging the printer. In reviewing this thread, I'm not sure one would consider it a "fix" to connect a wireless printer via ethernet cable - kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
HP Recommended
n general, if you can communicate with the printer's internal web page, then we know that network connectivity between the printer and the computer is working.

 

From this point, problems with either scanning or printing (or both) is probably due to the SW installation on the PC and quite often, the problem is related to interference from the security SW on the PC, such as firewalls (Norton/Symantec, Zonealarm, McAfee, etc) and antivirus programs.

 

These can be quite challenging to resolve and I don't have a simple answer for this class of problem. My observations are that HP printer SW works well with some firewalls (new stuff from Norton/Symantec and Windows for example) and works poorly with others (Pandora for example).

 

One drastic solution that many customers have had success with is to reinstall the OS on the PC. This puts the PC into a known, clean state though I don't like to recommend this because of all the work involved such as saving important documents off the hard drive, reapplying all the Window updates after the OS reinstallation and reinstalling all your applications.

 

Regards / Jim B / Wireless Enthusiasts
( While I'm an embedded wireless systems engineer at work, on this forum I do not represent my former employer, Hewlett-Packard, or my current employer, Microsoft )
+ Click the White Kudos star on the left as a way to say "thank you" for helpful posts.
HP Recommended

With all due respect, the suggestion to fix this problem by reinstalling the operating system is ludicrous when there is a much, much simpler solution:  buy a Lexmark or Cannon.

 

And I agree with prior poster; my "solution" does not work if you actually need to use the wireless capability of your wireless printer.  A better solution:  buy a Lexmark or Cannon.

 

The fact that this problem even exists speaks volumes about HP.  The fact that there is no solution says even more.

HP Recommended

After I sent my last e-mail,  I talked with H P for over 3 hours, and they were able to fix the scanner by going into the program files and putting a separate icon on the desttop just for scanning.  At least it works now. Don't ask me how they did it, but it works.  Hopefully they will make updated software to fix the problem.

Mike

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.