Photosmart C7250 - Software & Drivers Win XP Pro x64 [ Edited ]

[golden79]

I'm have a very difficult time doing a clean install of the software and drivers for a Photosmart C7250 on a Windows XP Pro x64. For the full feature Software and drivers you have two options and both options fail for me. Option 1: Load the software and drivers from the physical media CD which is version 9.0.1 or Option 2 Download the HP Photosmart Full Feature Software and Drivers from the HP Support website which is version 10.0.1.

I get closest to success using Option 1. All software will load, but when I attempt to scan, I get an error message that the scanner can't communicate with the software. Also, the HP Scan Diagnostic Utility indicates two failures. One failure pertains to HP Twain and the other failure is to the hp scan flow manger, if I recall correctly. When you install the software and drivers from the CD (version 9.0.1), I noticed there are eight HP programs loaded when viewing from Windows Add/Remove Programs. There are five updates available on the support website for this printer/operating system combination. Of the five updates, only two will load. The other three indicate that they don't apply to my HP product which I find strange since HP list these updates for this printer and Windows XP Pro x64. So, loading from the CD doesn't appear to work for some reason. In my conversation with HP Technical Support (paid support) the tech indicated that people loading from the CD get the Twain error for the scanner. The CD I'm using is the one available for this printer when you order the physical media from the HP website.

Option 2 doesn't load all the software. If you download the HP Photosmart Full Feature Software and Drivers (version 10.0.1), 196MB,  from the website and install. The install program only installs the drivers. The program doesn't even attempt to install the full features (HP Solution Center, OCR, Essentials, HP Update, HP Supply, etc...), it only installs the drivers and when you view the program in Windows Add/Remove Programs, only one HP program is install and it's about 15MB. After this install, the scanner fails the HP Scan Diagnostic Utility, because all the software is not loaded. HP Tech Support (located in the Philippines) says they tried to duplicate this issue, but later revealed it was on a 32bit machine. So, the software does not do as indicated on the HP Support website.

I've installed and removed the software many times and did a thorough removal, rebooted, etc... I get no success. This operating system was installed about three months ago as a clean install and has all high priority updates as well as optional updates. The only optional update not installed is Windows Search 4.0.

This printer and operating system with full feature software was working when it was installed as a new printer purchase 2.5 years ago. The reason I'm attempting to reinstall is due to a bad hard drive. So the software doesn't appear to be functional and correct. The only thing that has changed is the operating system has two years of Windows Updates added that weren't available when the printer was new 2.5 years ago.

I did have difficulty installing the printer software when it was new. I used telephone tech support back then as the printer was under warranty. The software CD that came with the printer was not the correct software for my operating system (win xp pro x64). HP Tech Support had me download the full feature software from the website. Back then HP had the version 9.0 full feature available as well as the version 10.0. The version 9.0 full feature is presently not listed on the website. That is the other difference from two and a half years ago. I recall the tech back then had me install the version 9.0 full feature software. He indicated not to install the version 10.0. You would think the version 9.0 on the CD would be the same as the now absent download version 9.0.

I'm interested in any suggestions to get this printer up and running to include scan mode with the full feature software. Thank you in advance for your assistance. It doesn't appear that HP provides competent tech support for printers out of warranty. I believe this issue can be resolved. I highly suspect the software on the HP Support website is corrupted, misidentified or obsolete by operating system updates. An interesting thing I noted was the download software, HP Photosmart Basic Drivers (41MB) version 10.0.1 is version 9.0 when installed on the machine when you look at Add/Remove Programs. This indicates to me that the software is mislabeled or incorrect. I haven't had any luck getting HP to acknowledge the problems with the download software. The HP Tech support techs are very low skill level. HP has higher skill level techs, but it is almost impossible to access to them. 

[sunshinestnt]

How do I download all the software for my HP Photosmart C7250.  We had an outage and it corrupted my software so deleted all and need to reload to see if that will fix the problem.  Sincerely, Pamelia