Solution Center says printer is disconnected

[S_Miller_1960]

Solution Center Says Printer Is Disconnected

I have a PSC 1315 printer I have been using for several years on a system with Windows XP without any problem.  After purchasing an HP Pavilion 500 with Windows 8.1 Pro, I migrated my printer to the new computer.  I was disallowed to use the original driver, and was directed to download the latest driver and software for this printer from an HP website.  At first, things seemed ok, until I ran across several issues, one of which is this one.

The first 2 weeks, I did not see this error in Solution Center, but suddenly it started showing up.  The first time I saw it, the printer was turned off (in standby), and when I turned it on, the error disappeared, and I was able to use Solution Center.  Now (since the past week), the error never goes away.  I have tried everything I can think of, including physically disconnecting and reconnecting the printer, running printer diagnostic, etc.  Nothing works.  I fear that there has been some automatic update that ruined the connectability of the Solution Center.

Now here is the information that's going to throw you for a loop:  the printer works in every way.  I am able to scan, to print, etc. without any problem.  I just can't use Solution Center to do it.

1. Is this a known problem, and what's the solution?
2. How do I disable all automatic updates for this printer and software?

S_Miller_1960

[Rainbow7000 · Accepted solution]

Hello there, I hope you're well:)

I noticed all of your posts about the several issues you have been experiencing since upgrading to a new PC with Windows 8.1. Taking all of the issues into consideration, I would suggest running the HP Print and Scan Doctor and using that specific tool to uninstall and reinstall the printer software.

Here is a screen shot example of what to look for: Print and Scan Dr. Screenshot

I hope this clears up the discrepancies!

Have a great day:)

[S_Miller_1960]

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the SW as you suggested, and Solution Center now recognizes the printer (doesn't give disconnected error).  However, I need to say that the Print & Scan Doctor crashed while uninstalling, and it advised me to uninstall manually in the control panel.  But after reinstalling using the util, it seemed to work ok in that regard.

The other 3 issues though are still persistent issues.  2 of them I can work around:  when 2 sided print is selected, I can select quality greyscale only, but the black ink only is greyed-out, and I cannot select it, I can live with that even though this is lost functionality to me.  The other is the fact that PDF print shows limited preferences.  In order to select 2 sides and greyscale, I have to set as default in control panel (and then for general printing I have to reset defaults manually).  I can continue to work around this, even though I perceive it as lost functionality, since I never had these issues with the XP driver and SW.

The 3rd issue that is the major one is that it does not collate correctly.  Anything I print that is multipage always ends up in reverse, whether it is 1-side or 2-sides.  I then have to manually rearrange the paper.  This is very annoying and frustrating.  The XP SW always collated correctly, and it printed last page first, so the first page always ended up on top, but this new driver and SW simply doesn't work right.  Whether I select collate or uncollate, I have to manually rearrange the pages.  I get the idea that whoever wrote the driver for this printer did not adequately test it.

So far, 1 issue out of 4 resolved, 25% success.

Thanks,

Sam Miller

[dgar]

Have to agree with this person, getting anything updated - re installed that is still a working product means nothing to HP. They want you to purchase new stuff and don't care about happy old customers.  Check out my recent post on trying to reinstall my old 1315 printer.