HP Laserjet 3050 / Windows 10.0.18362 - No scanner detected

[hp3050user]

Prior to upgrading from the previous version of Windows 10 to the current version, the scan function on my LJ3050 worked fine..  Used the HP Print and Scan Doctor to trouble shoot and when I click 'fix scanning', it tells me the full software solution is not installed. When I click ' get installer', I'm sent to https://support.hp.com/ca-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-LaserJet-3050-All-in-One-Printer/1140783/model/1... where I'm presented with several drivers. I've tried installing upd-pcl6-x64-6.8.0.24296, upd-ps-x64-6.8.0.24296, dot4x64.msi but nothing fixes the problem.  Between each attempt, I unplugged the printer USB and deleted the printer from 'printer and scanners'.  What am I doing wrong or what files are missing?  I need full functionality of my printer and scanner.

[John_Getzke]

Scanner drivers are OS specific.  Thus, when you update your OS you need to provide the new OS specific drivers for that component.

HPs driver site does not appear to have scanner drivers for your printer model:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783

Printer drivers will not help your scanner communicate with the new OS, which is all that HP is providing for your model and Win10 at this time.  If they were going to provide updated scan drivers for Win10 they would have done so by now.

[hp3050user]

Hi John,

Thank you for the response - although not what I was hoping for. I understand scanner drivers are OS specific, but what changed between windows 10 version 1803 and windows 10 version 1903 to cause the scanner not to be detected? Is version 1903 a different OS from version 1803? 

[John_Getzke]

My apologies.  I thought I read that you upgraded to Windows 10, not a version upgrade from 1703 to 1809.  HP does not release separate drivers for major windows versions, there is normally only one for Windows 10.  Although they do update the same driver for an OS from time to time when bugs are encountered and supported.

Since there is no scanner driver for Win10 on this printer model do you happen to remember how you installed it the last time?  The drivers must have been there from somewhere.  Its not normal for HP to outright take down a driver package for an OS that was previously supported.  They usually post stuff and leave it alone.

Perhaps you did a migration to Win10 1703 from Win7 or a previous OS?  Or perhaps you did a Windows Update and pulled the scan driver from there?  My only other though would be to try a driver package for a similar model that is supported by Win10, but that rarely works with scanners.

One way or another we need to get our hands on a scanner driver to allow the hardware to talk to the OS.

[hp3050user]

Hi John,

I don't remember when/how I installed the drivers which allowed the scanner to work.  I only know it worked in windows 10 version 1803.  I had trouble with windows update aborting going from version 1803 to 1903. I then messed up something which then wouldn't even allow me to boot up. Had to take it to London Drugs Computer department to install the latest version.  I've been able to recover most of my files, but have been unsuccessful to get the LJ3050 to scan.  Going through all the following links tells me that it's a supported printer and scanning should at least be possible with 'Windows Fax and Scan' - if the scanner was detected:

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/search?q=laserjet%203050%20scanner&filter=-1&origin=pdp

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/product/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783/document/c03501661

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/product/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783/document/c04675396

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/product/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783/document/c03501661

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/product/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783/document/c03450061

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/product/hp-laserjet-3050-all-in-one-printer/1140783/document/c04675396

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/UPD/4157320/model/4157320

[John_Getzke]

Try the Driver-USB download from the drivers and download page.  It says Windows 8 and higher in the description so Im guessing its a driver only package without any scanning software.  Then the documentation that you linked to about using 3rd party scanning apps would make sense.

If this download includes the scanner drivers then you will be back in business.  

[hp3050user]

As I stated in an earlier post, I've tried installing Driver-Universal Print Driver: HP Universal Print Driver (for Windows PL6 (64bit) (upd-pcl6-x64-6.8.0.24296), HP Universal Print Driver for Windows Postscript (64bit) (upd-ps-x64-6.8.0.24296), as well as Driver-USB: HP LaserJet USB (DOT4) communication driver for Windows 8 and Higher (64bit) (dot4x64.msi) and the scanner is not detected. At one point, Windows detected the printer and set up HP LaserJet 3050 in Printers and Scanners with the error 'no drivers found' but later the error disappeared when I installed the drivers. This tells me that the issue must be with Windows not being able to detect the scanner capability of the LJ3050  like it does the printer capability before the drivers are installed.

[John_Getzke]

It is possible your scanner is broken and not able to communicate with anything.  

There are a few ways to test this theory:

1. Perform a simple photo copy 

2. Try to install the scanner on a 2nd machine

3. Open up Device Manager.  Watch the list of devices as you unplug the printer from the PC.  The list should refresh.  Plug the printer back in again.  The list should refresh again.  Scanners normally show up in the Imaging devices area when Windows can properly identify them.  However, the scanner might show up somewhere in the middle of the list as an Unidentified device.  If there are many unidentified devices you can confirm if one is the scanner by using the unplug/replug trick.

These should help you isolate if the scanner is broken versus an OS issue vs a physical connection issue between the scanner and the printer.

[hp3050user]

Hi John,

Windows 10 is able to detect the LJ3050 printer. When the USB cable is plugged  in, it's added to "Printers and Scanner". If not powered on, it shows up as "not connected" and that disappears when powered on. I'm also able to do local copying on the device.  When I press the "scan button", the message on the printer says "waiting for PC". 

I found the original install CD, and when I try to install from the CD, I got the error :

"F:\LJ_305X_339X\setup\hpzpnp40.exe"  -I enu -f c:\Windows\hppin..."

"System could not find the file specified"

 I was able to locate and download the missing exe file, but since I could burn it into a CD, I copied the CD  to my E- drive and copied the hpzpnp40.exe to E:\LJ_305X_339X\setup folder and tried the install again. Got the same error. Next I went into the properties of autorun.exe, hpzsetup.exe, hpzstub.exe, setup.exe as well as hpzpnp40.exe and changed compatibility mode in the compatibility tab to say "run in compatibility mode for Windows 7.  Tried running the setup, but got the same error.  

On a different but related issue, my DVD/CD-ROM shows up in device manager, but not in File Explorer. Not an issue before the upgrade from version 1803 to 1903.  Judging from the number of other people having similar problems, something must have changed in how the latest version of windows 10 detects / communicates with these devices (i.e. drivers??). If I could (but can't), I would go back to the previous version and permanently disable windows update! 

[John_Getzke]

It sounds like you can do a normal photo copy without a PC connected.  This confirms that the scanner hardware is functioning on the printer.  Lets move on.

Installing the scanner on a 2nd machine would be a good test to tell us if there is some kind of OS corruption on your current PC.  If there was an issue on your PC then you could consider a reload to fix it.  If you dont have access to one for a test then we will have to move on.

The Printers and Scanners window is different than the Imaging Devices area of Device Manager.  Printers and Scanners will show you printer and scanner as a single device which can be misleading.  The feedback in the device manager is much more conclusive and accurate.   If there is no imaging device for the printer in the Imaging Devices area of Device Manager, then there is no hardware for the PC to talk to.  Try the steps I suggested and see if you can observe anything in Device Manager.  If you can locate the missing device that is tied to the scanner you may be able to right click, update driver and then point it to a folder with the hp driver files.  Windows may be able to install the hardware and allow you to use 3rd party imaging software moving forward.

The original CD is not going to help you.  The CDs are outdated the moment they are created.  We should always use the most recent HP software from the website when troubleshooting for the best chances of success.

Interesting observation about the drives after taking 1809.  However, drive letter issues should be eliminated when you work with the downloaded installation files from the support website.  Everything should be looking in the same directory once you kick off one of the setup.exes unless something is not extracting to your machine correctly.

Rolling back to 1803 would be an interesting test too.  If the scanner can install correctly on the old version then we should have isolated the problem to a 1903 compatibility issue.  Problem here is that there isnt much you can do to force HP to revisit and update software for unsupported models.  They might get around to it, but there is no guarantee.  At that point it would be faster to replace the model with a new one that is under support.  Then you would have some leverage over HP to provide a software update for 1903 if you were to call it in for support.