Printer Driver for HP Deskjet 722c

[mikec822]

When Vista was inroduced, my driver for HP Deskjet 722c stopped working.  I searched for drivers and could found drivers for every HP printer except the Deskjet 722c.   Closest I found was the 720c but that did not work.  Contacting HP did not help as they were not interested.   I did some more searching and had come across someone who created a driver (on their own) that did work.  It was available for free so I downloaded it and it worked.   Since then, my hard drive crashed and I did not have a backup of the driver.   Does anyone out there have a driver that works in Vista or Win 7 for the Deskjet 722c? 

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

I posted the following some years ago but it has now been archived by HP.  I copied the original post below (with the patch).  There was a very long thread that ensued, you can see there for the original thread which had some good discussions.  Note that this works for x64 versions of Windows 7 and Vista for the HP Deskjet 722 as well as the printers listed below.  

Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 also have broken x64 drivers for these devices.  I spent some time trying to resolve the issue for those OS' without success.  For your Windows 7 system this should work fine:

There is an issue with the 64 bit Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 or 8.1 drivers that causes the spooler to crash with the following HP Deskjet printers:

Deskjet 710    

Deskjet 712 

Deskjet 720 

Deskjet 722 

Deskjet 810 

Deskjet 812 

Deskjet 820 

Deskjet 822 

Deskjet 1000 

The attached file contains a patch for this issue for Vista and Windows 7.

[The patch does not currently work for Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 x64 systems.  There are some efforts to address this, if a solution is developed it will be posted here.  {Edit - I have not made any progress in getting the patch to work in Windows 8 x64.}]  

First make sure the driver for the printer is installed.  If the driver has not been installed go to Start, Devices and Printers, Add a Printer, Local Printer, choose the proper port (for USB-Parallel converters the port will likely be USB001: or perhaps USB002: ), Next, click Windows Update then choose HP for the manufacturer and select the appropriate printer.   

Apply the patch as follows: Log into the computer with an administrative account.  Download the patch by clicking on this link or on the paper clip at the end of this post.  Save the patch file to your computer, then unzip it.  Next copy the three DLL files to the following directory:  %windir%\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3   

Note that %windir% is a system variable that points to the location of the Windows directory. For most systems this will be C:\Windows.  You can click Start, Computer and type%windir%\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3 in the address bar and it will find the right place.

This can be done from a DOS prompt if DOS is opened with the "run as administrator" command, or from explorer with a copy and paste.  Depending on your UAC settings you may need to provide confirmation.  Also allow the current files to be overwritten if prompted.

This patch is not required and should not applied to a 32 bit version of Vista or Windows 7.

Thanks to extraordinary Microsoft engineer Alan Morris for guidance for the patch.

Update - the following are more detailed installation instructions:

Download the patch from the DJ_Patch.zip at the bottom of the page and save it to your computer.  Now click on the file and open it, then extract the patch to some directory that is easy to find. (I use c:\temp. If this directory does not exist you can create it as follows: open the administrative DOS prompt by clicking on Start, All Programs, Accessories, then right click on CMD.EXE and select Run as Administrator. Click in the DOS box then type the following:

MD c:\temp

CD \temp

Now extract the patch files into the c:\temp directory (extract all, chose c:\temp as the destination).

[Update - Windows security settings may prevent these files from being used, please open Computer, type c:\temp in the address bar and then right click on each of the dll files and select Properties.  If there is a message in Properties indicating the file was downloaded from the internet and may be blocked then unblock the file before proceeding.]

Next click back in the administrative DOS prompt and type the following:(stuff in green is comments, do not type them...)

DIR *.dll (this is just to verify the files are there, it should list hpvdb720.dll, hpvdb820.dll and hpwm5db1.dll and perhaps others.)

Net stop spooler (makes sure the files are not in use.)

Copy  hpvdb720.dll  C:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3 (this is for the Deskjet 710/712/720/722)

Copy  hpvdb820.dll  c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3 (this covers the Deskjet 820 and 822)

Copy  hpwm5db1.dll  c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\x64\3(this covers the Deskjet 1000)

Net Start Spooler

Exit

[Edit - note that these DLL files will already be in the directory.  You will get a warning asking if it is OK to overwrite the files, say "yes".]

At this point the patch is installed and ready to print.

Note that the printers here do not support USB connections, they have only parallel ports. [Edit - if your printer does have a parallel port use it, this will likely be much less problematic than using a USB-Parallel converter.]   If you use a USB-parallel converter make sure it is supported in your operating system.  The following posts are flagged with USB-parallel cables that are reported to work in Windows 7.   A driver is required for the USB-parallel converter in addition to the driver for the printer.  For supported converters this is typically supplied automatically in Windows 7.  Note:  the proper port to select for the USB-Parallel converters is often USB001:.  I have heard of some cases where the port was USB002: or LPT3: as well.  If the port you are using does not succeed (after applying the patch) try changing the port by going to Start, Devices and Printers, right click on your printer and select Printer Properties, then click on the Ports tab.

[mikec822]

Thank you very much Bob.  Your solution worked like a charm!!!  Appreciate the time you took to respond also.  Take care. 

Mike Cordes