HP Imaging device was not found

[Duncs · Accepted solution]

That's what I ended up doing. Connecting the USB cable to get it setup, then leaving it for a week or so. I then tried setting it up as wireless and removed the USB cable. Everything worked fine. So, It looks like you need the USB connected so that you can fully set the printer up. Glad you got it working. Duncs

[cclye]

Duncs and others,

If you are facing the error "HP imaging device not found" on your HP Solutions Center while printing and copying works fine, then I may have a recovery process for you. I know from the dates that this thread is very old, hope others who faced a similar problem will benefit.

My recovery process pieced together from all the blogs. Do note that I am running a Windows 7 Home premium notebook with only ONE HP product installed (HP Officejet J4660 all-in-one). Follow the process at your own risk.

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1. Full uninstallation

Uninstall Officejet J660 All-in-one from Control Panel-Uninstall Programs
Once the installer pop-ups, click on uninstall all associated items.

Uninstall will proceed to reboot once you click on Finish.

Check that all HP Officejet related items have been uninstalled. Else go
to directory ccc in your installation disk or download driver removal
utility from hp.com. Use level 4 removal. System will again reboot after
scrub removal.

2. Full clean-up of remnant HP files.

Once back from reboot, check for HP Officejet remnant programs.
- Under C:\Program Files x86\HP\ delete all items under Digital Imaging.
- If Officejet is the ONLY HP product installed, delete the whole HP
directory under Program Files x86.

There will be items not removable because they are running in background.
- Call up Task Manager to stop hpwudSchd.exe (HP Update) process.
- Right click on Computer icon on desktop and select Manage. Go to
Services, stop services Print Spooler, Net Drive HPZ12 +Pml Driver HPZ12.
- With the above stopped, you should be able to delete whole HP directory.

- Under C:\Windows, delete directory twain_32 or rename to twain_32_bak
- Under C:\windows, delete directory temp or rename to my_temp.
- Under C:\Windows\System32, delete all files beginning with
hpbmiapi.dll to hpzisn12.dll. The way to determine HP-related dlls in this

directory is to right-click on each dll name starting with hp* and check the publisher

 details under properties. Better way is to cut all these files and keep in a folder on

desktop System32_HP dlls.
- Under Start Menu-Programs, right click and delete HP shortcuts.

3. Registry clean-up (main risk is in this part)

Under command prompt, type regedit then enter. Click yes to allow
regedit.exe to run.
Immediately upon opening the Registry Editor, under File pull-down
menu click on Export then click on All to save a Registry backup.
Name it Regbackup_date and save it on Desktop. Best to copy onto a
thumbdrive or external harddisk.

The below only works IF HP Officejet is the only HP product installed.
Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER-Software, delete whole Hewlett-Packard and HP
directories.
Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-Software, again delete whole HP directory.
Under HKEY_USERS-S-1-5-21-42233xxxxxx-1001 -Software, again delete
whole HP directory.

Reboot even if regedit does not force a reboot.

4. Firewall and anti-virus temporarily disabled.

Disabled all real-time anti-virus and firewall protection - 3rd party eg
Norton and Windows.
Remember to reset to normal/default once re-installation is successful.

5. Two-step installation.

Download latest HP full software + driver (release 14) and basic print+
scan driver. We need both.
Install first the basic print+scan driver. Once completed, windows
scan should work. Open up Devices and Printers, right click on
Officejet J4660 and use scan. If successful, this is a good sign.

If you are happy with Windows scan function, stop here.
If you are not, install the full software + driver again, all the
Officejet related programs eg HP Solutions Center should be installed
and working without the error message "HP imaging device not found".

I personally believe that a full windows + program files x86 + registry clean-up followed by the two-step installation helped.

[RVE]

Thank you for your steps. I used steps 1 and 2 (parital), and 5. I did not use steps 3 or 4. The dowload of the driver only software appeared to work. I can at least scan, which was the issue at hand, by right clicking on the device icon in Devces and Printer. Kudos to you for your foresight in providing a recap of the steps you took for other people to use.

[RVE]

You have heard of the expression, "when it ain't broke, do not fix it." Well after I implement your partial steps, I decided to do the full download. I should have left it at the download of the drivers because as soon as I completed the full download and installation, I started to receive the same error unable to locate imaging device error. I should have left well enough alone!!! Definitely one of those Simpson "Duhhhh" moments of mine.

[memargo]

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@Duncs wrote:

For some reason, I now find that I cannot scan from my HP Office J6410.  When I startup my PC, I get the message "The HP imaging device was not found." with 5 options to try.  The extended error information is shown as "8, [(1, 0, -2147221496)]", which I'm guessing means something to someone.

I've tried each of the five options given, but still I get the error.  I've ran the Scan Diagnostic Utility, only to find that the process fails at the "Windows (WIA) Scan" check.  The error text I get is:

"The HP Scan Diagnostic Utility is unable to scan using the Windows Imaging service. Save your work, and then close all applications. Turn the product off, turn it on again, and then click Restart Computer. If the issue persists, you will not be able to scan using applications that use this service, such as Microsoft Paint. HP scanning software applications might still work. If you want to scan with WIA, remove the Driver by clicking Uninstall Software. Reinstall the software with the product CD or by downloading the most current Full Feature software from the HP Web site (Recommended)."

I've tried all this, but still I get the original error message.  I've never had this before but it has only recently appeared.  Anyone know what's wrong and how to fix it?

TIA

Duncs

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