HP scan incompatible with Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks)?

[LenFriedel]

I agree entirely with the continued complaints in this 35 page thread. Almost six months now with NO SOLUTION AND TOTALLY INADEQUATE COMMUNICATIONS FROM HP.

Running MacBook Pro and HP Scanjet 4850 plus HP Laserjet P1102w.

"Upgraded" from OSX 10.7 to OSX 10.9 in late October 2013.  Immediately, printer continued to function, scanner scanned the image properly, but after I saved and named the image, and opened the jpg file, it contained only horizontal gray scale bars.

Upgraded yesterday from OSX 10.9.1 to OSX 10.9.2 with same lousy results.

If HP and Apple do not solve this problem in the next few days, I will buy a Canon or Epson scanner.  And I will recommend to all friends and acquaintances who use Macs that they AVOID ALL HP PERIPHERALS IN THE FUTURE.

[afischlin]

Dear Lil_Lisa27,

This is probably the last time I will reply to your contributions.

You wrote "To answer your question about why I had not suggested to Reset the Print system on your Mac. As I had provided troubleshooting steps that have resolved the issue without having to go through the reset. I had posted these steps to you on page 27, on January 20th. I did not have a response if all the steps that I had posted had worked or not. The next post that you made on page 32, on Feb 4th, stated that you had found the step, and that it has worked for you."

I have never asked you why you have not suggested to Reset the Print system.

The troubleshooting steps that you have suggested have not worked in my case. This is a fact I wanted to convey to you, nothing else. I thought I owe you this information so that you can learn something, sort of as a sign of my appreciation for your effort to help me. You then continue "The step for Reset the Printing System does not resolve the issue a 100% of the time ...". Note, I have never expected that, given the many bugs in the HP driver software, which are likely to create many, many different situations. And please to not assert that there would be no bugs in that software. I have explained in lengthy contributions my difficulties and what I suspect, as a programmer, is a probably fundamental problem with the HP driver software since many years. I am pretty confident I know very well what I am talking about here.

Then you finally get really to the question I was asking. You write "With the date for the Mavericks software changing for the Officejet Pro 8600 on the download, I cannot answer this with a 100% certainty. I would assume that the software development team is always working on the software, and releasing updates to the software." With all respect, this is no answer to my question. To be frank: I find it not acceptable, as I also expressed in earlier contributions, that a company offers software as new, with a changed date, with a changed content (file size in byte numbers differ) but using the same version number. There is no excuse for that and no good reason for that. You should not defend such a mistake as you seem to do. Since you write about yourself "I work on behalf of HP" I expect you to have perhaps some contact to HP. Having this hope means I also expect you to not defend HP for a cristal clear mistake, but to inform HP to correct the mistake. Moreover, I thought if you really wish to help users, you should investigate the case and find out what is going on, what is the difference between these offers in terms of functionality. Then you can inform users with reliable and useful information. This is what I was hoping for.

To wrap up, in my view the following is needed:

1) HP needs to be informed on the version problem and asked to fix it

2) Someone should test the latest software to find out whether it improves anything (needed when same version is used, but different date, different file size indicating different content; IMHO you should not download this to end-users)

Then I suggest on more general grounds:

3) This forum thread must no longer be handled as "Problem solved". IMHO nothing is really solved only because for some of the problems some of the users found some means to circumvent their specific problem. There remain so many problems in this software, i.e. the HP driver software under Maverick, with so many users that I do not believe "problem solved" is appropriate. It is misleading and therefore exacerbates the mistrust the users already have for even more good reasons.

4) The many bugs that users find in this software ought to be properly reported to HP instead of circumventing them all the time with delicate and only too often time consuming remedies that soon thereafter end up in a system that again does not work anymore when the slightest change is made, e.g. in an update, a change in the configuration or other setting. The result is indeed what we have: HP never fixes the bugs, each new release contains the same bugs and can cause havoc, i.e. a disfunctional system, anytime. A pity, given that the hardware is fine.

I intend to no longer contribute, since this is sort my last word on this issue. I have worked since decades with HP products, notably also printers. The first printer was excellent and worked reliably for many, many years. Its driver software was also working perfectly and the many operating system changes never caused any problems. But thereafter, only trouble resulted. I do not believe that HP's engineer wrote the foundation for that new driver software, I suspect it was outsourced to programmers who had little idea what they were doing and certainly did not base this sofware on well designed concepts. All was based on single user, single PC/Mac <-> single printer connection only. Anything else, the actual hardware was designed for, e.g. connection to a LAN, was not considered. The pity is, and I am pretty confident this to be true, this software foundation forms still the core of all the drivers that are in use today. Unless someone understands that, I fear it will never be overcome, the software will never be properly overhauled and redesigned for all uses and the complaints from users will continue. Indeed, from this follows, I do currently not recommend to purchase HP printers for home use, regardless of the quality of the hardware, since software becomes more and more important (and do not hold your breath over this). Meaning, unless HP really adresses the issues I describe here, any ordinary user risks to lose a lot of time with these printers in the attempt to figure out how to use the device.

Good luck and take care.

Sincerely yours,
Andreas Fischlin

[bigo72]

HP people is fighting in the same house? 🙂