Activate Scan to Computer? Officejet 6500A Plus

[AcaCandy]

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02073861

Try the diagnostic utility.

[dap8811]

I've already tried it.  The Scan Diagnotic Utility can't find the device, either.  It says there is no printer attached or something to that effect.  It appears that it is expecting it to be USB  attached rather than network attached.

[AcaCandy]

Try going to the control panel, printers, and remove the Officejet. Then go to add printers and browse to find the network printer.

[pcwizard]

Hi 

Uninstall the printer, and then reinstall using the link below. 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-86366-3&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&...

[AcaCandy]

This leads me to wonder what version of Windows 7 the user is using? Starter?

[dap8811]

Windows 7 Professional.  It's a corporate laptop.

[pcwizard]

Hi 

Uninstall the printer, and then reinstall using the link below. Let me know your results?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-86366-3&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&...

[realjax]

Dear HP employee, why don't you provide some 'total care' and answer this one too:

@realjax wrote:

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@kfocht wrote:

Users have been complaining about this problem for more than a year, yet there is NO solution yet????  Does HP really believe consumers want to restart their printers and redo the Activate scan to computer EVERY time they want to scan something?  I really wish I would not have purchased this printer....

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Yes. How about it HP ?

The whole scan to computer works flaky at best. And why is there no 'scan to network folder' option either? Would solve a lot of problems.

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[pcwizard · Accepted solution]

Hi realjax, 

In this version of the software we tried giving the customer the options to manage their activate scan to computer settings. The printer was still capable of scanning from the software. This way our software wasn't using up the customers system resources all the time. In later versions of this software we took the advice of the customer, and made the activate scan to computer active during the installation of the printer. 

Activate the scan connection to the computer

Follow these steps to activate the scan connection between the HP product and the computer.

Mac users : This step is not necessary for Mac operating systems. Skip to the next step.

 IMPORTANT: To send scans from your HP product to a computer over a wired (Ethernet) or a wireless network, you must enable the Activate Scan to Computer connection from the HP software after the computer restarts, hibernates, or enters sleep mode (the hard disc shuts down). The scan cannot complete if the Activate Scan to Computer connection is not enabled each time that the computer restarts, hibernates, or enters sleep mode .

1. Press the Power button ( ) to turn the product on.
2. Open the HP software by following one of these methods.
3. Double-click the product icon ( ) on your desktop.
4. In Windows XP, click Start ( ), or in Windows Vista and Windows 7, click the Windows icon ( ), click All Programs , click the HP folder, click the folder with the name of your product series, and then click your product.
5. Under Scanner Actions , click Activate Scan to Computer .
   HP designed a quick and easy tool that diagnoses and resolves many printing, scanning, and connectivity problems: The HP Print and Scan Doctor. HP recommends that you download and install the Print and Scan Doctor any time you need to troubleshoot a problem with your HP printer from the link below. 
   
   Let me know what errors you receive?
   
   http://www.hp.com/go/tools
   How to Scan

[realjax]

Thank you. But how does that answer our question?

Let me tell you a story.

There once was a User that needed a new printer. Het bought the 6500A plus. One of  the main resasons for doing so was that this printer had a document feeder for scanning documents and could scan directly to a pc. At home he had a number of machines including a server. The server ran Windows 2003 server.

Since this server was the only machine always running, scans needed to go to this pc.  

The HP driver software however can *not* be installed on a windows 2003 server for unclear reasons, so this was impossible. The user could of course upgrade the server and then reconfigure users, and reinstall all services and apps running on it just to humor HP. But the user thought to himself:  'Homey don't play that'

So instead he ran a virtual XP instance on the server. The HP drivers where then installed on this virtual XP machine. 

He then ran the activate scan to computer on this virtual machine. Lo and behold, the User was able to select a pc to scan to straight from the printer. Perfect.

only....

Sometimes, for unclear reasons, the activate scan to computer suddenly got disabled. The driver 'knew' it was disabled because it said so itself. It iwas however not smart enough to auto-reconnect when disabled.

Not was the printer smart enough to try to reconnect. Nor could the printer scan straight  to a network folder..

No, none of that.

But up untill this very day the user has to step in at regular intervals ( daily ) to check if things are still enabled and if not, manually click a button.

Sad story isn't it?