HP Smart and Scan and Capture won't find USB printer/scanner using windows 11

[Petebo71]

I just got a new Windows 11 laptop, and it took some effort to get my old HP Photosmart C4280 USB printer installed. I got basic printing to work, but I tried the HP Smart printing program to scan something, and it would not find my printer, which was plugged in and on. It seems to be strictly for wireless printers.  I tried the HP Scan and Capture program as well and it will not find the printer either.

The printer was working fine with my old laptop running Windows 10, printing, scanning to PDF using the HP Scan and Capture program, no problems. I went to the Scan and Capture after the HP solution Center stopped working last year because Adobe Flash was no longer supported.  Windows 11 would not even install the software that came on a CD with the printer.

 This printer was working fine for my occasional needs. It appears that it is deliberately being made unusable and obsolete. Anybody have any ideas on this?

[ShlomiL]

Hi,

The HP Smart is intended for much later HP printers, HP scan and Capture requires a driver installation, while any such is not available for such older models which are not compatible with Windows 11:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4839960-4840167-16

You may try the 3rd party Vuescan application and check if it may detect your scanner with its included 3rd party driver, although there might be issues for such an older software, but it worth a try:

https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/hp_photosmart_c4280.html#technical-information

Regards,

Shlomi

[Petebo71]

Thanks for your response. I did try the free trial version of the software you mentioned and it would not recognize my C4280. I did not pursue it since the pay version is $200  for up to 10 users, a small office.  I did not readily see a consumer version, and for that kind of money, I'll get new hardware.

Now after recent  updates, my Windows 10 machine no longer works with the C4280. It appears to me that HP, with the cooperation of Microsoft, decided to disable older hardware so consumers will spend.  I am getting the whiff of a class action lawsuit. Thanks for your efforts and have a good day.