Windows 11 Version 24H2 stopped Scanner connection

[sandohp]

Finally, I got my HP Scanjet 3600 f1 scanner to work with what is basically the steps @kndy describes above but with a few extra steps. I also had a long call with HP support today. 

The first challenge was to get KB5048667 installed. I could not as Windows was telling me:

Windows Standalone Update Installer:  "Update is not applicable"

It appears that KB5048667 was already part of another package that replaces it and which was already installed on my system (KB5050094).

The second step, running pnputil /delete-driver escl.inf /uninstall /force, went easy, but Windows kept installing escl.inf immediately after uninstalling it. To remedy this I deleted all three instances of escl.inf on my system but that wasn't enough - Windows reinstalled it again anyway. So in the end I decided to prevent installation via gpedit.msc. 

To find out which Id's to prevent from installing I opened device manager > Imaging Devices. It lists two devices: HP HP Scanjet Pro 3600 f1 and HP Scanjet Pro 3600 f1 (USB).

The first one is the one I wanted to get rid of. So go to Properties > Details and find the heading compatible IDs. In my case they were:

1284_CID_MS_ESCL

SWD\GenericRaw

SWD\Generic

• Then, open Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
• Navigate to Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Device Installation - Device Installation Restrictions
• Double click Prevent Installation of devices that match any of these device IDs
• Tick Enabled and click Show
• Enter the Hardware ID in a value line

(gpedit.msc only comes with Windows Pro and higher, but there are ways to install it on Home - otherwise there probably are ways to achieve the same result in the registry)

After a reboot, I could scan with HP software. However, trying to start a scan from the HP Scan Assistant device setup still does not work. Hope this helps someone.

PS:

If you don't see the (USB) version of your scanner you might have to install HPeSCLScan.INF by executing pnputil: 

pnputil /add-driver C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hpesclscan.inf_amd64_dd3026ad8aaa51a0\HPeSCLScan.INF

[jwrobot]

None of the solutions listed on this thread have helped and neither did any of the solutions on HP Scanner's broke with 24H2 updates - Microsoft Community  Between Microsoft and HP you'd think one of the companies would care enough to fix it so we don't have to replace scanners.

[sandohp]

It doesn't help if you don't mention specifics: what scanner do you have, what flavour of Windows is running (Home, Pro?). I'm convinced you're not telling the truth if you claim that none of the solutions work as I know you haven't tried to install Windows 10 on a virtual machine. I guarantee you that works.

If you tried any of the steps mentioned below nobody will be able to help you if you don't mention exactly what steps you took, what the outcome was and how it is different from the expected outcome. It's just not how troubleshooting works. If you're willing to put some effort in, I'm sure others are prepared to as well.

I agree with you it's a shame that HP and Microsoft don't solve this problem. What's more, they don't even publicly acknowledge there is a problem. Why isn't there a banner on the product pages of the respective scanners warning for this issue?

[jwrobot]

Yes we have tried all the steps.  

We have HP Scanjet Pro 3000 s2s and HP Scanjet Pro 3000s3s.  We are running Windows 11 pro x64.  Running Windows 10 on a virtual machine is not a viable option in a corporate environment.  

We have also tried the solutions found here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/hp-scanners-broke-with-24h2-updates/7edc3b38-c...  

Trying to change the driver to the "Universal Driver" they all mention results in an error that it is not supported on a 64bit system.

The only thing that works is keeping the machines from installing the 24H2 update.

[sandohp]

Unfortunately what you tried is not the recommended approach. You should specifically refer to Kndy's contribution which does not mention 'universal' anything. What Kndy describes is the same as what HP Support told me on the phone. See my steps for elaboration (specifically with respect to preventing reinstalling the wrong driver), and see how you fare. Or don't install updates, but I guess (and hope) that if you're in a corporate environment that is not an option.

[jwrobot]

Kndy's contribution is the one that results in it saying the driver is not supported on a 64bit system.  If you followed the link I posted and read in that forum you would see that some users were told to use a generic HP driver which is basically what Kndy is saying to do as that driver you are changing to is not the driver made for the scanner.  Also Kndy said that approach didn't fix it for him either and was 50/50 shot.

What did fix the issue for us finally was installing KB5052093.

HP has done nothing to fix this as the official driver for HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s2 driver is from 2015 and the ScanJet Pro 3000 s3 driver is from 2022

[kndy]

Greetings everyone,

HP has contacted me and he said that these two updates should fix the HP Scanner issues:  

2025-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5052093)

2025-01 Preview cumulative update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5050577)  and he said - Please take in consideration that both updates may take approximately 1 hour, so please be patient.

[jwrobot]

We installed both the KBs and tested the scanners on a few computers and they were working initially.  Then they stopped working again and we are back to square one.  

I will no longer be buying any HP products as they don't seem to care and the drivers for their scanners are from 2015.

[sandohp]

I understand your annoyance - I'm frustrated too. And I don't want to defend HP, but it's a fact that printers by other brands have the same issues. That said, it's incredibly disappointing that MS still have not succeeded in creating a fix for this. And HP, indeed, don't seem to care. You would expect to at least see a confirmation of this problem. (And then HP always gives you these pop-ups asking for your opinion and how much value they attach to it. If that were true they have a strange way of showing it).

By the way, none of the posts refer to what was an essential step in my case (so I'm doubtful anybody applied it). I prevented reinstall of the faulty driver in the Group Policy editor. If I leave that out, the faulty driver seems to take over and it doesn't work. (My scanner is not working with 24H2 as we speak as the notebook we use has been updated despite telling Windows not to in the same Group Policy editor - it seems Microsoft just overrides that policy).

[sandohp]

I doubt what you say about the driver not being intended for that scanner is true. The fact is that I get the driver from the download of the full scanner solution in my case. If I extract that one I get a folder 'HP-scanjet3600-install-W10-7zS30FA' with in the root a file 'HPeSCLScan.INF'. If I install that one, I have a chance at success. (As long as I exclude the other driver by using GPE).