Windows 11 Version 24H2 stopped Scanner connection

[jwrobot]

You must have stock in HP to defend them so much.  We have Epson scanners that work flawlessly without issue.  No issues with any of our printers that are a mix of canon and Epson.  The only thing we have issues with are the HP scanners.  Again the HP Scanjet 3000 s2 has drivers from 2012 and the HP Scanjet 3000 s3 are from 2020. That is bad practice all around to never update drivers.

  This is what one users computer shows when the scanner is turned on.  Instead of showing the actual device name it saying it's an HP AIO Scanner.

Then the device will say it's not connected 

Rebooting the computer, power cycling the scanner, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers does nothing.  If I try chaning the driver like TDres suggested I have a C:\Program Files\HP\HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s3\DriverStoreTwain\HPScanUnusedStubDriver\UnusedScanStub_SJ3000_U that will change those drivers but will still not work and once you unplug the scanner or reboot the computer they revert back to saying Printing Support.

I don't know why you are having such a hard time understanding that your solutions are not working and HP Scanners are junk.  They have had issues from day one where they would lose connection and need to be power cycled to get them to work again.  That is why we stopped buying them and switched to Epson scanners.  We have been phasing out HP Scanners as they are junk and their support is worthless.  We have had no issues with the Epson scanners and aren't required to jump through hoops every morning for 200 users trying to get their scanners working everyday.

[sandohp]

Thanks, @Kndy, I appreciate your efforts to give us an update. So maybe these companies (MS and HP) care more than we think after all. If that's the case I don't understand that they do not advertize it a little more.

Some communication and public acknowledgement of issues would go a long way in establishing trust and goodwill amongst their customers. I for one will be glad if I no longer have to be afraid to update my PC for fear of losing compatibility.

By the way, if anyone is interested in the root cause of this issue, MS have described it here: on page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/resolved-issues-windows-11-24h2#3446msgdesc look for 'USB devices that support eSCL scan protocol may not be discoverable'.

What I do not understand is that they say they solved it in December 2024, and then claim the same for a February  2025 update. So maybe the original 'solution' was not very effective?

[sandohp]

Nonsense. I'm as annoyed with HP as you are. But Epson scanners have stopped working with earlier Windows 11 updates for some, and both Canon and Ricoh scanners have fallen victim to the same problem as HP scanners. The problem lies with the eSCL, Scanner Communication Language, which is used by quite a few manufacturers, brands and models (but not all).

It strikes me that you are not very accurate in describing what exact steps you have taken, and what the exact results were. You don't have to - you're a customer wishing products just work - but it doesn't really help others to get insight in underlying issues and you don't help yourself if you want things to get resolved.

[jwrobot]

How am I not describing what I am doing when I am telling you I am following all the steps provided in this forum and the steps from the microsoft forum and telling you what errors I am seeing and that the scanners will not work?  You are basically arguing for the sake of aruging.

Just because you got your one model of HP Scanner to work does not mean that every model of HP Scanner will work with your suggested steps.  

You keep mentioning printers but we are not having any trouble with printers and are only having trouble with HP Scanners.  

For the 15 years I have worked at this company we have had nothing but problems with HP Scanners but we have not had any issues at all with Epson Scanners.

[sandohp]

The ' telling you I am following all the steps' just doesn't cut it. To properly troubleshoot you need to describe exactly what the results are of each step and whether they match with what is expected. I'm not saying that what works for me works for everyone, but at least one should get the steps right. It would have helped if you had contrasted what is in device manager when things worked with after they stopped working.

Anyway, it's no use as you are already convinced that HP are rubbish. I don't think that's a fair assessment as it's actually a Microsoft Windows update which caused these problems and there is actually nothing specific about HP drivers causing these issues.

[jwrobot]

No you are clearly an hp employee and have no real technical knowledge.  Giving someone steps that doesn't work and then saying you must be doing the steps wrong is not helpful.  Especially when you must be running these on a home computer as you said you got them working by using a VM on your desktop.  Using a Windows 10 VM is not a viable option for anyone that is security minded as Windows 10 is now EOL.  

Yes hp are rubbish as they are the only scanners to be showing this issue and all other vendors regularly update drivers.  hp is relying on years old drivers that have never been updated which also means that any CVEs that come out are unlikely to ever be patched by hp.  

What is not helpful is when you are trying to support over 200 users all calling and complaining that their scanners are not working and being told it's only not working because you didn't follow the steps some random internet user says will fix it.  

The scanners will randomly start working and then stop.  A user can scan one document and the go to scan another right after and then once again the scanner will not be found or it will say it's disconnected.  Sometimes simply rebooting the computer will make it work again for a short time, and other times I can go through all the troubleshooting steps and nothing works.  

It is not a productive use of my time to break out the crayons and explain step by step what happens when I follow all the steps that people are posting, especially when others are saying they are also not working for them.  If you would actually read anything I post and not just jump to hps defense you would know that a screenshot is not needed for what device manager shows when it's working, as it will show HP Scanjet Pro 3000 s2.  

You are incredibly unhelpful and clearly don't have enough technical knowledge to troubleshoot anything without a script to read from.

[sandohp]

I hope you feel better after getting all this off your chest.

You're beyond redemption but I'll repeat the facts here:

My suggestion to use a virtual machine with Windows 10 was just an initial attempt to get the scanner working.  (Windows 10 will be EOL by October 2025, by the way). The solution provided by Kndy is HP's official reaction (which I also got on the phone). I needed to supplement it with a policy in Group Policy Editor by preventing the non ESclScan driver to install. And indeed, it is just a matter of following a script. I've often been successful in solving hardware issues by just taking it step by step and reporting back. It's an approach I can recommend if one genuinely wants to solve issues.

Whether we are 'random' users is a moot point - the instructions come from HP themselves. As an owner of a HP Scanjet I'm disgruntled by its non functioning since Windows updates. The reality of it, though, is that MS have provided a faulty update and other brands have been hit by this as well.

Edit: the fact that scanners work for your colleagues at one point and not later on might have very well to do with the fact that Windows installs another driver, the faulty one, as you probably left out the step to prevent Windows from reinstalling  that one. Despite you following what you vaguely call 'the steps'.

[IT_Mike]

This did work for me.  Now I see someone else said it worked and then broke shortly after.  So we will see how long my results last.  I found a couple of solutions that have worked here on one PC but not on another.  So this one has worked on everyone I have attempted it so far.  

This had already been installed on some of the devices

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

This was not installed on any device.  

2025-01 Preview cumulative update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5050577)

Keeping my fingers crossed.