November 2001--This
is a shaggy dog story. A long and pointless rambling that doesn't
really say anything or go anywhere, but I've got to tell it anyway.
It all started when I decided that my 15 year old
copier, my thermal paper fax and 7 year old printer should be
retired. I waited anxiously for the HP 950.
I had one reservation; it used a USB interface.
Not trusting a connection created after the invention of electricity
I was concerned, but I had used my digital camera USB connection
without a problem so I plunged ahead.
I actually followed the installation directions on
my Windows 2000 based machine; install the HP software first, do
some stuff with the printer and then hook it up and let Windows plug
and play it. Easy enough.
Sure enough Windows saw the printer and did the
automatically installation. I pulled up the HP printer manager
window and clicked status and waited...and waited until finally it
came back and told me that the printer wasn't there. Trying to print
with it returned an error every time.
Strange says I, time to check for loose cables,
etc. Nothing funny there. Go online and search the HP database. Lots
of possibilities there from a bad USB chipset to an install software
glitch. Checked the computer vendors database. Naturally all their
stuff pointed to software.
Remove all the software in safe mode and repeat
the process. No go.
Try installing it on the laptop. Same experience.
It might be the actual USB cable or the voltage on
the USB line and one solution for that is to try a different cable
and/or a powered USB hub. The latter includes a cable so to save a
trip I picked up the latter.
Tried the new cable. No go. Tried the USB hub, no
go. Tried both on the laptop, no go.
Nothing else I could think of except reinstall
Windows 2000 but it was a fairly new install, I just couldn't figure
anything being broken in there.
I had a copy of Windows XP I'd been holding off on
installing. I had planned on waiting until SR-2 was released (why is
it that Microsoft software is never any good until service release
2?) but desperate times and all that.
Removed the HP software, unhooked the printer and
installed XP.
The XP install went well, a bit over an hour and
everything worked afterwards.
Hooked up the printer (the software is built into
XP), XP saw the printer and...it worked like a charm.
So there it is, I have a new operating system and
a new printer/scanner/copier/fax and it only took two days.
As I warned, a long and rambling story but maybe
not as pointless as I thought. Perhaps all the hoopla about how easy
computing is getting and the benefits of plug and play are nothing
more than market hype. How much "easier" have things gotten since
the days when you plugged a printer into a parallel port and routed
output to LPT1 or LPT2? Is it two steps forward and one step back or
one step forward and two steps back? And to make matters worse I
don't even know who to blame.
At least now I can write about the HP 950 and
Windows XP.
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