hp pavilion not working with my lexmark printer

mkennedy

hi.
i was wondering if anyone could help me out.

i recently bought a hp pavilion dv 1448ea laptop but my old lexmark z35 printer doesn't work with it.

what happens is i install the driver for the printer and it works the first couple of times i plug in the usb cable. however any time i try to use it after that i get an error message saying "cannot communicate with the printer, check if its turned on etc".

btw i never had much problem using this printer with my old dell laptop (with which it was originally bundled).

incidentally, on a separate issue, i also have a usb bluetooth adaptor which doesn't work with the new hp laptop (e.g i can't connect my bluetooth enabled pda to my laptop via the adaptor). again, this adaptor also worked well with my old dell laptop.

i have contacted hp tech support about these issues and apart from some feeble advice about uninstalling usb host controllers in hardware manager they have been virtually useless and plain unhelpful. eventually they told me to do a re-install which i did. 4 hours later i am in the same boat, no difference whatsoever.

i got back on to them today and they tell me that the laptop and printer are "incompatible" and do not offer any explanation for this incompatibility. just another one of life's big mysteries, obviously.
obviously, they tell me to get on to lexmark as well to find out what this incompatibility issue is.

anyway, can anyone tell me if this mysterious INCOMPATIBILITY between laptops and printers is common. it seems a bit incredible to me that i can't use a standard printer with a standard laptop.

btw i'm not too bothered by the fact that the bluetooth adaptor doesn't work with the laptop tbh but a bloody printer. wtf.

the only thing i can think of is given the fact that the printer was originally bundled with my old dell laptop, would this mean that it would be only functional with my this laptop.

anyway, i would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on this issue. or maybe just let me know if this unresolvable incompatibilty issue is common and whether tech support have done all they can. or maybe if someone could tell me where i could get a list of incompatible printers for hp laptops (if such a thing exists) so i don't buy another printer that's no good to me. (btw, hp were again unhelpful regarding this).

end of rant.
any help much appreciated.
thanks.

Tom Dunne

mkennedy wrote:

anyway, i would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on this issue. or maybe just let me know if this unresolvable incompatibilty issue is common and whether tech support have done all they can.

I have ranted about HP support several times here on boards, so I am not going to repeat it again here. However, the suggestion that HP laptops are somehow "incompatible" with Lexmark printers is utter crap.

I have a HP Pavillion laptop and I've thrown numerous combinations of hardware at it. In fact, it is currently acting as my media center via GBPVR.

The first step I would suggest is to download the latest drivers for the printer. Secondly, maybe you do have some hardware problems (I certainly did with my HP), so check in the Event Viewer for something.

Another thing - try the printer on a number of different computers if you can (including cables). If it works on every other computer, at least you know there is nothing wrong with the printer.

Post back and we will see what we can do.

dil999

Sounds Llike a hardware problem with the USB controller. I had a similar problem with a usb PCI card, and I kept getting messages telling me the printer was offline.
Do you have anything else plugged into a USB port when this is happening, keyboard, mouse, ipod etc. If so it could be a problem with that hardware. Plug everythinh out and try the printer on its own.

regds
Dil

Karoma

Aye. The USB-connected bluetooth adaptor and USB-connected printer are having issues...
What other USB devices are plugged in?
What power is provided for each?
Check for updates on their website (BIOS in particular)?

mkennedy

thanks lads for your suggestions.
no i don't have any other usb device plugged in at the same time as my printer (ditto in the case of the usb bluetooth adaptor).

re. trying the printer on other computers: the printer worked fine on my old dell laptop as i mentioned but i haven't tried it on any other computers. i suppose i can try find another machine to try it with but surely if it works with one machine it works, right?

re. the possibility of a hardware problem: i must admit that i have no problem connecting my canon multifunction printer and my tvtuner which are both usb2.0 to the laptop. hp's argument was that if i could connect any usb device the usb ports were working. does this sound right? does this suggest no hardware problem.

as for it being a usb host controller problem, i re-installed the operating system but the problem remained. surely re-installing the OS outrules a usb host controller issue or does it? also presumably reinstallation outrules any problems with the OS itself, right?

i suppose i could try updating the driver for the printer. i'll do it later today and let ye know how i get on. as for the usb bluetooth adaptor (widcomm), i have tried updating that driver in device manager but can't seem to do so.

but, without going on too much about it, i think i'm more annoyed about the lack of support from hp than the problem itself.

they didn't even suggest the most basic stuff like some of the suggestions above.

and trying to get them to elaborate on what exactly they meant by "incompatible" was impossible. i just got the same obtuse responses that "it just is". no explanation, no list of incompatible printers that they could refer me to to prove this (which i would have been happy with btw). no willingness to prove there was no hardware problem with the laptop itself.

absolutely maddening. i never rant about stuff like this but its unbelievable how they can get away with that.

btw, what other recourse do you suggest i have with such blatant unhelpfulness/disinterest/incompetence/stupidity. besides telling them that is "utter crap" which i wholeheartedly agree with btw.

anyway, i'll try some of that stuff today and post back a bit later.
thanks.

Tom Dunne

mkennedy wrote:

btw, what other recourse do you suggest i have with such blatant unhelpfulness/disinterest/incompetence/stupidity. besides telling them that is "utter crap" which i wholeheartedly agree with btw.

There isn't a whole lot you can do, especially when you have "technical support" muppets reading from a script.

What I do is do my damned best to dissuade anyone I know from purchasing HP.

On a side note - I think you should focus on the printer problem first. Bluetooth can be notoriously tricky to set up if it doesn't work first time (speaking from bitter experience). Printers, on the other hand, should be relatively straightforward (ditto).

mkennedy

sorry for the lateness of my reply. so if anyone is still interested in sorting this problem out i'd appreciate it.

i downloaded what i'm fairly sure is the relevant driver for my printer from the lexmark website but when i tried
to update the driver i got a message that the "best match" driver is already installed. does that mean the installed lexmark
driver is ok?

anyway there is something else interesting i have just noticed:
when i connect the usb cable to a usb port for the first time to install the lexmark drivers everything seems to go ok. the lexmark driver installation process seems to complete and i can use the printer on this one usb port at least.

but when i disconnect it from this port and reconnect it to any other ports i then start to run into problems. it's then that i get a message about having to complete the installation of the lexmark drivers as if they hadn't been installed at all.
and then after that none of the usb ports work and i get the message "cannot communicate with the printer".

also, regarding a possible hardware problem, the device status of all the usb host controllers and of my printer in device manager is set as "working".

in the meantime i'll talk to lexmark tomorrow just to make sure i'm not missing something when it comes to updating the driver.

btw twice in 2 days hp have said they would get back to me about this and twice they failed to do so even after me telling them the first time they never got back to me.
amazing.

anyone with any other suggestions.

thanks