This is a all-in-one device. Was purchased within the last 5 weeks. And was
installed as USB connection and working (only after owner spent a bunch of
"quality" time with HP's techs) on a XP Home machine that was a XP upgrade
over top a Win98 SE installation (not a clean install). However during some
other work on the system it was decided to start from scratch and do a clean
install of XP. So, I got all the data/mail files moved over, formatted the
drive and installed XP Home. Applied SP2 + all other MS security patches.
Decided before adding any software to install printer and decided to go for
the ethernet definition as it would be nicer for his home network if that
system didn't have to be on for wife to use the printer.

I connected a ethernet cable (provided by HP) from the router to the printer
(Note: the USB cable was not attached at this point. It was it attached nor
the printer even powered on during the XP install). Things seemed to be
chugging along nicely - the install saw the printer on the router,
identified it correctly and it's ip address. We're winding down into the
final pass of the install (been installing 35-40 minutes at this time) and
suddenly it pops up a error screen with a 1304 code and the info that
install has failed because the account doesn't have permission to replace a
file (file name started with a hp). Uh????? I'm running in an account with
administrator rights.  Tried again and still didn't work. Then decided to
try the USB - same story. Went to HP's web site and found a article on error
with permission - it directed me to a file to download that when run would
"fix" the permissions issue allowing the installation to complete. Tried
again - no joy - same result. So, I opened a support chat session in a
browser with a HP tech. He tells me the system has too many inf files on it
(a brand new installation???????) and sent me a link to a article and I was
to follow the article. Bottom line was go to C:\Windows\Inf and sort on size
and delete all inf files with a size of 0. There was only one there and from
the date/time stamp was written by the HP install routine. But followed
instructions, deleted and rebooted and tried to install again with the same
result. At this point I've spent nearly 4 hours trying to install the
printer on a very clean install of XP Home with no luck. So went ahead and
installed his software that he uses, got his data/mail files restored and
asked him to call HP today.

HP put him through the same scenario they did me then told him ".....that
our problem was that we left the USB cable plugged into the printer when we
reinstalled the Windows software. He said as a result of that the drivers
for the printer and for ANY USB driver we may have left plugged in --
printer, camera, Palm Pilot, etc.--have now become (or have been overtaken
by) Windows software. Hence, when we try to reinstall any of these devices,
we'll get error messages. ....." The only "fix" for this situation is to
wipe the system clean and reinstall XP again then install the printer and
it'll work.

As Charlie wasn't present during the XP install he was not aware that the
printer had both it's USB cable and power cord detached during the XP
install and I do know that you absolutely do not plug in the USB cable to
the device until instructed to do so during the software installation. I'm
also clueless as to how MS could "take over drivers" that don't exist on the
system at that point. This also doesn't explain why the ethernet install
doesn't work and it's the same errors. So, I have my doubts that a clean
install of XP will cure HP's installation issue.

Sorry to be so long but has anyone dealt with one of these printers and can
shed some info on how to get it to install?

Thanks.




Jayne Johnston (aka - JJ)
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