HP J5780 Scanner issues

[Keyboy]

Greetings,

I am running Vista HP and have a Officejet HP J5780 Print/Scanner/FAX unit connected by USB cable. Everything was working fine except that when I scanned many 8.5 x 11 pages into a single pdf I got tired of having to resize each and every page to 8.5 x 11 vs what the cropped image size was. The reason is if you print a cropped image they look terrible even have two on the same page. So I contacted HP support forums and they said that I should be able to set a default page size. After several HP software removals and reinstalls I got nothing new. I was given instructions on how to remove the software and folders and did it. Then I reinstalled the HP software. Now when I open the software and then click scan a document I get an error message that says a communication error has occurred. I followed the suggested help items and nothing is fixed. I then downloaded and ran the HP Print and Scan Doctor. The printer prints fine so I tested for scanning. When I get to the line titles HP Twain Scan I get an error that says 'A necessary software program is missing or corrupt. Please reinstall the software or scan your hard drive for problems.' At this point I had removed and reinstalled the software I was fed up. So I removed the software using the control panel and then reinstalled the software using the original CD that came with the unit. You guessed it, the same communications error shows up.

I believe I have HP totally confused. I believe that the Twain drivers are not being recognized but HP does not supply them by themselves but wrap them up in the big software installation. I have searched the

http://www for

solutions but haven't found any.

Does anyone have an idea on how to at least getting my scanner working again?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[goombawaho]

Okay, so it's fubar from fiddling with it too much. I would do the following, in order, observe REBOOT requests.
1. Remove any software for THAT particular printer (if you have more than one) in START > ALL Programs > Product Modle/Number > Remove or Uninstall
2. Reboot
3. Look in Control Panel Programs/Features and find anything HP that is related to that particular product. Uninstall it.
4. Reboot
5. Run CCleaner temp file cleaner and then registry cleaner until no more errors (save backup before fixing each time).
6. Reboot
7. Go to this page and get the HP Officejet Software And Driver Removal Utility

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=3301296#N501

While you're at it, download the FULL driver from that page as well as the two UPDATES.
HP Officejet Full Feature Software and Driver

8. Run removal tool and reboot as indicated.
9. Run FULL installer (right click RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR). Do NOT use CD that came with the product.
10. Reboot as indicated
11. Test functionality
12. Run updates since the FULL driver is older than the updates.

 

[Keyboy]

Greetings,

Thanks for your excellent list of how to remove the software and drivers. I followed your directions explicitly and even did an extra reboot before reinstalling the software. I turned off Norton Anti Virus and then ran the full software installation as an administrator. Unfortunately when I tried to test the functionality I ended up with the failure to communicate error again. But, not to be worried I then ran the updates, the converged HPCom V3 came back with a message that said there was nothing on my computer that required this update. I closed out of it and ran the newer dated update and it did its thing. I then rebooted just for positive feelings. After the reboot, I opened HP Software and tried to scan a document and again got the communications error.

So now what should I do? I will redo everything if you think it will help. The printer part works perfect and the scanner works with VueScan. I even tried it with a different cable. So I believe that it must be the twain drivers.

Thanks again for your excellent help!

 

[goombawaho]

Jeez, man that's a royal bummer. And the HP Scan & Print Doctor says what now when you run it??

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...dlc=en&lc=en&os=2093&product=3301296&sw_lang=

If you turn off the Norton Firewall, does it still behave the same way and does the Doctor still report the same?

Then try this I guess:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printe...sen-t-work-in-HP-Solution-Center/td-p/1265225

 

[goombawaho]

Or this, look at 3rd comment, but you said it HAD been working. Vista 32bit or 64bit?

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Scanni...In-One-Won-t-Scan-in-Vista-64-Bit/td-p/107639

 

[Keyboy]

Greetings,

With Norton on or off the scanner still doesn't work -- communication error. I played around for 2 hours uninstalling the software, then installing the drivers and then installing the HP J6480 software based on the thread you supplied. When I tried to open HP Solutions software, I got an error message that no HP device was found. I did find the J 5780 Printer listed in the Printers folder. So I cleaned everything out once again following your excellent directions and then reinstalled the full J5780 software package. When trying to scan the communications error came back up. I re-ran HP Print and Scan Doctor and it came back to the Train scanner error. So I am right back where I was. It was interesting that the suggested method to use the J6480 software did not have a box to uncheck for the drivers. So I guess that is why the method didn't work.

Any more ideas?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[goombawaho]

Ok, I'm basically out of "brilliant" ideas at this point, so back to square one. One thing you could do is try the printer on another computer, but that's a bit of pain and you may not have one.

Try this procedure for removing the Twain drivers and reinstalling.
Link

 

[Keyboy]

Greetings,

After several more removal and reinstallation attempts produced the same results, I decided to install the printer / scanner on my laptop which runs W7. The install went prefectly and the scanner worked. So the scanner is OK.

I need to get the scanner to work on the desktop since that is where I do my scanning and printing. Would the W7 software work on the Vista Home Premium 32 bit operating system?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[goombawaho]

I never thought there was anything wrong the scanner, it's the windows/software component of the scanner which is hosed.

You have to have a second license for Windows 7 to install it on a second computer. So, would it work? - Sure if it can run Vista it will run Windows 7 but you need that license. Also from a licensing perspective, you can't move an OEM installation of Windows from one machine to another. Those are "the rules". Not everyone follows them.

So, unless you buy a copy of Windows 7 or reload Vista on the desktop, I don't know what you can do.

One more thing. You can still buy a copy of Windows 7 OEM (system builder version) but technically you're supposed to put it on a system you're building to sell to someone else. Ebay will have RETAIL versions of Win7 for sale.

 

[Keyboy]

Greetings,

Sorry I confused you. What I was asking is if you thought that the W7 HP software would work on the desktop running Vista. I tried it since I have nothing to lose and the HP software does an operating system scan and said I was running Vista and to download the correct software.

I have removed and reloaded the HP software for Vista some 20 times without fixing the communications problem. It is like HP doesn't support their older equipment and wants you to buy a new unit. If I do It won't be an HP.

I really appreciate your helping me try to fix this issue. It has to be something with the twain drivers and the HP software that isn't working.

 

[goombawaho]

I'm still confused by your response. The software licensing is NOT HP - it's Microsoft. You have one PC with Vista and it's tied to that computer. You have another computer with Windows 7 and it's tied to another computer. Did you say you are reloading the HP printer software or Windows??

You're probably down to REINSTALLING Vista on that computer and then trying the printer software install OR UPGRADING/INSTALLING to the computer and trying the HP software. I suspect the windows piece is broken and that is sometimes not fixable without a reload.

 

[Keyboy]

goombawaho,

I believe you did not read what I was saying. I said I wondered if HP software designed for W7 would run on the Vista machine. You took it to mean that I wanted to put W7 on the Vista machine without a license. That is not the case at all.

I tried the HP W7 software and it won't install so I am back to where I started with the communication error.

 

[goombawaho]

Oh I read it (twice) but totally misunderstood. I think you're down to a reload of Vista (free) or put Windows 7 on it or replace printer, especially if HP isn't helping and nobody else has a suggestion on here.