HP Deskjet 656C

[Jack Albers]

We have an HP Deskjet 656C printer (USB only) that absolutely refuses to install to a year-old Gateway desktop PC, which is running Win ME. We had the PC checked out by Gateway, but nothing was wrong with it. We tried using an updated driver from HP, and we tried two different USB cables, and we tried using different USB ports on the PC, but we still can't get the blasted printer to install!

It seems the problem is that Win ME does not recognize the printer as a USB device, since it does not offer the printer a USB port while the Install New Hardware Wizard is in progress. But I don't have a clue WHY. I have never met a printer I could not install--until now! Is it defective? Are we doing something wrong? This task has been way too hard and has taken way too much of our time.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses....

[ssahl]

When you say you tried using an updated driver from HP, that was the driver for the printer right? Do you know if the driver you tried was for win ME? With that done and said (and tried) the best advice I could give you is when you installed the drivers did you try manually picking the driver? Also try plugging something else into the USB ports on this same machine to make sure there working correctly. Where did you get the updated driver anyway? There web site is one of the worst for driver support. Try getting one from someplace like:
www.driverguide.com
and get one of the ones that have been uploaded with replys of people that have downloaded installed it with success.

[Jack Albers]

Yes, we're certain that the driver is correct as it was labeled for use with Win ME. And yes, we tried manually picking the driver. BTW, Win ME did not provide the driver, so we pointed it to the HP installation CD--on numerous occasions. We got the updated driver from the HP website. I don't remember if we tried plugging other devices into those other USB ports; so I'll make sure we 've done that. Please tell me this: If the device drivers which you can access through DriverGuide don't come from the various manufacturers, then where do they come from? I'm thinking DriverGuide is something like the old WinFiles site used to be, which often provided links to the manufacturers' websites. If not, then what is the advantage of using DriverGuide?

Thanks for your reply!

[HAL9000]

Is the motherboard based on a VIA chipset. If so, it may need the USB filter patch available here. (http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm#4in1)

[Tuf]

You might also check that USB is enabled in the bios. In the device manager see if it is listing a USB contoller.

[glc]

Have you followed the installation sequence *exactly*?

[Jack Albers]

To HAL 9000:
I don't know the maker of the motherboard chipset; so I will check that.

To Tuf:
Yes, USB is enabled in the BIOS, and a controller is listed in the device manager.

To glc:
Yes, we followed the installation procedure exactly. I and two other people each did it several times with the same results.

[ssahl]

If your motherboard does have the 'VIA' chipset then I would get the patch as hal said, my motherboard uses the VIA chipset and when I first installed windows the USB worked for awhile, but then took a crap on me, until I got the patch I was thinking that my printer, scanner, & web cam all had something wrong with them as I also couldnt get the drivers to install correctly. To check and see if your computer uses the VIA chipset you can go into the device manager and expand the '+' next to the 'IDE controllers' and see if it says anything about 'VIA' it will either say VIA or Intel
As far as Driverguide goes, it does also provide links to manufactures sites, but as for the uploaded drivers on that section you can alot of times find by reading the comments and so forth someone who has the same OS, device, and problems as you may have, and the driver that has been posted would be how the were able to solve it. This site works really good for older software, especially for stuff where the manufacture is no longer around.

[Jack Albers]

The motherboard has an Intel chipset; so the VIA patch won't be necessary.

However, I was wondering if anybody knew whether or not there was any history of conflict between Win ME and USB devices. I just have a feeling that somehow Win ME may be the culprit.

I'm going to try to install this printer on another system running another OS to see if I can get it to work. If not, then I'll know the fault lies with the printer.

OK--I'll give DrvierGuide a try. Thanks again for the tip!

[casey]

The HP site is much better as of late. I'm running approx 16 WinME machines, all Intel 815 chipsets and all running HP USB printers 930, 959, 960, 970, 980,990 and have never had a USB problem.

[morriswindgate]

1. Unplug the printer from the computer and uninstall the HP Printer software.
2. Remove any references to the printer. You may have to use the "System Restore" function to get it clean of these.
3. Shutdown the computer and then plug in the printer USB cable, power cable and turn the printer on.
4. Start the computer and when you get the "Hardware Found" window, do not let ME install anything automatically. Instead use the "Specify a Location" and select the ME folder on the install CD.
Load only the driver.
5. Restart the machine and then install the remainder of the printer software.

[casey]

Is this the driver you downloaded ? Read the instructions.
656-enu-win98_me.exe (14.19M)
Caution: The printer's USB cable must be unplugged before proceeding!
Manual Installation instructions:
1. Create a new folder on the hard drive: c:\dj656 before downloading the printer driver.
2. Download the driver to the newly created c:\dj656 folder.
3. Open the c:\dj656 folder and double-click the downloaded "exe" file. Once the files are loaded and the "hp deskjet 656c" screen displays, proceed to step 9. If this screen does not display, continue with the next step to manually open the screen.
4. Double-click on the c:\dj656\Win9x_ME folder to open the 3 letter language folder. For example, the English driver will display an "enu" folder.
5. Double-click on the 3 letter language folder (e.g., "enu") to open it.
6. Double-click on the "9x" folder to open it.
7. Double-click on the "disk1" folder to open it.
8. Double-click on the "setup.exe" file to start the installation program.
9. Click the "Install printer software" icon button. Files will now be loaded.
Follow the instructions on the installer screens to complete the installation

[Jack Albers]

OK--I'm back from a holiday break!

To: casey
Yes, this is the file we downloaded, and we followed this manual installation procedure exactly. Each time though, the printer would not install because the installer would not offer USB as a port choice when we got to that step.

To: morriswindgate
I believe we've already tried this procedure, but if not, we'll try it next. The tech at Gateway who checked out the system said that USB devices are "tricky", but I wasn't sure what he meant by that.

Thanks to both of you--I'll let you know what happens.

[ssahl]

Did you try the printer on another system? Also have you tried another USB device on your system yet?

[Jack Albers]

To: ssahl

No, I haven't tried either of those things yet, but I haven't forgotten them. I hope to try them later today or no later than tomorrow, depending upon how busy today turns out. Thanks!

[Jack Albers]

OK, Guys--

We have tried all of your suggestions, but this printer will still NOT function!!! At this point, after weeks of frustration, I can only assume that it is defective somehow; therefore I'm returning it to the store where I bought it. (Gee, I hate giving up!) Thanks again to all of you for your thoughtful assistance.