recurring printer problem (HP 950 - all in one)

[matt_richards]

Hello there,

I am having a very frustrating problem on an installation I have just completed. One of the machines (Athlon 2000, Win 98) has a HP 950 all-in-one (USB) which is causing problems. It initially installs and runs fine. Then periodically, it stops working and throws up the following error message: RTL unable to start driver for HPOID407.exe. The curious thing was that whilst it did not work from the machine it was attached to, it worked fine from the other machines which shared it across the network. I have looked into it, and on each occasion I have been able to get it working again through some combination of reinstallation and adjusting the port settings. On one occasion, it had inexplicably switched to LPT1. Unfortunately it keeps recurring.

Has anyone experienced this before and why would it work across the network but not locally? Would this suggest that it is a problem with the local drivers as each of the other machines will have their own set of drivers? If so any ideas why this would happen?

I don’t have direct access to the machine so I wont be able to try any stuff out immediately – I need to arm myself with as much info. as possible ready for the next time I go over there.

Thanks in advance,

Matt.

[Confused]

Haven't experienced it with that printer, but I have had weird experiences using USB on my WIN98 PC that I don't have on my XP PC. In my opinion WIN98 is not quite ready for USB.
Chas

[Dan]

Matt-
I have a similar problem with a scanner on my own network. It will be detected by the other 3 machines, but not the "host". It's a scsi device, and I have to remove it in device manager and let it reinstall at reboot.
I'm not certain why your device (or mine) operates in this way. Some machines just don't "get along well". Perhaps because it is usb and not connected by the printer port.
HP has a support forum here:
http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/Cate...1,,420,00.html
perhaps you can find some answers specific to your problem there.

[matt_richards]

thanks for the feedback guys,

I have checked the HP knowledge base, but I haven't posted on their forums, so I will try that.

Anyone have any other ideas...