HP Office Jet R45 Scanner won't work with Vista

[Ray1000]

Since changing from XP Pro to Vista the scanning function on my HP Office Jet R45 doesn't give a Scan option.

 

On XP it worked by ... Turn on the printer > Control Panel > Printers and Scanners > Scan > Preview > Save to ....

 

On Vista ... Turn on the printer > Control Panel > Printers and Scanners > opens HP Scanner Properties, among which is a "Test Scanner" option which says it's working properly ... but there's nothing to choose to do an actual scan.

 

Has anyone had, and managed to overcome this problem?

 

The printer works as it should.

 

The correct printer is showing in Control Panel

 

The manufacturers disc won't respond in Vista so I can't load it.

 

Updating the driver says it is up to date.

 

Thank you

 

Ray

[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

Try the drivers from here - click here

 

Make sure you get the 32 or 64 bit to match your Operating System.

[Synapse]

Also, there is a help page for Vista based scanning here

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03517151&tmp_task=useCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=2093&product=61561&sw_lang=#N321

[Ray1000]

Thanks Ken & Synapse,

 

That set me off down the right path ...

 

I had seen the page (Ken's Link) before and rather than making a download available it says the software is already in Vista.

 

Nevertheless I followed the instructions for a new installation from the same page.

 

Removed the current printer & scanner in Control Panel, removed the drivers, disconnected the printer cable, restarted the computer replaced the cable and turned the printer on, found new hardware, installed and loaded drivers.

 

After reading “How to scan a picture” from the help page I found it was the opposite way round to what I’d been used to.

 

You’ll know this but it might be useful to others ...

 

In XP the scan process was done from Control Panel > Scanners & Cameras > Preview > Scan > Save as ... in My Pictures

 

In Vista the process starts at the other end, in Windows Photo Gallery (or similar) > File > Import from Camera or Scanner > Preview >Scan > Save as.

 

Thank you again,

 

Ray

[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

Can we mark this one as "Solved" ?

 

:)

[Ray1000]

You certainly can Ken:)

[KenB]

Cheers Ray - good luck :)

[Ray1000]

With your help I found the solution to this ... see post 4 ... the next time I needed to use the scanner it was back to square one with no scanner showing in Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras.

 

So again I ... Removed the current printer & scanner in Control Panel, removed the drivers, disconnected the printer cable, restarted the computer replaced the cable and turned the printer on, found new hardware, installed and loaded drivers.

 

(I'm not certain if I actually removed the drivers, I may have missed that part out)

 

It worked perfectly until the next time I needed it and it had disappeared from Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras.

 

As we speak the Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras box is empty ... if you go to add a device it suggests a Xerox model that I have never had.

 

The PC is not remembering there's a scanner on the printer although it remembers the printer itself.

 

Ray

[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

The manual for your device is here - click here - it may be useful

 

Confirm please:

Normally .... you see 2 devices

1. Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras.

2. Control-Panel > printers ......................or whatever it is in Vista :)

 

Your printer software is working OK

The scanner software isn't ............... is this correct ?

 

I have looked for drivers to download and all I get is that they are embedded in Windows - I would have liked to try a different option.

[Ray1000]

Thanks for the link Ken, I have the paper versions of the manuals although I think they were printed before Vista came out.

 

In Control Panel > Printers it shows HP R40 ... even though it's a R45 ... the installation discs don't work on Vista and I never loaded them when on XP Pro as it all worked properly without them.

 

The printer always works as it should.

 

In Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras the box is empty unless I carry out the procedure and it shows up as HP Scanner or similar and works for that one time but I don't know how long it stays there. I used it a couple of weeks ago then came to use it again this morning and ... nothing there.

 

Ray

[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

it shows HP R40

I wonder if this is your problem. Vista installs wrong drivers ... printer compatible but scanner isn't.

 

We need to try to find R45 drivers to download

 

Is your Vista 32 or 64 bit ?

 

EDIT:

another option ..... try Paper Scan FREE

click here

 

This will obviously be different from what you are used to ... but it may be a work-around for your problem.

 

I have just installed this to test.

It downloads OK - installs without additional junkware.

It looks as if you will get a pop-up asking you if you wish to upgrade and a nag screen that may make you wait for progressively longer periods ..... but I can live with this :)

[Ray1000]

It's a 32 bit version Ken,

 

I have downloaded the Paper Scan free but so far it's saying there is no device to connect to ... I'll continue trying later to make sure I'm using the proper method ... I'll also get mine working by removing the cable etc and see if the Paper Scan starts up at the same time.

 

Ray

[Ray1000]

Hi Ken,

 

I can get the scanner to be seen and to work properly by simply removing the large printer cable from the MB - starting the machine - replacing the cable - turning the the printer on and the proper entries in Device manager arrive and the scanner works perfectly.

 

When I turn the PC off I'll check if the scanner is still showing on start up.

 

I vaguely explored the Paper Scan program and that works too.

 

Ray

[KenB]

and the proper entries in Device manager arrive

R45 or R40 ?

 

I still think this may be a driver issue.

I had another look .... nothing to download. Just links to HP and a reminder that the driver is embedded.

[Ray1000]

After turning the PC off for 30 mins then turning it back on the Device manager entries for the printer and scanner have gone and the Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras the box is empty again.

 

Presumably the reason the printer continues to work under these circumstances is it has another entry further down the list under Ports (COM & LPT) > Port (LPT1) but without the mention of it being an HP R40/R45

 

Simply removing and replacing the cable while the PC is running doesn't do anything ... it seems it needs to start up with the cable dis-connected before it goes through the process of establishing contact.

 

At least I have a method of getting it to work even though it means going through the full procedure each time.

 

Ray

[Plastic Nev]

I know this won't be a cure, but what happens if you turn off the power to the printer/scanner after turning off the computer, leave it off, then boot the computer up before turning the power back on to the printer/scanner? If that works, it will at least save having to remove, then refit the cable each time.

 

Nev.

[Ray1000]

Thanks for that Nev,

 

The printer is generally turned off on the printer console until I need to use it although it is permanently plugged in and powered up with the rest of the equipment so I tried un-plugging it but it doesn't make any difference unfortunately. It seems to need the printer cable disconnecting in order to reload the driver for the scanner element.

 

Ray

[Jan Hines]

Hi Ray

 

Try the drivers from here - click here

 

Make sure you get the 32 or 64 bit to match your Operating System.

 

after reinstalling the scanner driver, you can actually run a quick scanning test online: http://kb.dynamsoft.com/questions/880/How+to+do+a+quick+scan+check+with+a+TWAIN+scanner .

 

Cheers.