(Revised on Jan 27 to include warning to backup your system first. That is such a self-evident suggestion it did not occur to me. Also included in the word document. I also numbered the below points and highlighted the key points due to the length of this posting)
This posting provides a detailed summary of a series of failures related to Vista and the Z3100, so that others who have reported software issues can identify whether my problems are the same as yours, and thus whether the solution provided below might work for you as well.
Since this has at least as much to do with Vista, as with HP, it is possible that those who use Canon or Epson have encountered similar problems. The solution offered here might work for you, since the solution involves the removal and reinstallation of printer drivers in Vista. The below solution applies to all printers.
Please forgive the length. This covers a number of problems over the last three months, and several solutions.
That is, after all, the purpose of the forum. To identify problems and share solutions. My next posting will also provide an update from Spain on the issue of rollers and star wheels.
I installed the new drivers and software in a Vista PC several months ago, and shortly thereafter began to suffer from a series of problems. These gradually became worse over time, and eventually made it completely impossible to even print. This was such a catastrophic and complete failure that I was seriously considering selling my Z3100 (preferably to someone who uses a Mac) and to instead use my older Epson 4000 that I never sold. (As reported below, I solved my problems, so if you live in the Washington DC area and want a great deal on a 4000 let me know.)
(1) These problems began with failures related to custom sizes. Any custom size would revert to the Letter size. This began as a random problem, and gradually increased so it happened almost all of the time. I also encountered that problem on an XP notebook -- so it is a Windows problem in BOTH Vista and XP, but it is much worse with Vista. In CS3, if you use the preview, it would show you, even before printing, that the size had changed to Letter. In Lightroom it was even more obvious. Lightroom reports the size in white letters above the image. When I clicked on Print, I could see the size flip to Letter, even before the preview appeared.
(2) The next problem was that the windows spooler would collapse. This also started as an inconsistent problem, that gradually became worse, so the spooler would fail almost all of the time. There are pages devoted to the failure of the spooler on the Microsoft web site, so
this is not an issue that is unique to HP. I'm not an expert on Windows, but it appears to me that the collapse of the spooler is related to some other failure in the printing system. Identify and fix that problem, and the spooler will likely work OK. Some posts on the Microsoft web site identified other software with a conflicting printing function as a cause, such as some type of freeware for Adobe Acrobat. In any case I became quite familiar with how to stop and start, or restart, the spooler.
I was working directly with the team in Spain on these problems. I pointed out that HP U.S. tech support is quoted in this forum as saying that the Z3100 will never work with Vista. HP U.S.tech support is actually quoted in one posting as actually recommending that a new PC with Vista be returned to instead obtain a PC with XP.
The team in Spain recognized that despite the many reported issues with Microsoft's flawed operating system, they must find a solution, since all new PCs are loaded with Vista, not XP. And as noted above, I had the problem of custom sizes collapsing and reverting to Letter on an XP notebook -- so that is not just a Vista problem.
(3) Eventually, it reached a point where CS3 would collapse and terminate when I attempted to print. That was a complete, catastrophic, systemic failure.
The team in Spain had been trying to isolate these problems, but when CS3 collapsed, they said that this was almost certainly caused by a complete corruption of the drivers.
This might also explain why HP tech support is quoted as saying that Vista problems get gradually worse until you have to reinstall Vista. What any of us would do is uninstall the drivers and reinstall, using the uninstall program. The problem is that this appears to not work, and repeated reinstalls results in corruption of the drivers. HP U.S. tech support is quoted in this forum as saying that a complete reinstall of Vista is then necessary, and even after that, the problems will reappear. (That is what caused me to consider either selling the 3100 and going back to Epson, or wiping out Vista, and reinstalling XP. Either solution is about as drastic a solution as could be imagined.)
(4) Fortunately, the team in Spain had a solution, that while fairly drastic, is certainly much less drastic than reinstalling the entire OS, or selling the 3100. That involved a manual removal of all printer drivers -- all drivers, for all printers. That solution is summarized in the attached Word document. In my case, it was necessary to also make changes to the registry. The team in Spain requested that I not post the registry changes, because if you screw around in the registry, and don't know what you are doing, that might be the end of the OS. I have honored their request, but if you need the registry fixes, as I did, contact me off-line. Just be aware that if you make changes to the registry you do it at YOUR OWN RISK.
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Revised on Jan 27 -- and this is added to the word document. I failed to include three steps that are so self-evident it didn’t occur to me.
Let me first say that you do any of this AT YOUR OWN RISK. No one assumes any responsibility or liability if any of these steps, as listed below, screw up your system. These directions are provided only to be helpful to participants on the forum. If you a complete novice to PCs, you should probably have someone help you before doing anything. The steps in the word document were originally sent to by HP in Spain, and I simply provided more details to that original document.
These steps worked for me. They might not work for you due to the great variability of PCs in terms of installed hardware and software. For example, as explained in my posting, there are reports on the Microsoft web site that third party programs with a print function can cause the spooler to fail. I also searched for those before doing any of the below.
** Before doing anything, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing, back up your system so you can recover from anything you do wrong including unintentional disasters. My personal recommendation would be a mirror program such as Ghost or Acronis True Image. If you are running RAID read the fine print to ensure the program works with RAID. I don’t think Norton Ghost does, but Acronis might.
** Run a System Restore point. To be safe, do it twice.
** Using a third party registry program (there are many such programs that you can download as shareware) back up your registry at least twice.
Now, if anything goes wrong, you can go back to where you were by running System Restore and the restoring the Registry. In the worst case, you can restore your entire system using the mirror image that you created.
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(5) This complete removal and reinstall of the drivers solved almost all of the above problems. But what this also means is that I don't know what the original cause was, since the first install WAS the first and original install. I also had a Dell printer driver installed. I have no idea where that came from, and whether that caused a conflict (see above about the spooler).
I also don't know whether the problems will reappear, as HP U.S. tech support is quoted in the forum as saying will happend. However, so far, after several weeks of occaisonal use of the 3100, these issues have not reappeared.
(6) Subsequently , the team in Spain HAS been able to reproduce the Letter issue (custom sizes reverting to Letter) on PCs running Vista. The odd thing is that their PCs have the Letter problem. When I follow the same standard steps to print, I no longer have that problem. What that tells me is that while the removal and resinstallation of the drivers fixed my issue, we do not know what the exact problem even was. Only that the brute force method of removing and reinstalling ALL printer drivers somehow fixed the unknown issue.
So hopefully the team in Spain will isolate and fix the precise issue with custom sizes reverting to Letter -- since if this happened to me, and to them, it will also happen to some of you.(7) I did identify one remaining issue related to custom sizes. That is how a custom size is named. After reinstalling the drivers, I discovered that a short name for a custom size works, and a long name causes the spooler to collapse. Consistently, and 100 percent of the time. In these cases the size is identical -- only the name -- the number of characters in the name -- differs.
The team in Spain has not been able to reproduce that odd behavior. In the meantime, I am simply using very short names, without a problem. Such as "11x14 17 roll."
Finally, I anticipate many postings reporting that none of you, using Vista, have had any of these problems. That is not surprising. That is the entire problem with Windows as compared to Macs. We are dealing with a range of different PCs, with differing mechanical parts, and a huge range of differing programs running on those machines. But other forum postings report equally serious problems with Vista.
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I then had a problem reinstalling an HP LaserJet using a USB connection, because I had to reinstall all printers. I had to call US tech support for that. If you have problem reinstalling a USB LaserJet, contact me, and I will send you the solution to that as well.
(9) And one final problem. Whenever I boot the PC, I get an error message "HP Printer Utility Device Host has stopped working.” This apparently is more important on large corporate networks. In any case, it has no impact on my home network. In fact, I discovered that if I do NOT get the error message it means that the HP Printer Utility did not properly install. If I get the error message, the Utility will report on ink levels. When I do not get the error message, that piece of software is not installed properly, and the Utility can't communicate with the printer. So this is really wierd. The error message means the Utility works, the absence of the error message means the Utiliy has failed and can't communicate with the printer.
HP is aware of this issue, as it has been reported by others, but the team in Spain has not been able to replicate it. The error message is annoying, so I hope they can reproduce the problem and solve it.
I hope the above information is helpful for anyone else having problems with the 3100 and Windows. The removal and reinstall of the drivers takes less than an hour.
Be aware that some of these problems are not just an HP issue. Vista is, IMHO, a lousy and unstable operating system. As I said above, the Microsoft web site has pages of commentary on the issue of the spooler collapsing -- but note that it happens on XP as well. The important point is that the team in Spain found a solution that worked in my case; has been able to replicate the Letter issue, and is working on a solution.
Some of you with more experience with Windows may have different guesses as to the causes and solutions I describe above. I'm not a software developer; I am only providing my own summary as best that I can, and hope it is useful for my fellow participants on the forum.
