HP Color Center offline/disconnected

[markdfink]

I am running Vista and Photoshop CS3. Just today, I set up my Z3100, downloaded the latest drivers AND firmware from HP. No other Designjet printer has been installed on this computer before.

When I go to print and bring up Page Setup, I get a warning at the bottom that:

"The custom paper type list or ICC Profiles have been updated in the printer. Launch HP Printer Utility to synchronize."

So, I click on the link, and up pops the HP Color Center window with a message that:

"Device my be offline or disconnected at this time. Check the status of your device and try again."

I click OK, and get a message that:

"HP Color Center CCRun has stopped working."

I close it and am back at the Page Setup.

As a result, I can't choose the custom paper type that I just profiled from the Paper type drop down list. Is there something I'm doing wrong. Even though it says the device is offline, I can still see all of the details in the HP Printer Utility if I launch it separately.

I can manually tell it to synchronize from the Update Paper List icon under the Color Center tab. But it then tells me that there is no need to synchronize, "all is well..." If so, then why does it still say in Photoshop that it needs to synchronize?

Thanks!

Mark

[rdonson]

Mark,

Are you running over IP?  If so, does the IP address in the driver match what the printer console says?

That caused this problem for me once.

[markdfink]

Hi Ron,

Yes, I'm running over IP and the address on the printer matches what is on the computer. That's why I thought it was so strange; I could ping the printer, but utility couldn't find it.

I have a laptop with XP Pro and Photoshop CS3 that I'm going to hook up to the printer tonight. It will be interesting to see if it exhibits the same behavior. If not, then it could be a Vista issue with the HP software.

Mark

[walter.sk]

Yes, I'm running over IP and the address on the printer matches what is on the computer. That's why I thought it was so strange; I could ping the printer, but utility couldn't find it.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=186080\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Interesting.  Since I got my Z3100 on November 1, 2008, the printer's IP address had been xxx.xxx.0.4.  With no changes in my setup, which consists of 2 computers sharing a router that goes into a DSL modem, and the printer connected to the router by ethernet cable, all of a sudden the printer's IP address changed to xxx.xxx.0.3.  I do not understand why that is, but it doesn't seem to have affected the way things work (my fingers are crossed!)

[rdonson]

Interesting.  Since I got my Z3100 on November 1, 2008, the printer's IP address had been xxx.xxx.0.4.  With no changes in my setup, which consists of 2 computers sharing a router that goes into a DSL modem, and the printer connected to the router by ethernet cable, all of a sudden the printer's IP address changed to xxx.xxx.0.3.  I do not understand why that is, but it doesn't seem to have affected the way things work (my fingers are crossed!)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=186086\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Generally it happens if the printer is using DHCP to get an address.  Recycle the router and you may not get the same IP address for the printer.  

Sometimes the driver can be configured to look for the printer using its name not just the IP address.

[rwheat]

Interesting.  Since I got my Z3100 on November 1, 2008, the printer's IP address had been xxx.xxx.0.4.  With no changes in my setup, which consists of 2 computers sharing a router that goes into a DSL modem, and the printer connected to the router by ethernet cable, all of a sudden the printer's IP address changed to xxx.xxx.0.3.  I do not understand why that is, but it doesn't seem to have affected the way things work (my fingers are crossed!)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=186086\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just expanding on what Ron has just said ...

under default conditions (ie. default configuration) your router will most likely be leasing IP addresses from a pool to your network attached hosts through a protocol called DHCP - the Z3100 included.   Most  hosts, including PCs running MS Windows, once they have successfully obtained a leased address will ask for the same address next time they need one - ie. next time they are switched on.  So even though your network attached devices seem to have "fixed" IP addresses, in reality they may have leased addresses which could change depending upon the behaviour of other devices on your network (eg. if you add a new host while an existing one is switched off).

When setting up devices that need to retain an assigned IP address forever - such as a server or printer which needs to be always available on a fixed address,  a static IP address is often assigned to the device through its configuration.  (If you wish to do this I can guide you through the process.)

Re Mark's problem - it sounds like some sort of Vista permissions problem to me - where the driver can't access something it needs locally when run from Photoshop.

Mark, have you tried running Photoshop in Administrator mode to see if this fixes the problem?

Hope this helps,
Richard.
www.westernlandscapes.com.au

[markdfink]

Richard,

Good idea! I'll log on as administrator and see if the behavior continues. If it doesn't, then I'll look into what needs to be tweaked in my personal ID settings. If it doesn't, then I'll test with my XP Pro laptop. That should help narrow down the issues.

Thanks,

Mark

[Thomas Krüger]

Mark,

have you tried to disable the internal firewall in Vista?
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=21207

Thomas

[markdfink]

Hi Thomas - fancy meeting you here...  

I was able to get everything working fine while logged in as administrator. The next step would be disabling the firewall while logged on as "me". At the moment, I don't have any new papers to profile, and that was the sticking point. When I profile another paper, I'll do it with the firewall off and see if the Printer Utility is able to synchronize.

Thanks everyone! I am up and printing!    

Mark