HP Easy Printer Care AND Printer Utility question

[ed kelley]

I may be wrong, but I thought the Printer Utility was supposed to eliminate the need for Easy Printer Care, and in fact, I thought P.U. uninstalled EPC.

After a lot of problems with XP print spooler, I went through the Mickeysoft instructions for fixing that problem, however, the process deleted quite a few of my saved custom print sizes.

I'm current on driver, P.U. but I can't figure why both of these programs are running at the same time.  Surely this isn't proper.  I'm having a problem saving a custom paper size.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Ed

[peteh]

I may be wrong, but I thought the Printer Utility was supposed to eliminate the need for Easy Printer Care, and in fact, I thought P.U. uninstalled EPC.

After a lot of problems with XP print spooler, I went through the Mickeysoft instructions for fixing that problem, however, the process deleted quite a few of my saved custom print sizes.

I'm current on driver, P.U. but I can't figure why both of these programs are running at the same time.  Surely this isn't proper.  I'm having a problem saving a custom paper size.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Ed
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=200787\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The Easy printer care AND the HP Printer utilty are both running  on my system at the same time.I have an Apple running Window XP Pro under bootcamp.
At one time HP eliminated the Easy Printer care and said to run the Color utility now it's back gone then back>>>>HP, MAKE UP YOUR MIND !
I have a HP Z3100ps GP and HP APS.Think that's bad ,My printer is hooked up USB and sez you have no printer that HP utility can find EVER, yet is prints from CS3.I think HP is nut's.They make a nice printer/printers.But their software for even their own stuff....it's iffy.IMHO

[rdonson]

I may be wrong, but I thought the Printer Utility was supposed to eliminate the need for Easy Printer Care, and in fact, I thought P.U. uninstalled EPC.

After a lot of problems with XP print spooler, I went through the Mickeysoft instructions for fixing that problem, however, the process deleted quite a few of my saved custom print sizes.

I'm current on driver, P.U. but I can't figure why both of these programs are running at the same time.  Surely this isn't proper.  I'm having a problem saving a custom paper size.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Ed
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=200787\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yep, that's right Ed.  Welcome to the wonderful world of HP print software.  The Easy Printer Care doesn't do anything that isn't done in the Printer Utility.  Its as worthless as &*%$ on a boar hog (southern expression   ).

You can feel better by simply deleting the shortcut icons for EPC and just use PU (which is a heck of an acronym - I wonder who at HP thinks these names up?   )

[ed kelley]

Yep, that's right Ed.  Welcome to the wonderful world of HP print software.  The Easy Printer Care doesn't do anything that isn't done in the Printer Utility.  Its as worthless as &*%$ on a boar hog (southern expression   ).

You can feel better by simply deleting the shortcut icons for EPC and just use PU (which is a heck of an acronym - I wonder who at HP thinks these names up?   )
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I know about the boar hog...I'm a southern mountaineer (or hillbilly, if you prefer.)

Okay, I got my computer fixed, at least it seems that way.  First off, the main problem I was having was I kept getting a "spooler subsystem app" crash.  This is the XP printer driver system, based on spoolsv.exe (I THINK.)  Anyway, I found some resources on Mickeysoft's site.  Here they are:

[a href=\"http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;324757]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;324757[/url]
and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312052

I tried both of these to no avail.  However, it was only when I used them in combination that I could get things going again.

So, the first thing I did was to get all HP software off my machine.  That inclues going  into C:/windows/system32 and deleting the spooler stuff as in those pages.  I also deleted any HP folders from Program Files, as the HP uninstall does not do this.

THEN, I went into the registry and deleted every reference to HP, Hewlett, Designjet that I could find (I'm not sure this is a necessary step, especially if you have a good registry scanner that will eliminate them.)  I then proceeded to the steps listed in the first link above (the Spooler subsystem app problem.)  I did everything it said, but it didn't work.  Then, I looked at the spoolsv.exe page and found some additional info about deleting stuff from both:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Printers

I then found that I did not have a "ControlSet001", but I had "ControlSet002, ControlSet003, ControlSet004" files.  So, I did everything to each of them that I was told to do for ControlSet001.  Rebooted, reinstalled the Z3100 and did a repair (reinstall) of P.U.  Pulled up PS CS3 and printed any size I wanted, no spooler crash and it seems to be a lot faster pulling up the HP print preview screen.

I might also mention that I always use a print preview.  It avoids wasting paper if you have a setting wrong, you can see it before you actually print.  One thing I found was that the spooler problem seemed to be related to the HP print preview, in that I got no crashes when I went directly to print.  However, I did not print anything out, since I wasn't into wasting paper--so I do not know if it would actually print correctly.

WHEW.  It was a tough day trying to figure this one out.  I'm behind!  But, maybe I've helped someone get going again.

Ed

[ed kelley]

Here is an update on the problems I have been having.  After doing the above procedures, everything was moving along just fine, I could print what I wanted, when I wanted, with very few spooler crashes.  However, late last week a friend asked for some help with some Publisher file that were not transferring colors properly to PDF's.  Since I had uninstalled all printers except my cheap utility epson, and the Z3100, I had to reinstall/repair Adobe Acrobat Pro (ver. 6) which reinstalled Adobe PDF as a printer.  Well, my problems began again...spooler crash almost but not every time I tried to print, not to mention a problem with a paper profile (HP Proofing Matte Paper, I have another thread about this problem.)

I probably should have used XP backup to go back to my configuration last week, but after troubleshooting, I decided to remove all traces of the Adobe PDF virtual printer in both the Printers and Faxes dialog and in the ControlSet section of the registry.  A little better, but not fixed.

So, I uninstalled the HP Printer Utility, deleted all of the HP folders in Program Files.  Rebooted, reinstalled Printer Utility, rebooted, and not all SEEMS to be working fine.  Will report further as problems are solved, recognized, or recur.

I'm not absolutely certain that any or all of this was related to the Adobe PDF printer, but that is the only thing I can think of that I changed before these problems began again.  Feedback appreciated
Ed

[ed kelley]

UPDATE: JULY 31, 2008

Well, I have just about gone crazy trying to figure all this out, and anyone reading this may think I'm a bit "off."  However, things have been working pretty well for the last week or so.  I really hesitate to write this, as I feel I may jinx myself.  However, here is the last thing I did that seemed to work.

At some point, I realized there was a set of older custom forms that did not get deleted when I uninstalled the HP software.  These forms were leftovers from the first HP software I installed, not the new ones.  These are just custom paper sizes.  I searched the registry and found 2 instances of this set of forms.  I deleted all of the papers sizes under the forms entry in the registry.  When I rebooted and got back to the HP printer window, those forms were gone.  If I remember, I had to reinstall the driver only.  So, apparently a part of this problem, if not all of it, has to do with the fact that the old software just wasn't completely removed.  Should I blame HP for that?

Ed

[Ernst Dinkla]

UPDATE: JULY 31, 2008

Well, I have just about gone crazy trying to figure all this out, and anyone reading this may think I'm a bit "off."  However, things have been working pretty well for the last week or so.  I really hesitate to write this, as I feel I may jinx myself.  However, here is the last thing I did that seemed to work.

At some point, I realized there was a set of older custom forms that did not get deleted when I uninstalled the HP software.  These forms were leftovers from the first HP software I installed, not the new ones.  These are just custom paper sizes.  I searched the registry and found 2 instances of this set of forms.  I deleted all of the papers sizes under the forms entry in the registry.  When I rebooted and got back to the HP printer window, those forms were gone.  If I remember, I had to reinstall the driver only.  So, apparently a part of this problem, if not all of it, has to do with the fact that the old software just wasn't completely removed.  Should I blame HP for that?

Ed
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

With any update of the driver it is wiser to remove the custom paper sizes from the system. In Windows in the print server properties window. Another approach is to avoid the use of more custom sizes totally. I have one custom size that I change for the job at hand and save as Custom, there will not be more than one ever. There are conflicts and risks in using Qimage's job recall for the Z3100 driver and I rather set the print page size manually back than waste paper etc. I had no problem with the driver utility upgrades.


Ernst Dinkla

Try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]

[rdonson]

UPDATE: JULY 31, 2008
So, apparently a part of this problem, if not all of it, has to do with the fact that the old software just wasn't completely removed.  Should I blame HP for that?

Ed
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=211941\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yep, poor uninstall and install on the part of HP.

[ed kelley]

With any update of the driver it is wiser to remove the custom paper sizes from the system. In Windows in the print server properties window. Another approach is to avoid the use of more custom sizes totally. I have one custom size that I change for the job at hand and save as Custom, there will not be more than one ever. There are conflicts and risks in using Qimage's job recall for the Z3100 driver and I rather set the print page size manually back than waste paper etc. I had no problem with the driver utility upgrades.
Ernst Dinkla

Ernst, I actually tried deleting some of the forms from the printer server properties window, but the delete button on some of them was grayed out--I have no recollection if those forms were the offenders or not, but they were not available to be deleted.  I still think the fault is with the HP uninstall.  I should have been more diligent the first time I upgraded the HP software to remove everything associated with the z3100.  I know that NOW--sure wish I had known it THEN.  You were lucky with the upgrades, but every system is different, and I may have had conflicts that you didn't (I run a LOT of stuff on my machine, probably too much.)  At some point I will build myself a machine dedicated to photos and printing only.  I understand why you only have one custom form, but for me, I print many different sizes in a rather production oriented situation, so it is much easier for me to call up a paper size than create one every time I print an image.

Ed

[Colorwave]

I might as well chime in and say that the HP uninstallers have proven to do a very incomplete job on the Mac platform as well.  On two different occasions, HP tech support has had to direct me to manually remove extra scraps of HP software left behind that interfered with the new software being installed.  I'm not sure why they can't make an app that recognizes their own software in order to do a necessarily thorough job of removing it.
-Ron H.