z3100 new driver / firmware - printer not seen in HP Utility

[Roscolo]

Well, updated firmware. Updated driver (I think I did anyway). Now, when I open HP Utility, it says "There are no supported printers in your printers folder. You need to add one or click "Find Other Printers"." I can print just fine from Photoshop, but I need the HP Utility to add calibrate and profile some papers. Tried rebooting PC and restarting printer - still says the same thing.

Wish I had not updated and just told my IGFS customer to take a hike. Now I'm in so may as well make it all work again.

Anyone know the fix for this? My z is connected via USB. Win XP Pro, 32 bit, latest driver and firmware.

UPDATE: Seems to work now. I uninstalled everything and reconnected via Network cable with Custom Install. Then downloaded and installed HP Utility separately. May have been a firewall issue. May have been HP's clunky update procedure issue. After researching, the most common answer to problems seems to be: "uninstall and reinstall until it works." And that's about the best I can offer, too.

[Sunny Kelly]

Roscolo, I am a bit wary of installing the drivers myself, since my warranty is gone and the support is so awful from HP. But I know that I really need this to keep it running at it's optimum level on Win 7 64

[Sunny Kelly]

Roscolo, I am a bit wary of installing the drivers myself, since my warranty is gone and the support is so awful from HP. But I know that I really need this to keep it running at it's optimum level on Win 7 64

I also just went through the HP website and was in a circle trying to find the driver, but it wasn't there

[kaelaria]

I often need to hard boot the printer and router to correct these communication issues.

[iCrop]

I'm in the process of building a new computer.  I've got 64 bit Windows 7 on it and I just noticed drivers for the Z3100 are available via Windows Update.  It doesn't indicate if they're 64 bit, I'm hoping Microsoft is feeding me the right stuff.    I'll post back after I get it working...

Mike

[David S Rosen]

I'm in the process of building a new computer.  I've got 64 bit Windows 7 on it and I just noticed drivers for the Z3100 are available via Windows Update.  It doesn't indicate if they're 64 bit, I'm hoping Microsoft is feeding me the right stuff.    I'll post back after I get it working...

Mike

Please do share your experience.

I have been waging a battle with HP about the [lack of ] availability of these drivers.  About a week or so, their web site was updated to say that the drivers were [finally] available, but in fact, the drivers are not to be found (endless loop that goes nowhere).  I get a different story from each support tech that I talk to.  I even went so far as to talk to someone in the CEO's office at HP (really!) with no better luck.

It is simply appalling to me that HP is not supporting this $4K PROFESSIONAL printer.  Even more appalling the three-stooges-like way in which there operation seems to be run.  

So is MS DOES have the right driver, would be thrilled to know....

[iCrop]

OK.  So I was able to download the 64 bit version of the Print Utility from HP.  In Windows Update I was able to download the drivers for the Z3100 from within the 64 bit version of Windows 7.  I used the HP Utility synchronize the paper presets from the printer with the new PC.  I've installed CS5 (64 bit) on the PC, opened a file created in CS3 on my XP (32 bit) PC, and printed it on the Z3100.  There are slight color differences between the output on the Win 7 PC and the XP PC, but nothing dramatic.  No doubt some minor differences in settings between CS3 and CS5, or perhaps I didn't get all the same settings in the drivers matched between Win XP and Win 7.

Overall my new setup looks very promising.

Mike

[Ian99]

As a Newbie I am just offering my experience todate with the Z3100 drivers.

I run a Z3100 off a network with a Win 7-64 . Until Friday August 20th 2010, the old driver (v61.73.361.41) worked fine but the HP print Utility (v 1.11.0.3) refused to run Color Center.

Windows Update told me that there was a new driver available (why did HP not do this??) and I installed v61.101.366.41.

Several important things did not work – the preview before printing, fine adjustment of brightness and strength of various colors, and the print sizes seemed to be off. I print from the latest version of Qimage so there may be some interaction here.

Not happy so I tried to roll back the driver. You cannot do that simply in Win7 for a printer driver so I had to do a system restore to the state prior to the new driver install. Thankfully the old driver was restored and works as it always did.

Rebooting the printer restored most of HP Print Utility function, but not the ability to export ICC profiles to your PC. It told me that I needed to update my firmware before that could happen. I am using TR12_TR_7.0.0.3 with OS TR_2.1.2.

HP does not seem to operate the Z3100 driver/download site at this time so I would appreciate comments about a solution.
Bottom line, be cautious about the new Win7 driver.

[Roscolo]

HP does not seem to operate the Z3100 driver/download site at this time so I would appreciate comments about a solution.
Bottom line, be cautious about the new Win7 driver.

I've harped on the solution I use, that is handy for numerous reasons, not just the problem with waiting for drivers for new OS's. Multi-boot. If you have a problem with Win7, you can always just run your printer from XP, or another OS. I use BootIt NG from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com  I have posted info about BootItNG before. I'm not affiliated with them, but it has been a lifesaver for me, from complete system backups, to system restores, to booting unbootable machines, to running many OS's on one computer.

[markdfink]

I downloaded the latest Win7/64 driver last week and everything went smoothly. Almost to the point of being eery... ) Now, all my custom papers that I calibrate show up when I go to print, the color center works fine, the print preview, (which always worked anyway), continues to work - I can't find ANYTHING wrong with this driver on my system.

At last, I can "just print"!

[Ian99]

Roscolo:  I routinely use multi-boot when upgrading to a new OS, but it is just for the ability to revert to the old system in case of problems. I decline to operate in this manner in the long term. Maintaining another set of software under the old OS just adds headaches.
Anyway the Z3100 was running quite happily off a Vista driver (I think it was Vista) under Win7-64.
For backup purposes I have Windows Home Server running constantly which backs up all my machines once a day and has been extremely reliable.

Markdfink:  Keep your fingers crossed! Can you tell me what are the version numbers of your HP Utility, Firmware, and OS please?  The latter two are shown in the information panel on the printers display. If I can match your configuration I will give it another try.
Thanks

[jhein]

Re: Qimage.
I had the exact same problem with Qimage.  The solution is simply to do a printer reset.  Once that is done the print preview works correctly

hope this helps
Jim

[Ian99]

OK, I have had enough. I recognize that others have had success with the new Z3100 Win7-64 drivers, and I congratulate you on that.

I have installed the latest driver 3 times (v61.101.366.41), I have re-installed the latest printer firmware (TR_7.0.0.3-7  OS TR_2.1.2). Each time I have rebooted my PC and rebooted the Z3100. I have reinstalled the Printer Utility v1.11.0.3.

Nothing makes a difference!  I still cannot get the printer driver settings to “stick”. Whether I am printing from Qimage (v2010.209) or from CS4, ticking the preview box everywhere it shows in Printing Preferences, or the box for Advanced Color Adjustments, it makes no difference – those settings are not relayed to the next step and disappear.

I have spent enough time and paper on it so once again I have reverted back to driver v61.73.361.41.  All of those check boxes work and “stick” from one print job to the next. I still cannot transfer pre-sets but at this stage I am past caring.

My previous suggestion stands – proceed with caution and know how you can revert to the preceding condition.

[Ian99]

Success.
This is an update on my previous problems trying to get the new HP Z3100 Windows 7-64 driver working.
Finally I have everything working as well as it is supposed to.

There are many HP websites with conflicting information, and it appears that I was trying to install a driver downloaded from one of these sites which gave the file hpdjz3100serieswx64gl.exe and updating it directly in Win7.

I found success when I found a different site which listed a “HP Design Jet Z3100 Installer dated 18 August 2010, which downloaded a file named HPDesignjetz3100PhotoSeries.exe.

Running this installer file did everything quickly. A reboot of the OS and the Z3100 got everything talking to each other and even lets me use Qimage.

I hope this helps others to solve the problem.