HP Z3100 how can I still use it?

[mrleonard66]

I have a great  condition Z3100 44" printer that came with a ton of ink. I ised to use the same model MANY years ago....
But I need a computer that runs either Mac 10.7 or Windows 8 (not 8.1) in order to run it / get the drivers for it.
Then I would have to get an older version of Lightroom (which I use for layout printing).
Does anyone know any alternative options?
I don't even know what computer to look for that would have those older operating systems...

[MfAlab]

You can get win10 driver. When talking about compatibility, windows is not that evil as mac does.

[kers]

10.6 you need to handle the advanced profile solution from HP ; for running it you can even use 10.14.  Or indeed windows 10
In the end you have to realize that an old computer is part of the printer - buy one second hand for 100 $ and you are done.
and yes you need also an old program to print. i use an old photoshop for it.

[mrleonard66]

You can get win10 driver. When talking about compatibility, windows is not that evil as mac does.

Thx for the info. As I am a Mac user...I will have to buy a Windows Laptop. Does it work for any version of Windows 10? 64-bit version?

[mrleonard66]

10.6 you need to handle the advanced profile solution from HP ; for running it you can even use 10.14.  Or indeed windows 10
In the end you have to realize that an old computer is part of the printer - buy one second hand for 100 $ and you are done.
and yes you need also an old program to print. i use an old photoshop for it.

Thx for the info. As I am a Mac user...I will have to buy a Windows Laptop. Does it work for any version of Windows 10? 64-bit version?

[degrub]

If you can get the win10 drivers, off lease small form factor pcs with win 10 are readily available for a few hundred. Just add any old display.
Microcenter here in the US carries a variety of Dell and Lenovo off lease machines. Usually, a  Gen 6 or higher Core I5 or I7, 8 or 16 GB memory, 64GB+ ssd, with a good selection of I/O.

[CharlesGast]

I just built a PC with an i9 16 core processor and four NVME M.2 drives on it. I found a retail Windows 10 OS for $45 for the build. I use the latest pay-by-month Lightroom and Photoshop. APS and the rest of the drivers are running.
Processing 45mp raw files takes less than 1/10th the time it did on my 10 year old Win10 with 6 cores.

[MfAlab]

Thx for the info. As I am a Mac user...I will have to buy a Windows Laptop. Does it work for any version of Windows 10? 64-bit version?

Sorry I didn't keep the file (but I've seen the driver on hp website before). Maybe you can send a mail to ask for it. No matter which version of it, 64 bit windows 10 could handle them all. No trouble as macs did. Even some win7 driver could work ion a win10 PC.

[Ernst Dinkla]

An issue with running W10 is that the HP Z drivers depend on Internet Explorer for some GUI functions and Explorer is old software meanwhile. I depended on the Print Preview function in the HP Z3200 PCL driver to take out any wrong doing of Qimage Ultimate (nice software but less interactive with HP drivers), that is no longer possible with Microsoft Edge replacing Internet Explorer. It will not be better with Z3100 drivers I guess.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm

[mrleonard66]

You can get win10 driver. When talking about compatibility, windows is not that evil as mac does.

So I got an old Windows computer with 10. I installed the Windows 8 driver , and I can print with the basic printer settings...BUT I can't seem to get the HP utility to establish communication (which I want to create ICC profiles etc.). For some reason, even though it 'sees' the printer...it says it is unavailable/offline (even though i can print from Lightroom with the printer settings)
If you have any suggestions, that would be VERY helpful!

[mrleonard66]

10.6 you need to handle the advanced profile solution from HP ; for running it you can even use 10.14.  Or indeed windows 10
In the end you have to realize that an old computer is part of the printer - buy one second hand for 100 $ and you are done.
and yes you need also an old program to print. i use an old photoshop for it.

So I got an old Windows computer with 10. I installed the Windows 8 driver , and I can print with the basic printer settings...BUT I can't seem to get the HP utility to establish communication (which I want to create ICC profiles etc.). For some reason, even though it 'sees' the printer...it says it is unavailable/offline (even though i can print from Lightroom with the printer settings)
If you have any suggestions, that would be VERY helpful!

[mrleonard66]

An issue with running W10 is that the HP Z drivers depend on Internet Explorer for some GUI functions and Explorer is old software meanwhile. I depended on the Print Preview function in the HP Z3200 PCL driver to take out any wrong doing of Qimage Ultimate (nice software but less interactive with HP drivers), that is no longer possible with Microsoft Edge replacing Internet Explorer. It will not be better with Z3100 drivers I guess.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm

So I got an old Windows computer with 10. I installed the Windows 8 driver , and I can print with the basic printer settings...BUT I can't seem to get the HP utility to establish communication (which I want to create ICC profiles etc.). For some reason, even though it 'sees' the printer...it says it is unavailable/offline (even though i can print from Lightroom with the printer settings)
If you have any suggestions, that would be VERY helpful!

[Kyle D Jackson]

So I got an old Windows computer with 10. I installed the Windows 8 driver , and I can print with the basic printer settings...BUT I can't seem to get the HP utility to establish communication (which I want to create ICC profiles etc.). For some reason, even though it 'sees' the printer...it says it is unavailable/offline (even though i can print from Lightroom with the printer settings)
If you have any suggestions, that would be VERY helpful!

Hi, I had this same issue in 2020, it was caused by one of the Windows updates. Make sure you have the latest version of Win 10.

I fixed it by removing/uninstalling the drivers by using "remove printer" in Win 10, and then removing the HP driver software in the Win 10 apps section. (I left HP Utility installed.) I then downloaded the latest raster PCL3 drivers I could find on the HP Support site (more details here https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=143140.0). After that things worked perfectly.

I also downloaded the latest HP Utility (1.17.0.3) at the same time and installed it even though I already had it.