can't get laptop to detect hp printer

I used to have my HP Officejet Pro L7680 All-in-One printer hooked up to my PC – a few weeks ago I wrote to hp to ask them to help me get the new updates to install (because altho' there was always an update alert popping up on my now dead PC, my attempts to get it to update/install on that now dead PC failed). After hp sent me the updates to manually install (which I did), the whole PC went haywire, and although Ken545 did his best to help me fix the PC in another forum, it seems like the PC's hard drive ultimately died. (Not sure if the hp updates caused the failure, or if that, along with other variables, or who knows what, caused the now dead PC to die.) Subsequently I had to pull out my old laptop – an old Compaq Presario 1700 – which was never configured to work with this particular printer, and said laptop is the computer I am using now to write to you with. So now I've tried to hook up the printer to the laptop but although this laptop pops up messages indicating that it is detecting new hardware, it will not do what it needs to do to make it work – I simply cannot print unless I can get the All-in-One to work with this laptop, and I really need to print. I don't have any of the disks that came with the printer, so I don't know how to get the printer to work with this laptop. Please advise. Thank you.

Hi, its best to download the drivers for your all in one HP Officejet Pro L7680 and then run the install program, only connect the All in One when the driver program instructs you to do so.
If you go here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product…ng=en&cc=uk
you will be able to check that we are both talking about the same printer…. if so then next go here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwar…ct=2512009&
Fill in the required details on the form and download the correct driver to your desktop.( its a large download so depending on the speed of your broadband connection it will take some time……if you connect to the Internet by a narrow band (slow connection) then it would be best to ask a chum with a broadband connection to download it for you and transfer it to your machine by a thumb drive/flash drive/memory stick.)

1 Next disconnect the USB and network cable from the L7680 make sure that your HP L7680 is powered up.
2 Close down your computer in the normal way, a complete shutdown (not a hibernate/sleep) wait 2 minutes with a blank black screen then checking once again that the L7680 USB cable is NOT connected, restart your computer.
3 Now run the downloaded driver file from HP and only connect the USB when instructed to do so by onscreen directions.
Regards
paws

Hey Paws – thanks for the info. Ken 545 told me to ask you how to remove stuff so that I can free up some space on my hard drive – he helped me do a ATF to clean it, and now it runs waaaayyy better than it did, but I know that so much of the hard drive is used up (on what I can't guess) but stuff ought to be removed and I need your help for that – please advise. Now I am trying to follow the directions you gave me to get this laptop to download the software to make my printer work. So, how do I know what Windows I have? (I think it's XP, but not positive, and there are so many options to choose from). Also, how do I know what driver to choose? Here are the options for XP (which is what I think I have): +Driver (2) +Driver - Enterprise Solution (1) +CD-ROM order page - CD/DVDs (1) +Firmware (1) +Update (2) +Utility (4)

Oh, and Ken545 said to refer you to this link (his & my posts to each other) in order to determine what to remove from this laptop to free up space. Do you think I should remove stuff BEFORE I go ahead and try to make the printer work? In addition, on second thought, I'm not sure if I ever had this printer configured with this laptop – is there a way for you to check and see if the drivers are already here, and somehow not working anymore? I'd hate to download new drivers on top of old ones if that would hurt anything. Thanks for your ongoing help – I really appreciate it!

I'm sorry – I totally forgot to paste the link – here it is – you should be able to see what's up with my laptop from this thread of mine with Ken545 – Thanks!

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=113829

Hi,
1 You have sufficient hard drive space left to run Windows and your existing applications satisfactorily….. (You have over a third of your hard drive free .)
2 There is therefore no pressing need for you to free up further space on your hard drive.
3 You have Windows Xp SP3 (32 bit)
4 A major problem for either fast or smooth running of your computer is the amount of RAM you have. RAM (often called memory) is only around 256 mb and your machine really needs more.
5 If you go here:
www.crucial.com
and get the Crucial scanner to scan your system it will tell you everything you need to know about your memory and what extra memory your machine can take and the price.(you dont have to buy the memory from Crucial if you don't want to, but they are a good firm. with a high reputation and personally I have never been dissappointed with their service or product.
6 To install the printer driver from HP or check to see if its already installed, go here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwar…ct=2512009&
and click on the +sign to the left of driver 2..follow onscreen directions to check for existing drivrs or download the new one.
Regards
paws