Vista and Printer

Hello My turn to seek assistance. My sister-in-law has a Vista comp, and an Hp Deskjet F380 All-in-one printer, which I have been trying to install, unsuccessfully. The problem I believe, is down to the Add Hardware Wizard. When I run the installation disc everything goes fine to the point of switching on the printer, when Vista starts auto-installing but cant find the driver and something else. Vista does install two parts and so when I proceed with the installation from the disc, it freezes then throws up an error. My thinking is to either copy the driver files into the folder Vista searches or download from HP. Would that work?

Hi Scotty,

I'd download the Vista version of the software, here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwar…mp;lang=en&

Best Regards

Hi Doug I was usng the Vista disc. But if I download, then I can use the Hardware wizard and direct it to the file? And hopefully, no problems after that.

Yes to the above. And, yes… hopefully no problems. Best Regards

Hi Doug Just to update, had no success so far. I tried installing from CD and skipping the plugging in the printer part, but Vista wanted to install updated drivers from MS which always failed. And the MS remedy doesnt work. I discovered there already is an installed driver for the F300 series in Vista, so removed all HP stuff, and just switched on the printer to let the New Hardware Wizard do it's stuff, but no luck either. My last throw of the dice will be to download the driver, and all the other carp that comes with it, (hp dont do a driver only d/l) then try using Device Manager to update the driver. I googled this problem, found it was common, but never saw a succesful outcome, so I will keep you updated.

Scotty, let's see if this works….make sure you've uninstalled everything that was on the set up/driver CD. When you turn on the PC, plug in the printer. Don't mess with the install wizard. Go to control panel, click on printers and see if it's there with a green check mark beside it.

Will do.

Why are you using the add hardware wizzard ? If Vista does not pick up your printer Click on Start>control panel double click on printers. When this opens at the top there is add a printer. Click on this to start the printer wizzard. Cheers peterm