Skimpy Win 7 driver for HP PSC 2355 printer

punkinbee59 · 18 May 2010

Decisions, decisions..... do I buy a new printer or wait for a better driver for this printer?

When I bought my Dell computer back in September it was preloaded with Vista, and I was worried that it won't accept my printer, but with drivers for the Vista OS, I was able to use the printer that had the same bells and whistles loaded on the CD for the printer. (it will only load up to Windows XP-surprising that it worked on Vista)

Anyways....I thought (naively) that if it worked on Vista, why not 7? I tried to reinstall the printer program from the CD, but Win 7 wouldn't take it...so I went to the HP site, to find a driver and a patch for that driver for Win 7.

And wow....I don't have all the stuff I needed to access my printer, like HP Solution, HP Director, HP Gallery, etc. Not even HP tools to print test or check the ink level. Oh, they provided a workaround for the this skimpy driver but it's not the same

I bought this printer back in 2004, didn't work, and ended up getting a refurbished printer to replace the new printer I bought. That was weird, but it worked pretty good for a while until now.

So, I'd appreciate some suggestions about whether to get a new multifunction printer or wait for a better driver. I hear that HP customer service allegedly ain't too good.

TIA~
punkin

CarlTR6 · 18 May 2010

I have the same situation with my HP 2410. I installed the the driver HP suggested and I use the built in Windows fax and scan tools. They work fine. True, you won't have the HP Director console; but you do the same things with Windows fax and scan - and more quickly using less resources. The ink level check was not all that accurate anyway.

punkinbee59 · 18 May 2010

Googling around, I found this discussion about HP drivers:

How to install printer drivers in Windows 7

and there's a great workaround in one of the post:
Workaround

although HP did not release the drivers for Windows 7 until Fall 2009, there were few people who found a way to work around this problem.

with my particular printer, this link says that HP did not offer a full feature software/driver, but only provided basic features----

that gave me the impression that if I try to install my printer to Vista, and use the workaround mentioned above, I might be able to regain some of the full features I enjoyed before.

hmmmm......

would like to hear some input about this.

CarlTR6 · 19 May 2010

My printer did install automatically. HP has not upgraded the accessories , namely the Director console for Win 7, the last time I checked their site. I knew about the work around. Unfortunately, my old HP CD is in storage (move), so I can't use the workaround.

I have no trouble operating my printer and it works well with 7's built in scan and fax functions. My plans are to buy a newer printer with wireless capability when I have the money.

punkinbee59 · 28 May 2010

I was able to get the Vista SP2 driver for my printer and use Brink's compatibility mode tutorial to install the driver. I was able to get the full feature package: HP Photosmart, HP Solutions and got the scanning feature that I need to make PDFs. Now I don't have to wonder if I need to get a new printer.

please mark this thread as SOLVED. thanks!