New printer causes Windows XP to be unable to boot up....

[ibbydibby]

Have recently bought a new printer as old one died. It is an HP Photosmart C4480. V cheap at £29.99.

Installed it following instructions to the letter - ie put USB cable into printer when told, put other end of USB cable into PC when told etc etc. However 2 days after first instaling it, I could not get my PC to work - ie I switched it on, Windows looked like it was trying to boot, but couldn't, and I ended up with a black screen with a non-repsonsive cursor blinking in the top left hand corner - could not do a thing. Switched off, switched on agan several times. Finally hit on idea of taking printer USB cable out of PC - and it worked again. So uninstalled printer software, and started again from scratch. All fine for 2 or 3 days, until it happened again.

This has gone on ever since, and is becoming a bit of a pain. I have done a search on this, and there does seem to be a few people reporting a similar problem, but the only suggestion I have seen is to make sure you are inserting USB cable in correct sequence. As far as I can see I am doing exactly as suggested in the instructions. Can anyone suggest anything else that may help resolve this please? Could it be the cable (which worked fine on previous (Canon) printer)?

thanks for any help you can offer.

Hi,

I've seen this before with a number of USB devices and Windows XP. The immediate fix that I found sometimes worked was to boot the PC with the device's USB cable unplugged and then connect it only when it was needed.

What might work in the longer term is to make sure that you've got the latest set of drivers.

Presuming you've got the normal (non 64-bit) version of Windows XP then see if the link below works:
h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk〈=en&product =3418705#

If that doesn't work then go to www.hp.com/uk

Then click on "support and drivers".

Keep "Download drivers and software (and firmware)" selected.

Enter Photosmart C4480 into the product search box and click the arrows.

Pick the version of your Operating System.

Then download "HP Photosmart Full Feature Software and Drivers". I'd uninstall your current set of drivers and then reinstall from what you've downloaded.

Thanks - am going to try the download at some point today. Have been previously been using the disconnecting USB cable on boot-up "fix" but it is frustrating, and my oc is under the desk in a gllomy corner and I keep losing the torch.......

BadgersPaws, this is my second IT problem you have helped with in 3 days - can I have a "mini BadgersPaws" to perch on my desk please?

Will let you know what happens re printer, though have piles of work all needing to be done yesterday.....Thanks again

If the drivers don’t fix the situation what you could do is to get a small USB hub and have that on your desk. Run the cables from your printer and PC to it and then if you need to plug or unplug the USB cable you can do it from above your desk rather than having to clamber around underneath.

Unpowered USB hubs are pretty cheap and should make this all a bit more bearable.

There actually should be a mini badgerspaws in a few months, though I doubt it’ll be available for desk sitting, unless it is very very naughty!

I was wondering if using a powered USB hub would fix this issue. That shouldn't stop Windows booting as it won't search beyond the hub itself at initial boot and therefore won't see the printer until it has part initialisation.
I prefer powered to unpowered as unpowered hubs themselves can cause boot issues as they can cause a power drain spike (or should that be trough) at boot leading to the graphics card failing to initialise...

DH of ZM.

ibbydibby - might be worth looking into a 'pound shop' for a cheap USB extension cable. I got a 2 metre cable for a quid a while ago in Poundland.

Recently I got some 1 metre extendable ones (with adaptors to mini-USB and the arch-shaped plug for an external hard drive or printer) again for a quid each. A powered hub (by "mikomi", 7 ports) at Argos for 5.99 seemed too good to miss, and it means I have lots of sockets handy for things on my desk. Came with a metre long cable.

If you are interested in the powered hub at Argos, then check whether item 675/6073 is available locally - currently showing as 5.99 - under half previous price (some earlier time had been near 20 quid).

Current selling price valid until 31/12/2009

Incidentally, mine has 3 ports on one side, 4 on the other side, with LEDs showing what is 'live' (when I want to remove a memory stick and 'stop' it, the LED goes off). Not like the photo with 5 ports along one side, and 2 socket openings in the top of the box.

Good luck! (If you don't see one locally, might be worth checking Ebay as some people buy things like this to sell on Ebay. Just seems to be sold out in every branch I can find near me or my sister.)

Thanks all for these suggestions! Much appreciated.