Unable to complete wireless installation of HP Photosmart C4380 All-in-One

Update - after spending several hours online to HP (using the online chat support facility) I had not made progress. What I didn't realise however was that the printer had been configured ok despite the install software saying it couldn't find it wirelessly! So when I when into control panel/settings to add a new printer (you have to do this as a local printer and specify the IP address through this configuration) the printer worked fine!!! The upshot of the HP install software failing is that it doesn't install and configure the HP solution centre which helps with scanning, so I'm now going to try configuring the scanner capability independently. Hard to believe that install software is so flaky from a big name like HP!!

I have the same problem earlier where the HP installer could not find the wireless printer. I have initially setup the authentication in my DLINK router to use WPA and the setup always failed and the error is that no wireless printer found.

I went into the setup in DLINK router and change the authentication to WEP and assign 5 ASCII. Once that is done, I run the HP installer again and this time it manage to find the printer successfully. At last after 3 days of trying, it did work at last.

I had the same problem where I could get the HP Printer to access the router due to MAC filtering. I tried hard to find the MAC Address of the printer but was unsuccessful as it was not printed anywhere on the box or printer. But this link really helped me:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01123173&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3221646&dlc=en&lang=en

I printed it out and it had the MAC address on it... Configured my router and it's now working great... Hope this solves your problems

I also had problems finding the printer through a wireless connection, turned out that by adding the MAC address to the allowed clients list (in my router, by clicking Wireless Network > Advanced > Allowed Clients), all of a sudden it could be found and the installation worked flawlessly.

Handy tip: to discover the MAC address for your C4380, press and hold the 802.11g button on the front (next to the blue light) until you see wireless options on the built in screen. Scroll down to Print Network Configuration and click ok - the printer prints a page including the MAC address. Use this to add a client to your router.

Good luck,
Daniel

I followed Andy and finally got the wireless connection to work using his method.

I've also got the Solution Centre to work by reloading the HP disk, adding a device, a network printer. The software now sees the printer, loads and this time the Solution Centre worked.

I also made the new printer the default.

It looks as if creating the IP address manually is the key. Thanks Andy!

tomchivers, I absolutely agree with everything you say. The pretensions of the 'software suites' written for some hardware are unbelievable. You have to disable firewalling because they can't be bothered to tell you what they're going to do. You can in theory use some security options like static IP addresses instead of DHCP, but if you try it you're on your own, nobody has bothered to give proper instructions based on a real install. It's a printer and scanner for***sakes, not an operating system for a missile control system.

And then, as you say, it doesn't even work.

For those who find it hangs, and takes hours to install, take a look at your Task Manager. You'll probably find that an instance of svchost is taking nearly 100% CPU. Yup, no prizes for guessing what started that up. Worse still, on the two installations I set it up on, both are *STILL* using near 100% CPU on svchost all the time!

Avoid. Like the plague.

Same problem here, could not get past the WPA password page.
However changing my WPA password into something only without the + sign helped to configure it well!

hope it will help to you too!

greetings

Solution 14 by Boris was my resolution but let me be a bit more detailed. As I could not figure out all the steps by that post without calling support:

• Open up the admin interface on the router and changed the security from WPA to disabled. Assume the problem is WPA and changing to WEP as others had done would work also.
• Now finish the install and should be successful.
• Once this is done, go to the printer itself and hit the 802.11 button on the front
• On the top left hand corner on the printer scroll to print Network Configuration page
• On this page make note of the Printer's IP Address
• Open a browser and type in the IP Address. For example whatever is the IP address put the number in after the http://. This opens the interface to manage your printer settings on the device itself
• Verify the Device is Ready with a green checkmark
• Go to the Networking tab on the top left
• Click the Advanced tab on the center of the page
• You will likley see No Authentication or Encryption selected
• Scroll down and choose WPA and Add and Confirm your PassPhrase. Leave all else to the default settings and choose Apply to save
• Now go back to your router's interface in the browser by typing its IP Address
• On your router re-enable WPA security with the pass phrase you entered on the printer interface
• Now print a test page and this should work.
• If it does not, for example when you go to print and see no default printer to select (this happenned to me). Re-run the HP CD but this time it will recognize the printer on the network when you chooose the network setup

Crossing fingers this stays running smoothly. Hope this helps others having this issue. The HP tech support guy said the other, later model printers with wireless work much better. In fact I would have bought one but did not like having individual ink cartridges!

Photosmart C4380: good hardware, appalling software. Shameful that it's on the market at all.

WIRELESS PROBLEM

You have to install the printer as USB first. Then, once it's all installed, load up the CD again and 'Add device', choosing the wireless option. It's crucial that you leave your USB cable in the whole time. Take it out right at the end. Once you've added a device, you'll have two printers installed. One will be called 'Copy 1' - that's the wireless one. It should all work okay, and you can delete the USB one.

SCAN PROBLEM AND ERROR MESSAGES

When I did this everything seemed to work fine. BUT - after a wee while the software started playing up. The scan function didn't work at all, HP was depositing all sorts of bugs all over my computer, I had error messages coming up at shutdown, all sorts of gremlins.

So this is what I did.

I totally uninstalled all HP software.

I downloaded the updated Photosmart Basic Drivers from the HP website. They are here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=3221646&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&submit.y=11&submit.x=9&lang=en&cc=us

Once you've downloaded the file and run it, the new drivers will be installed but NO SOFTWARE. Again, you have to do the whole setting it up as USB and then leaving the cable in and adding the device wirelessly. But if you do this with the HP drivers and ignore the installation CD, then everything should work perfectly.

Of course this means no HP software at all. But who needs it? I use Microsoft's scanning software, which is fine, and it has no problem printing.

Basically HP's software is BLOATWARE that doesn't even work. It screws up your computer.

Good luck!!

What I didn't realise however was that the printer had been configured ok despite the install software saying it couldn't find it wirelessly! So when I when into control panel/settings to add a new printer (you have to do this as a local printer and specify the IP address through this configuration) the printer worked fine!!!

This is what I found as well.

Same problem to me. Unbeliveble the HP is UNABLE to ship driver software for ther product witch work. I had simular problem also with models like OfficeJet and LaserJet All-in-on.
Mike

DON'T BY HP WIRELESS PRINTERS.

I had the same problem but I am using a Mac Airport Extreme. After I turned down the wireless transmitting power to about 50% it started finding it.

There is a new driver version on the HP website. It was updated in February of this year. I don't even think that the support staff are even aware of it. I had this same problem and spent about 5 hours trying to fix it and the support engineer was convinced it was a driver problem.

Here is the link to the new driver:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-53194-3&lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=228&product=3221646&dlc=en

Sounds like there are several different sorts of problems here. Things to try...

I have mac address filtering so I had to print a Network configuration Page via the printer (press button next to 802.11g and scroll down in the lcd menu). I also ran a network test through this menu which printed out another helpful page with similar information. You then have to log into your router and add the mac address to the allowed list (this will be in advanced wireless settings somewhere). Also be careful to add the printer's mac and not the router's(it should say Hardware Address (MAC) instead of Access Point HW Address). You should not have to manually set any IPs if DHCP is enabled.

You could also turn off the filtering but depending on your router this might also be an advanced setting. If you absolutely can't get there you'll probably have to actually unplug your router for a while for it to go back to defaults (which should not include filtering).

Some routine ones:
1) Disable or configure Firewall to accept printer (how depends on type of firewall)
2) Restore Network defaults on the Printer (press button next to "802.11g" and use buttons next to LCD to do this)
3) Make sure you are connecting to the correct network SSID and have entered the correct passphrase using the correct encryption technology (e.g. WEP or WPA).

Hope this helps someone...I sure couldn't find instructions on finding the MAC Address via HP at least not for the C4380.

I had an headache with my printer also.
On the fifth go i decided to to turn off my windows firewall, and hey presto it found my printer wirelessly and has worked ever since.

Thanks to the above help, and some further searching, I found that my printer could be detected wirelessly only if I first disabled my windows firewall.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00047176&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3221646&rule=44445&lang=en

After this I was successful printing a Wireless Network Test Report from the printer interface. Everything says PASS, but I cannot print a document from my computer. It says that my printer is disconnected. I restarted the printer, now I am restarting my computer to see if this fixes it.

-Cory

I have the same problems that everyone else is having with the c4380 hp pinter. My solution is to stop buying HP products. I have 4 HP laptops two desk tops at least 6 printers and a number of other products of theirs. But guess what, this problem along with other issues have convenienced me to move on to other brands. I have had it with HP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The esiest way to resolve the installation and configuration of the HP Pothosmart C4380 wirelessly is to follow these directions:
1) Make sure to delete the HP Printer in the Control Panel/Printer section. 2) Insert the HP CD 3) Click Install (if new installation) or Add Device.  4) Select the Network installation 5) It will not find the Printer. Connect the USB from the Printer 6) Select your wifi network. It will ask you to select the wireless network (there could be many if it picks up your neighbors wifi) 7) Type your WEP key. The first one is fine. 8) Follow the rest of the directions. You will have to disoconnect the USB towards the end.
If your printer has been installed from another computer, follow the directions but you'll notice that instead of asking you for the wifi network, it will have detected your HP printer.

Wireless printing with HP Photosmart IS NOT impossible.
i have an easy way to do this.

It's to big to explain here, but paople who want to know, can always contact me on my MSN Messenger, and i would be pleased to help you.

my email is: reina.toch@pandora.be


sorry, for my english, but i'm from belgium.

greetz Reina

What I found out with HP printers is that you have to do the HP clean uninstall before reinstalling. If you do not have that version of HP removal software, there are entries in the registry and in the Windows directory that do not get uninstalled unless you use a current version of the HP clean uninstaller. Once you have a clean uninstall, go to the router and find out what the IP address of your printer is. Then with your laptop, to to that address (your printer) . The printer has a built in web page for setup. Go to the network tab. and set the printer to a manual IP address. With most routers, the automatic (DHCP) addressing starts at 192.168.1.100 and goes to192.168.1.150. I set the IP address above 151 and not use DHCP. This is a manually set or static IP address. You should also set the WEP codes on that page. Once you do that, you now have a solid connection to your wireless printer. All you really need now is the printer drivers.

You can try the installation disk again, or install it as a local printer using the IP address you set eariler. Then use the drivers off the disk. That should work better than the HP installer.

If you want to use the HP installer, make sure nothing else is running as the installation uses all of the resources. If you have stuff autostarting starting, like YAHOO or AOL, or Realplayer, or Limewire or whatever, right click and stop them. Give that a try and you shouold be OK

Hope thus helps!!

Help I cant get it to go wireless at all, it works finr on USB but I cant uninstall the sotware as it performs an error and then closes down, even via the windows uninstall program in the control panel , can anyone give me an idiots guide.

stephen

I had this problem with an HP Officejet J6480 All-in-One.
Here is a fix I found.
1. Remove the installed printer.
2. Start the printer install wizard.
3. When it asks you to connect to your computer using a USB, use an ethernet cable to connect to your router. The wizard immediately recognizes that this is a network printer connected to a router.

4. The wizard completes all the rest of the install and then print a test page.

Worked for me.

I also had a strange problem with my new C4380. I ran the disc and followed everything to install the printer on wifi using my tm5320 and a USB cable. All went well, removed the cable and I was able to print wirelessly. I then added the printer as a network printer on the other 2 laptops and a desktop in the house - no probs. Then I decided to try scanning a photo to try it out. I pressed 'scan' on the printer and it said 'choose PC' on the little screen with a list of our pcs, except mine. I phoned HP, the chap talked me through some checks but basically he didn't have a clue.I then tried everything I could think of and whatever Mr Google could tell me but no luck. Remembering that I used my laptop to configure the printer using USB, I removed the printer from my control panel then uninstalled everything HP as well. I then reinstalled the HP drivers and software and added the printer as a network printer.
Now I can scan to my laptop and any of the other pcs with no problems.
I was using my Travelmate 5320 and Vista Premium.

Unusual problem solved!

i cant tell you the amount of trouble i've had with this printer. Every time i turn on my laptop, I have to re-install everything. I can print a page wirelessly but everytime I try and scan, it says that there is no wireless connection.

Its going back to the shop as I can't be bothered with this

for never ending install problem, at the end, the software suggest to clic on continue and says that he'll uninstall the hp soft.
at this point kill all the hp task.reboot your computer and after login, hp soft will ask to insert again your cd.
do it and follow the process. after a few minutes it says it's ok and that 's it

I just setup my HP C4380 and had the same problem you've all experienced with the wireless setup. If you are using the HP CD to setup the wirless connection, I've noticed that it will be unsuccessful if you are using WPA encryption. To get around this problem you will have to temporarily switch your wireless encryption to WEP. Once you have changed your encryption to WEP, follow the HP CD instructions to setup the wireless network on the HP C4380. If the installation was successful, your HP C4380 should have picked up an IP address from your DHCP server. Open up a web browser and enter the IP to open the WEB interface for the device. Click the Networking Tab and select Wireless 802.11 under connections, then click the advanced tab

Thanks tomchivers for this solution. In the process of getting it all to work, I also had to delete any printers installed by previous attempts AND automatic software update (from add/remove programes). Following setting the printer up on my windows network, I was able to also install it on my Linux machine where it performs flawlessly. Linux drivers are here http://hplip.sourceforge.net/install/index.html
Anyone using Ubuntu can just search HPLIP in synaptic, and install all the packages with that as part of their name. After installing the packages, select system - preferences - HPLIP toolbox and follow the onscreen prompts if using Ubuntu Hardy Heron

I had to drop all the underscores out of my wireless router access password. Still had them in the network name with no trouble. As soon as I dropped them in the password it worked fine.