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A neighbor has a sony viao laptop with win7. She also has an HP 8500 PRO a909G printer. I downloaded the latest software from HP website and installed it. Can scan to the computer and print from the computer fine. Restarted the computer and everything worked.

A few days after doing this, the printer stops working from this computer. When we start up the HP software we get a message that the install is incomplete and need to connect the computer to the printer, which we do and it does nothing.

Something is happening every few days that causes me to have to delete the HP software and reinstall it. Any ideas anyone?

I really need the T-shirt that says 'No, I will not fix your computer...'

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Actually a T-Shirt that says, "Computer Repair $125 per hour" – Moab Sep 18 '10 at 23:49

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Who knows what is going on, they could be doing s system restore that breaks it, or a virus, or a corrupt NTFS file system, or heavy disk fragmentation, or a bad cable as suggested by jason404

Try doing some system maintenance before reinstalling the driver.

  1. Run chkdsk

  2. Defrag (do chkdsk before doing this)

  3. Clean out the temp folder for all user accounts.

  4. Disk cleanup

  5. Install the software by right clicking on the installer package and select "run as administrator"

  6. Charge them for your time, if its not worth it to them, then fixing it should not be worth it to you. What do they do for you that has the same value and do not charge you for it?

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I think a lot of those are highly unlikely, given this is a brand new viao, but Ill keep them in mind. Ill also try running the install as admin. I don't remember if I did that. Im curious as to why it works for some period of time, with restarts, if I didn't run it as admin though. Thanx for the tips. – hvgotcodes Sep 19 '10 at 0:11
also, normally I would charge, but this neighbor helps me out a lot by cat sitting when away. Normally I am of the same mind as you.... – hvgotcodes Sep 19 '10 at 0:12
I guess I took it as a complaint rather than sarcasm...cat sitting has value.. – Moab Sep 19 '10 at 16:28
Temp folder can cause issues with software installation especially if it has been installed more than once, If the PC is not left on full time it may need a manual defrag. Chkdsk is important, it can clear up any free space issues that can cause weird problems, the only way to know is run chkdsk. – Moab Sep 19 '10 at 16:31
up vote 1 down vote

Have you tried using a different USB cable.? I had a printer which acted in a similar way due to a faulty USB cable, many years ago.

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