Hello,
Am not a techie - know nothing about computers but have a very tiny problem that's driving me un-accountably insane. I cannot believe that something so simple has taken a day and a half of time, and am still without a result.
New Sony Vaio with Windows 8 - trying to install an HP 2035 Laser-jet printer (serial code CE461A, so a model before the current one), so I can release my older VAIO to people who really need it. Sitting in Zambia, and not in a city, so no tech support .... and believe me if I could have just gone out and bought a new W8 compatible printer, I would have felt sorely tempted but not an option, so ....
1. Start the logical way - look up HP support, check compatible with printer, go download driver (ljp2035-gdi-pmp-win64-en.exe), run driver - all okay, permissions come up, say yes, HP licence agreement come up agree and a couple of seconds of installation and then nothing. Try again with printer connected, double check USB cables / power etc. Try and run as Administrator, same thing. N.B. HP's Universal Printer Driver does not have this printer as compatible.
2. Maybe corrupted download - try again (and this takes time with speed of connections here), and again, same thing (repeated again).
3. Google - change compatability permissions to work with Windows 7, try again. No luck.
4. Try changing selective start-up programs through msconfig, no luck.
5. Try going through traditional channels of adding a printer - won't find the software - try everything from adding a device / printer, getting Windows to search for the software, adding disk, windows update etc. It will NOT find my downloaded driver and I moved them everywhere to try and get 'them' read - docs, downloads, desktop etc.
6. Use HP's 'Install Printer Wizard' - not working for my model of printer DESPITE its listing as compatible with W8. Left nasty customer feedback.
7. Read that McAfee can sometimes stuff things up - un-install and install Avast instead. No change (this took me 3 hours on our download speeds).
8. Start Windows in safe-mode and try and install from there - lost cause - scared myself silly with the cmd.exe screen, was all I could to do to get back to normal screen again (not fiddling with that again).
So, what can I do, other than buying a new printer (which is defeat) - any and ALL ideas most gratefully appreciated (as long as they're within newbie capability)??
Thanks,
Maya