There is a huge problem with HP Laserjet (and probably many others) MFP’s when installing full-solution packages on a computer which is newer than the MFP and when they need to communicate through the network. At work we have many HP Laserjet 3090 and 2727 series printers that are able to scan. Normally if you simply add the printer, the computer is able to print without a problem every time. But to make that thing scan – you need to install the full-solution package, which is old and deprecated. Installing such packages on x64 machines doesn’t work, setup is b0rked. Installing it on Win7 doesn’t always work, for unknown reasons the printer can’t be found by the address or hostname or anything.
But enough about that. Another major problem is what to do when the IP of a printer changes and it doesn’t scan anymore. Don’t bother reinstalling the full-solution, it won’t work. So after LOTS of googling, I finally found the solution.
For computers that were able to scan before, but can’t now due to an address change, solution was found here. Here’s a copypasta of that explanation:
- Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\0000\DeviceData - Confirm the REG_SZ named CUEDeviceID is the device you want to change (usually you don’t need to if you know the address).
- Update the REG_SZ named NetworkDeviceID by changing the IP address in the string to the new IP address, eg.
\hostname:NPI74FF08\ipaddr:192.168.0.25\guid:\macaddr:00237D74FF08\port:1 - Change the REG_SZ named PortID to the new IP Address.
You should be good to go, try scanning, it worked for me.
Remember, “It can’t be done, reinstall…”, is never the right answer. :)
So this saved my life. However I am searching for ways to install the scanner drivers WITHOUT installing that full-solution piece of garbage.