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Rastar · Dec 2, 2002, 09:30 AM

I have a problem that i'm sure another savvy iBook owner can help me with.
On Nov. 10th I purchased this iBook- 800mhz, 14", 30 gb Drive- It's a beautiful thing (I retuned a another laptop-compaq XP that crashed and crashed)...
My problem is installing the print driver for an HP 3820 printer.
I installed off the CD and everything looked cool till the printer list comes up with my printer showing- but no driver installed ?
Reran the CD, showed that the driver had been installed, and that it did not installed it again.
Next, went to HP online, downloaded their new driver, and installed that. Still the same problem, printer shows in print center, but driver not installed?

I would very much apperciate any suggestions to resolve this.

Again, I love this iBook. Got it home, plugged in my Sony DV camera and downloaded into iMovie....WOW ! I tried for two years and many $$ to do that on a windoze machine to no avail. It's a beautiful thing.

Nick Ahlfs · Dec 2, 2002, 01:41 PM

I have the 800/14" model with a 40 gb hard drive and 640 Ram. It's not my main "work" computer, so I don't print off of it. However, based on my experience with my G4 desktop, HP drivers aren't as plug and play as you would expect. I've had my 1220c connect and not connect from time to time.

The driver that HP said worked with 10.1 and up did not work with 10,1.5. It worked fine when I upgraded to 10.2, however.

Here's my advice. After making sure you have the correct drivers, turn off your printer and unplug it. Then plug it back in and restart it. See if this works. If not, unplug the printer while it's on, then replug it in.

If none of this works, call HP!

Good luck.

Rastar · Dec 2, 2002, 02:44 PM

Thanks Nick, I'll give it a try !
Contacting HP is like trying to contact aliens...light years before you get a reply.

Thinine · Dec 2, 2002, 04:07 PM

You may want to DL gimp-print and see if it has a driver for your printer. Also, make sure the drivers you installed were actually for the 3820. I don't think the default ones installed by 10.2 work for that printer.

Arkham_c · Dec 2, 2002, 05:31 PM

Gimp-Print is the way to go. It uses the CUPs system on OSX and works great. Get it here:

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

Once you set it up, you can configure it from Print Center using the "Advanced" option, or using the web interface (http://localhost:631/)

Rastar · Dec 2, 2002, 09:30 PM

Well friends, I did try Gimp-Print and have got the printer spit'in out 10 blank pages and then 15 pages full of "E01D2FE79901DA........" and on and on.
But, at least it is printing out something, That is a first. The documentation says to set G-P to the HP 900 series, which may work. Funny thing is that it will not let me add an HP 900 series, but shows the HP 3820 as a printer, which is what I added.
Thinine- The driver I added first was from the HP 3820 install CD, not the OS X cds. (The one that came with the printer)
Arkham_c - The second URL you gave is incomplete, or- I just can't get it to load up..., but thank you for the G-P Tip.

Funny thing about this is that this printer is on special rebate from HP with the purchase of an iBook... you would think someone might have tried to connect the two to see if they could talk... I think the HP 3820 driver is screwed up under X.2.2

haifischjunge · Dec 4, 2002, 10:38 AM

I've got the same problem with a hp 3420 printer with 10.2.2 However the printer already worked fine and then suddenly from a day to another the driver disapeared.

First of all the printer was not longer found at the print center and after repluging he was found, but no driver installed. No Problem I thought reinstall the driver.

This problem is realy getting me crazy, with the newest driver from hp it also want work (no error message or somethink like that while installing). Allways the same: driver not found.

The only thing a bit strange I can report is that the hp installation program does about 2m nothing and then installs the files in 10s. At the first install (as it worked) the whole installation was done in 20s without this long break at the beginning of the installation progress.

PS. sorry for my english, however I'm not a native speaker

Rastar · Dec 4, 2002, 01:41 PM

Well low and behold, some nice person from HP e-mailed me this morning with a URL to just the right print driver ( not the same site as the 'Updated Driver).... It Works ! YEA- i'm so happy to be able to print from my new iBook after three weeks. Now, if I just don't screw it up somehow....

I am very sorry to hear of your troubles 'haifischjunge'. I know first hand how frustrating they are.
e-mail HP- and try this while you wait...

A clean printer install- this is from HP
1. Go to your hard disk (HD)-Library-Printers
2. If you are not using Canon, Lexmart or Epson printers, drag their folders to the desktop.
3. Drag the HP folder to the trash.
4. Delete your printer in the Print Center.
5. Restart your Computer.
6. Install the HP Driver.
7. Add the printer in the Print Center.
8. Try it out, If it runs ok, put the Canon, Lexmart or Epson printers folders back in the Library.

Good Luck-

Javahead · Dec 26, 2002, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by Rastar:
Well low and behold, some nice person from HP e-mailed me this morning with a URL to just the right print driver ( not the same site as the 'Updated Driver).... It Works ! YEA- i'm so happy to be able to print from my new iBook after three weeks. Now, if I just don't screw it up somehow....

can you please post the URL to the driver? I can print to my HP 3820 via CUPs, but I'd like to be able to access advanced printer options (choose print quality, paper type, etc.)

thanks!

Big Mac · Dec 28, 2002, 03:27 AM

I don't understand why HP has such poor OS X drivers. I hope Apple works with them to correct the issue, because I like their hardware nevertheless.

andretan · Dec 28, 2002, 07:21 AM

Hmmm, I have an old Deskjet HP840c, and when I first plugged it into my iBook (running Jaguar), it automatically found drivers.

Now, I'm on X.2.3 and does not have any problems with it as well

Cheers.

Blake Lambeck · Dec 28, 2002, 03:04 PM

I had a darn hard time installing the 3820 drivers; when I downloaded the drivers from HP's website, the stuffit file expanded to an installer that just installed a disk image into a folder on the hard drive. I then had to open that disk image and run a second installer to install the actual drivers. That was annoying, but after I ran the real installer everything worked fine.
--Blake.