F#$@%! ME!! Can a brother get a friggin' drive-only for cryin' outloud??

[redgtxdi]

So, trying to setup printer on my daughter's laptop which I run via my wireless router to a print server. I cannot !@#$!ing believe how difficult it is to get JUST the print driver without the entire 300mb suite from friggin HP!!!

Not only is software becoming less & less intuitive but the friggin companies behind them are going the same route.

/rant

 

[Anubis]

generally you can un-install all the crap after you install it and leave the driver

 

[Ketchup]

HP does have a basic driver that is just what you want, but they don't put them on the CD anymore. They are available on the website though.

They also tried to hide the way you can tell it what not to install (you have to click a link in the install IIRC). They are getting so retarded.

 

[jaqie]

buy a consumer oriented printer, get a consumer oriented driver.

I personally have an HP laserjet P2015dn with second feeder tray and not only is it completely PCL6 AND PCL5 compatible, not only does win7 and vista and linux have drivers built in, not only is it accessible via 10/100 ethernet and usb2, but you can get driver-only for it on their website with just a couple clicks.

 

[redgtxdi]

Ya, I ended up just downloading the whole suite and installing the drive only (required).

Whatever!

Also realized my print server utility was 32bit only and my daughters laptop is win7 64 bit so had to do the install manually anyway.

Out of curiosity, I setup the tcp/ip port as 192.168.1.100 instead of 1.154 (default for the print server) but I realized it was because I saw .100 as "UPnP" address. It works just the same. Any harm?

 

[JasonCoder]

Lot of anger in this thread but as one poster pointed out, HP provides several versions of their driver "suites"... right down to a super manual I.T. shop download that looks like it could be scripted.

 

[MrColin]

I find its better to plug in via USB to an always on computer and share via windows or samba. The drivers are shared to the client computers by the host computer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

HP drivers are terrible, especially when you want to install the driver on a print server. The HP Laserjet 3600 is the very worse print driver out there, and for the sake of all IT people out there I hope that printer is no longer in service anywhere.