mikeymikec
Lifer
I've had two customers recently with this printer, one on Win81 64 and the other on Win7 64 (both new, clean Windows installs).
The problem is that HP's "basic driver" (read: not bloated to hell) installer doesn't work for accessing this printer/scanner via the network. In both cases, the printer was already set up on the wifi and visible through Control Panel > Devices & Printers > Add network printer.
One can of course install this printer through CP > D&P > Add network printer, but that lacks the feature of re-discovery of the printer on the network if its IP changes (which is half the point of using the installer).
On the Win81 machine I ended up having the printer plugged in via USB (drivers were retrieved via WU I think or perhaps part of Win81 already?). On the Win7 machine it couldn't even do that (no driver found via WU).
Bizarrely, on the Win7 machine, because there was a Win8 desktop there as well, it worked straight away setting the desktop up to share the printer to the laptop (despite the fact that usually that method is more fussy driver-wise than anything else), however as that type of printer installation doesn't copy the inf files over to the laptop, I couldn't then get Windows to use the files it had acquired from that installation. Even copying the inf and pnf files for that printer from the Win8 PC and copying them to the Win7 laptop didn't work (it said that they weren't for this version of Windows... how did it work via sharing then?).
Another odd thing is that when one installs a WSD printer, if the drivers aren't already on the computer or Windows Update, it doesn't ask if you want to install them from an alternate location.
I ended up taking a copy of the driver install folder from the temp folder, then doing CP > D&P > Add network printer, picked the printer with just its IP next to it, then feeding the driver files from HP. So their driver works, but the installation program blatantly doesn't (it doesn't detect the printer on the network).
Very frustrating.
The HP website is frustrating as well. Google for 'HP Photosmart 5515' and the search results give you either a page for the 5515, then click on drivers, and it sends you to the 5510 B111a download page, or it's the 5510 B111a download page (which is the driver I tried). The back of the printer just says 'Photosmart 5515 B111'. There's also (IIRC) a b111j which is for a completely different Photosmart printer. The Win8 PC sees the printer as a 5510d. Googling for that gives me one of the previous two results I mentioned IIRC.
The problem is that HP's "basic driver" (read: not bloated to hell) installer doesn't work for accessing this printer/scanner via the network. In both cases, the printer was already set up on the wifi and visible through Control Panel > Devices & Printers > Add network printer.
One can of course install this printer through CP > D&P > Add network printer, but that lacks the feature of re-discovery of the printer on the network if its IP changes (which is half the point of using the installer).
On the Win81 machine I ended up having the printer plugged in via USB (drivers were retrieved via WU I think or perhaps part of Win81 already?). On the Win7 machine it couldn't even do that (no driver found via WU).
Bizarrely, on the Win7 machine, because there was a Win8 desktop there as well, it worked straight away setting the desktop up to share the printer to the laptop (despite the fact that usually that method is more fussy driver-wise than anything else), however as that type of printer installation doesn't copy the inf files over to the laptop, I couldn't then get Windows to use the files it had acquired from that installation. Even copying the inf and pnf files for that printer from the Win8 PC and copying them to the Win7 laptop didn't work (it said that they weren't for this version of Windows... how did it work via sharing then?).
Another odd thing is that when one installs a WSD printer, if the drivers aren't already on the computer or Windows Update, it doesn't ask if you want to install them from an alternate location.
I ended up taking a copy of the driver install folder from the temp folder, then doing CP > D&P > Add network printer, picked the printer with just its IP next to it, then feeding the driver files from HP. So their driver works, but the installation program blatantly doesn't (it doesn't detect the printer on the network).
Very frustrating.
The HP website is frustrating as well. Google for 'HP Photosmart 5515' and the search results give you either a page for the 5515, then click on drivers, and it sends you to the 5510 B111a download page, or it's the 5510 B111a download page (which is the driver I tried). The back of the printer just says 'Photosmart 5515 B111'. There's also (IIRC) a b111j which is for a completely different Photosmart printer. The Win8 PC sees the printer as a 5510d. Googling for that gives me one of the previous two results I mentioned IIRC.
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