Printer Problem

[Zonie]

I have a client who has a PC XP Home Edition, 1.5 Ghz. 256MB Ram, 20GB HDD. I am trying to install the new printer he just bought, there are no other printers installed, was previously but uninstalled, when installing HP Deskjet 6200 series, installation goes fine until the end. The software is installed before hooking up the printer and during the install it asks to hook up the printer.

At the end when the wizard finds printer and installs drivers an error comes up: "Problem installing hardware HP Deskjet 6200 series, an error occured during the installation of the device, "The enviroment specified is invalid." What the heck does this mean and is there a solution? I have googled but found nothing relating to this. Could use some help please.

[3fingersalute]

What if you do the full install, and during the install, I believe there is an option to "Continue without hooking up device", then physically install the printer after the install is all done?

Also, are you running from a cd, or a driver download? - Try the latest drivers from HP's site.

[Zonie]

Will try the install without hookup tomorrow and if this does not work will try drivers from HP and post results. Thanks 3fingersalute.

[Zonie]

Well, tried the install again with out hooking up and doing it maually. Did not work, got the same message. Tried installing with drivers downloaded from HP site supposedly the newest and still got the "invalid specified enviroment." I am beging to wonder if there is a problem with the OS having a corrupted file or two in it. Any other ideas?

[hudsonsmith]

Was the printer that was previously installed an HP? I recently had a problem installing an LJ2100 on a computer that previously had an LJ2200. Even though I had uninstalled the 2200 drivers, some of the files were left behind and had the same name (but different version) as some of the 2100 files. After locating the files and deleting them manually, the install worked.

[Zonie]

There was a previous printer (HP) installed, howver, what happened was it quit printing stating the same error message. I assumed it went bad and the client returned it and got this one. I uninstalled the software, deleted the directories, and removed it from the registry. Hence, I still have a problem.

[Duke of Rezin]

There's a software cleanup utility here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...n&cc=us&os=228
Also, make sure you have the Plug and Play service, the Universal Plug and Play service, the Print Spooler service and Windows Installer service turned on under Administrative Tools section in the Control Panel. Reboot your computer and have the printer plugged in and not turned on and turn it on when prompted to connect. Windows will keep flashing it's hardware found messages and just keep clicking OK while running the install cd. I've got the 6110 and have gone through this same problem and I think this should get you going. My dad recently bought a 2610 and on a lark I tried installing its much better software suite and sure enough it all installed including updated drivers for my printer. Go figure, but I'm not complaining.

[Zonie]

Situation is resolved. Apparently SP2 update was the ulprit. I ended up install a fresh copy of the OS and everything is now working fine. Thanks for the help.