HP Printer/Scanner - not recognised on the network by HP drivers

After years of happy use on my home network (Vista on my machine) my HP Officejet Pro L7780 (printer, scanner, fax, etc, etc) - wirelessly connected to the ADSL router, suddenly failed to scan via its own HP software. Printing was still fine and scanning could be achieved via Windows Paint being told to look for the printer - but obviously without the bells and whistles of being able to scan to pdf etc, etc.

Dunno why this happened - an HP update? A Vista Update? An update to my AV stripping out a component it didn't like - who knows?

Eventually, in an effort to fix - I uninstalled the HP software - all of it I could find, and its locked directories, etc, etc, ran cCleaner, etc, downloaded the latest HP drivers and set about installing them. Bah!! The software won't find the printer on the network - even when I tell it the exact network address. No way. I think that, for some reason, something called HPSLPSVC.dll is missing. It's supposed to be here: C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k HPService and is called HP Network Devices Support - at least, that is what is reported as missing when I try to start it under Computer, Manage, Services.

But it isn't anywhere on the system that Agent Ransack can find - not even in the temp installation files.

I can print by letting Windows Networking find the printer (which it does) and installing a driver form the temp installation files (using Have Disk - but pointed there instead). But I can find no way to install the scanner bit.

Has anyone encountered this issue, or recognizes it, and knows how to get round it? I've checked the HP forums and while there are similar problems mentioned - I haven't found any solutions that work for me. Grrrr...
Best
David

 

Did you try updating through your HP software. Start\All Programs\HP\HP Update. I did two weeks ago and got a Critical Update. Cant remember the exact wording but it had to do with Scanning documents not being recognized.

 

Hi David, Sounds like your doing all the right things so far and since you’re getting the error of the missing file I would keep looking for the resign for that.
I did have a problem on site a long time ago with an HP LAN printer and they lost there scan ability and could still print and it took us a day to find out that Microsoft Office got an update and Wiped out HP Scanning ability! Every time we would install the Drivers and everything looked good and we would have one of the clients open word and try to print and then try to scan a document and as soon as she got connected, it would wipe out that file again and not scan! We finally got a fix from HP because Microsoft said it was HP's problem and HP said it was Microsoft’s Problem! Eventually it was fixed. And HP had to recall there driver packs and replace them.
I would suggest that you verify what updates you got to ether Windows or maybe Office or whatever you’re using as it had been working fine until just now? So maybe you can uninstall the updates you got when this started and reinstall the HP software and see if the file is there now? then if everything works OK I would make a copy of that file that goes missing so I could replace it fast without reinstalling the hole HP software package again, and then try installing the updates you uninstalled until you find the one that is removing that file, I would leave that update out and check it so it does not reinstall again if your using auto updates and send your findings to Microsoft and HP and see if one of them comes out with a fix, cause if this just happened with the last updates that came out? There is going to be a lot of people calling there help desk if and when they find they can't scan anymore!
Well, I hope that helps you some and I would like to here your findings as it could help lots of others if the updates are the cause but something happened or changed when you lost that file and now you can't reinstall it.
Hope to hear good news form you soon, I'll look through all my HP software notes and books and if I see something regarding that file I'll be sure to let you know.
Thanks, Merlin289, Rick..

 

Thanks guys. There is no update to the latest 'full' HP driver pack, nor the 'drivers-only' version: any updates I can find refuse to install on the basis there is nothing relevant to install to on my system, or I already have newer stuff on my system.

Regarding rolling back my system - no chance, as it was some while ago that those Windows updates were installed and all but the most recent restore points have long since been deleted by me.

I might be able to get somewhere if I could just be able to install the full HP pack again and get it to 'find' my printer. But, though it appears to install properly, it will not do so, neither under wireless, nor wired (ethernet) conditions - despite the fact that HP's networking trouble-shooting utility (separate bit of software) has no trouble finding my printer, nor does Windows itself have any trouble. But, as I say, HP's latest driver packs cannot find my printer at all, because some service is missing (pop-up message) - which I think is HPSLPSVC.dll. I wish I could find a way of obtaining and installing that item - but Google searches come up blank...

One possibility does occur to me - which is that there is some tiny remnant of the old install still somewhere in my registry, which is preventing the newer installs from 'taking' properly. But I cannot work out how to use HP's 'scrubber' utility. Actually - I think I'll google-search that, for starters. Watch this space (lol).

Best
David

 

...continued: I reinstalled the full software suite. Of course - it could not find the printer, which is on the network (confirmed, with address). The error 'the required service is not a registered service' (or words to that effect) still pops up. I know that the 'required service' is, indeed, HP Network Devices Support (HPSLPSVC.dll) - and when I try to start it from Computer, Manage, Services - it says it is missing. The nearest I could find on the HP installation files was HPSLPSVC32.dll.[alphanumeric string]. (Note the 32). So I tried copying that dll to my System 32 folder in Windows, and registered it under Run - after removing the final dot and the alphanumeric string. No use - still doesn't work. Totally flummoxed. Anyone got any ideas? I can, of course, register the printer on the network via Windows - but that totally bypasses the HP utilities software and just gives me basic print functions.

I guess the only thing open to me is to phone HP support - how humiliating (and time consuming, likely!)
Best
David