Windows 7 Printer driver fails to install

[MDolven]

Windows 7 64 Home Premium
I have an HP Photosmart Premium C309g all in one printer/scanner/copier. I CAN NOT get it to reinstall after having some scanning issues. The Microsoft website says it is compatible, I have used it for about 4 years now, but I am thinking with only the basic driver installed from the plug/play when I use the USB.

I have done all the FixITs, diagnostics, install wizards there are. I go to the HP site, I download the full feature driver (without the USB connected, right now all there is is power to it). It downloads, extracts, gets me to the user agreement. I disable the anti-virus as it suggests, then once I hit next to install- it quits. That is it- NOTHING. No error, just quits.

The original CD will not load at all when I click the setup.exe. It revs up, then closes with no error message at all. I think it has something to do with the installer?? I do not feel this is a printer problem, but an OS problem. Something shuts it down. I have Norton Utilities 15- wonder if that cleaned up something? I do get an internal error 2732 when I try to open a file off of the installation CD.

I have spent about 10 hours on this, it is driving me crazy. If I use the USB it will install but says the driver is missing. I am able to connect wirelessly through the printer wizard, but that only gives me the basic print driver...not to scan/copy etc. The solution center will not load with it-
HELP is so appreciated! I am out of warranty with HP/Microsoft and they want to charge a hefty price for telephonic help. Thank you

 

[patcooke]

A simple solution might be to try a system restore back to same date which predates the problem first occurring. I note that you mentioned Norton - I am one of those shudder at the mention of the name and won't allow it in the same room as any of my pc's.

 

[MDolven]

I did a system restore late last night, which helped. It removed all the recent installations that didn't work. Instead of selecting to download the driver, there was an "install new device" option. I clicked that and it went through fine, which put me back to where I started, but it still didn't load the full feature driver. When I went back in to select the other driver options (Solution Center etc) it told me "installation failed" and started to remove things- so I quickly shut down the PC so it wouldn't uninstall what I had just done! ha Now sure how to get around that internal error 2732 on installation--

To us novices, why the dislike for Norton? What do you suggest instead- thanks!

 

[patcooke]

Try running the system restore again to get back to a clean start but then, before running the install disable Norton - it may be blocking it.

Attitudes to Norton do vary and are as in most of these things rather subjective. In the early days Norton was the leading AV and protection software but it has grown over the years, seeking to become all things to all people and now has become bloatware having a huge footprint on computer resources. It tries to do so many things it has become its own worst enemy and in trying to block an ever increasing barrage of threats, nannying users etc is now frequently the cause of problems such as yours blocking genuine efforts to install system software. Some claim it has improved in recent incarnations but I still experience no problems relying on the inbuilt Windows firewall and anti-malware. Some others will recommend AVG or Avast for malware protection - all these things are free and, IMHO at least are more effective and less hassle than Norton.

 

[MDolven]

I am 99% sure I ran it without the Windows or Norton protection on, and also followed a suggestion to turn off all the programs at start up except the necessary Windows ones. But I believe that checking "install device" was the kicker, instead of selecting the install of the driver package....but I know there is more to the install with the full feature driver, I am just not getting it. When I try to select certain parts to install, I also got that %1% is not a valid Win32 application---

 

[patcooke]

It may be that the previous installation left remnants behind. Try running ccleaner (free download for home use) to:

1. Clean any junk files (from the "cleaner" menu)
2. Clean up the registry (from the "registry" menu)

This will help ensure that the install is as clean as possible.

 

[helpifIcan]

Not sure this is allowed but you might try doing the install in safe mode. Some things will install and others won't depending on what services they need running to install the proper drivers.