HP P2015 Installs over itself in control panel

[devaltree]

I work in a emergency animal clinic. There are two printers designated as quick print stations for the veterinarians issued acer laptops running Windows XP Professional SP2. The printers as well as the laptops are not networked and networking them is beyond my authority.

The problem is that both printers are the same model, P2015, when either printer is hot plugged into any laptop, it will add two instances of the printer, one named "HP Laserjet series P2015 6" and then the same except instead of the number 6 it says "5e". The doctors are always dragging their laptops around so when they unplug and plug the USB into the other printer, it will then copy both the 6 and 5e. The major problem is when they go to print something and try various instances of the printer. The document gets stuck in an error and I usually have to delete all instances of the printer and reboot to cancel the errored document because it wont print to any of them while that error is stuck in that loop.

Ive been working on thi for quite a few days now but all I can find online is an article on hp.com and a Microsoft KB Article that only relates to Vista but is my exact problem. The hot fix is for Vista and it has to be individually requested so I dont see the point.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934633
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01041595&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3435676#

The other thing I found had to do with USB device descriptor ID's talking about unique serial numbers.

QUOTE:Important: A unique serial number should be used for an MFP parent device node. Having a serial number stored in the USB device descriptor will ensure that only one instance of the device node is created, regardless of the USB port that the device is plugged into. This will assure that the properties associated with the device are maintained when the device is moved to a different port. Not using unique serial numbers can lead to undesirable system behavior. For example, a user will find that each MFP function re-installs every time the MFP is plugged into a new USB port. No two devices should ever have the same serial number.


I havent had a chance to look at the laptops at work yet but I was able to find a registry entry in my home system for my HP Deskjet with a HardwareID but I dont really understand that much about USB Plug and Play enumeration.

I just need to know what I can do to have each laptop retain a single instance of the printer and default to it regardless of how often the two identical printers get hot plugged into the laptops.

HP's online chat was a waste of time and dont even support that model. I dont want to call their phone support based on that experience plus Im never free during their business hours so that's what led me to this forum.

oh and also in the software install when I tried just reinstalling the drivers there was an option to install a second printer of the same model. Which I did but nothing changed. I thought of trying to opt out of that part of the installation next time but I havent had the time for that either since I work with the animals as well as help out with the computers.

I was able to get one laptop to just ignore the 5e and use the 6 instance and could hot plug the same printer indefinately by telling it to just use the printer online or offline or something like that and when unplugging the USB you could see the printer in the control panel go offline and online but the moment I tried plugging in the printer in the hall it just copied the 6 and 5e again and wouldnt use the previous default causing the whole scenario all over again.


ANY help would be much appreciated.
~devaltree

[raz]

if you originally installed it from the cd and did a full install it may have installed all the drivers,or at least the PCL6 and PCL5e.i don't know if you could remove and reinstall the drivers via of the cd and select a custom install and choose to just have one driver installed.sometimes it will install more than one by default.

otherwise you may be able to just remove the drivers and download one driver or printing software solution on each laptop from the hp site and use it.if when it auto detects ,it prompts to auto install plug and play ,just close out that screen.

[devaltree]

Im pretty sure I did a custom install. If I have the option of one I always take it because I like to know whats going on in my installs.

But I guess that's why I need to try and install it without using the "Add a second P2015" You'd think that would be the logical step since we use two of them. Maybe it's just complicating it because they think im gonna network or keep it plugged in.

I dont know. If any one can think of any thing else I'm sure Ill need it.
Thanks raz

[devaltree]

Okay so I did the install again without selecting to add an identical model. Nothing. I finally got in touch with HP phone support and they told me that there was no option for what I wanted on those models. I said does any model give me that option and she said no.

I was told that the printers were just designed that way and there was nothing I could do about it. Which I think is a full load of crap honestly. I just think HP associates arent trained to think outside the box.

Why would they design printers to do this? They said the PCL 5e and 6 are installed together because one is designated for graphics and the other for documents but either one will print anything.

So for now I have just labeled each printer saying "Print to 5e or 6" and "Print to 5e(1) or 6 (Copy 1)" and told all the doctors to make sure when they print to check the label and make sure it matches up. If I remember correctly, renaming them to make the distinction easier just causes the printer to install two more control panel nodes giving me 6 different printers on one laptop.

It's frankly ridiculous in my opinion. This works for now but I guess I still see it as a personal challenge and learning experience.

If any one can think of a registry tweak or anything else it would be appreciated.