[SOLVED] installing an HP LaserJet 1020 printer on win7 32 bit

[sam_ibraheem]

I have a 2GB Acer laptop on which I'm trying to install the printer, here's what I've tried to do so far:

• As expected I went to HP Support and downloaded the 2.6 driver file, when I launched it it got stuck on preinstalling drive files and then an exception pops up, I'd have posted a screenshot but the whole system is in Arabic, but the exception has the number c000000d and it has something to do with ProductInstall.exe and BEX, googling has returned a suggestion that my security software is blocking the installation, I deactivated protection and tried again, same problem

• Having failed in the previous step I downloaded the 18MB UPD 5 universal driver. Launching it, I chose a USB install, waited for the files to be copied and then tried to connect the printer, the thing is that first I got: the device couldn't be installed and I had to disconnect the cable multiple times, but when I opened device manager the printer is showing under other devices with its name and everything

• Now I got to MS word to print a test page and when I hit print, nothing happened even though the printer is showing ready as a status.

Am I missing something here?

 

[BFG-9000]

The Universal Print Driver cannot work on that printer because it only supports printers that understand PCL6, PCL5, or PostScript languages. Such printers have internal processors and RAM.

The LaserJet 1020 is a "dumb" GDI Win-printer which means it essentially requires the host computer to process all print jobs in software, into a simple rasterized bitmap image it prints like a fax machine. That's why you can't use a print server appliance on it (like a router with USB port), only a Windows PC as the print server.

 

[sam_ibraheem]

The Universal Print Driver cannot work on that printer because it only supports printers that understand PCL6, PCL5, or PostScript languages. Such printers have internal processors and RAM.

The LaserJet 1020 is a "dumb" GDI Win-printer which means it essentially requires the host computer to process all print jobs in software, into a simple rasterized bitmap image it prints like a fax machine. That's why you can't use a print server appliance on it (like a router with USB port), only a Windows PC as the print server.

Thank you so much for your answer, I guess we're back to the basic driver then. Do you have any idea what could be ausing the exception? Do I need some .Net downloadables or something?

 

[BFG-9000]

As it shows up in Device Manager, I would try updating the driver through WindowsUpdate from there.

As you can tell from the small 2.6MB size, it only needs a small minidriver (specifically a printer interface DLL) to work with Windows' own GDI renderers Unidrv or XPSDrv. The version delivered through WindowsUpdate may copy all of the files without having to run any executable.

Or when you extract the downloadable driver .exe file using 7-zip there is a separate setup.exe inside, as well as .inf files you can point Device Manager toward under "Browse my computer for driver software"

 

[sam_ibraheem]

As it shows up in Device Manager, I would try updating the driver through WindowsUpdate from there.

As you can tell from the small 2.6MB size, it only needs a small minidriver (specifically a printer interface DLL) to work with Windows' own GDI renderers Unidrv or XPSDrv. The version delivered through WindowsUpdate may copy all of the files without having to run any executable.

Or when you extract the downloadable driver .exe file using 7-zip there is a separate setup.exe inside, as well as .inf files you can point Device Manager toward under "Browse my computer for driver software"

thanks a million sweet stranger, you've been most helpful