HP-Inkjet

**[|Install Issues w/HP All-In-One Printers]**
A few classrooms on [|CDO campus] have an HP All-In-One (printer, copier, scanner, fax) [|Deskjet 6310] that include multiple Smartcard memory card slots and a USB port on the front face of the device. Normally, this is a great and very convenient way to interact with digital cameras and other flash RAM storage devices. I've run into a pretty serious issue when the printer is installed on a Novell network and have put together the following installation method as a work-around.

I went through a normal installation of the printer where I was logged on to the school's Novell network with my own administrative-level user account, ran the printer installer from the CD leaving the printer unplugged until the installer was ready to recognize it. When I got to the step in the process where the printer's USB cable was plugged in, the Windows XP system started to process the mapping of the USB mount points (drive letters). Then, **WHAMM-O!** -- Windows XP totally gorked, telling me that the **SERVICES.EXE** system service control application was stopped and that XP was going to reboot in 60 seconds, 59, 58, 57... //**Yikes!**// - I could simply sit there in fascinated horror watching the timer decrement. Suffice it to say, not good. The restart and subsequent logon had the HP printer installation rolled back. I tried to repeat the process with the same result.

This problem exhibited this behavior only when I plugged in the USB cable. The printer has its own lots and lots of USB-based connections. The USB connections are considered to be a USB hub and need to have a drive letter mapped so Windows can set up the point where the user can interact with the USB device. If there are all these USB connections being established when I plug in the printer cable, then maybe the issue is with the assignment of the drive letters and the conflicts with the currently mapped network drive letters.

The answer is to **NOT** be logged on the network at all, at least during the installation! I made sure the printer's USB cable was removed from the PC, logged on as the local PC's administrator (Novell's **"Workstation Only"** option), and re-ran the installation. This time, the HP printer software installer found the printer and the printer's USB hub and Windows XP was perfectly OK with the discovery.