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Windows Vista and older peripherals

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14 replies

by cg it

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This is from HP's site regarding some of their older printers.

"We are sorry to inform you that there will be no Windows Vista support available for your HP product. Therefore your product will not work with Windows Vista.
If you are using the Windows Vista operating system on your computer, please consider upgrading to a newer HP product that is supported on Windows Vista.
HP has numerous products on the market that support Windows Vista".

This is one of the reasons that Vista will not find as broad a market saturation early on as XP did. Many of the older but still functional printers are not supported. Consumers will upgrade to vista and if they have older [3 to 4 years] printers and scanners, they will find that many the mfgs won't provide updated drivers, rather direct you to buy a newer model [ like HP]

14 replies

by thechas

There was the same issue with older hardware when XP came out.

The only difference is that Microsoft made an effort to support basic functionality of many hardware devices in XP. In fact many of the initial patches for XP were updates to drivers that did not work. The problem is that in many cases, the response was to disable functions that did not work properly rather than to fix the issue.

There are stacks of Printers, scanners, video cards and sound cards that were discarded just because they did not work with XP. I did not expect Vista to be any different.

Chas

by dawgit

I bet those printers will work, and continue to work (well) with Linux. Just my little 2? cents -d

by cg it

I told them that probably many of the printers and scanners, not to mention other devices won't work with Vista.

Perfectly good printers, scanners and the lot won't work and small businesses just don't want to have to buy new everything just to use Vista.

Home users maybe, but not businesses. Many are on the 3 year or even 5 year equipment depreciation. Small businesses just keep what works and don't get new until the old breaks.

by dawgit

As it seems to most business's over here also. It looks (the anouncement from HP) like HP is pre-empting service calls from customers whose printers will quit working. (due to Vista installs) Smart move on the part of HP. -d

by cg it

if consumers and small business owners are smart, they will first check that all the peripherals they have, have updated drivers from the mfg before they buy.

But The Chas likens Vista to XP where many of the initial updates to XP after its launch were drivers. With mfgs saying they won't make drivers for older yet still working equipment, many consumers aren't going to be happy when they find out they have to buy new printers, scanners, and many software programs. Nero 6 whatever flavor so far isn't being patched for Vista. Not sure about Roxio yet, ...

by jdumer

Go to Wal Mart or any supplier or HP Printers and check out their models. You will find that only a few will even have the basic driver available and some will not be supported at. These are supposed to be current models.

by w2ktechman

then go do a search on HP's website to see if they have drivers available.

Note: I have looked up 2-3 yr. old notebooks that do not have Vista drivers, and I have also found that some of the older desktops do.
It may be just a matter of time to get the drivers for older equipment.

by browermd

Good News!

Hp OfficeJet T45 all in one can still be used as a printer with built in HP drivers for HP DeskJet 400. These drivers are found in Vista's "install new printer" wizard. When applied, they allow use of the machine to print.

Sadly, I can't fax or scan from the computer, but for at-home purposes, it's printer function is preserved, and it still functions as a stand-alone fax.

I'm now looking for compatible scanner drivers.

Best wishes to all,

Rich Brower

by chuckivie

I have a HP T45 printer and I love it. I just got a new computer with VISTA ans was horrified to discover that HP has no VISTA support for this printer nor do they intend to provide it. Your solution solved the problem. Thanks
Chuck Ivie

by j.g.camp

Printing is limited to a narrow selection. Not to mention wireless cards where one has to use unsupported 3rd party drivers.

Anyway, a victory for Linux, Dell announced they will re-offer XP for it's line of PC's with Vista offered as well. Apparently the masses aren't enamored by hardware and software upgrades (read that to be total replacements) that Vista requires. I know in my personal situation and even my employer's, that incompatibilities with hardware and software are going to hinder adoption of Vista.

I feel for technicians, when they service a Vista issue, imagine getting or trying to charge a customer for support, for simply recommending they buy a new piece of hardware or software from another vendor source. Word of mouth gets around and those shops customer's won't even show up for that.

I updated Ubuntu Linux to 7.04 Friday night, imagine being able to upgrade your OS on-line and for the cost of the time and bandwidth on DSL. Some of my hardware wasn't supported, but it still was supported thru restricted repository software and drivers still available. So it still works just the same. I imagine Vista to some extent has similar, but it's a matter of being tech savy to get it to work. Funny, Windows has come full circle, the main knock on Linux has always been this and Vista has become exactly that, only the difference between Linux and Windows ? There is a community that supports these unsupported hardware components, with Windows, since it's locked down, Microsoft doesn't care and nobody else can help except manufacturers that publish statements they refuse to support their hardware. It falls back on Microsoft to develop a driver and they seem to care less too. Solution, here's a grand opportunity for conversion from Windows to OS X or any of the Linux distros.

by browermd

At my computer consultant's suggestion, my office actually installed Linux on one computer. This worked great for the stand-alone functions, but it couldn't communicate with either the hospital whose data I need to use, or with Medicare, whose billing programs are Windows-based. (Even the Windows-equivalent program "Wine" was detected and excluded from contact with the hospital's website.)

Whether we like it or not, most health care professionals are tied to Windows and its cycles of planned obsolescence.

Unfortunately, too, that obsolescence spills over into fully functional "legacy" third party software and hardware. (I'm also looking at incompatibility between Vista and my Palm Pilot.)

It would be great to find a site for Vista-compatible legacy hardware drivers. Does anyone know of any?

by thechas

The issue / problem with drivers for older hardware and new operating systems is that if the device manufacture does not create and offer a driver there is not apt to be any alternate driver available.

First you have the issue of intellectual property and copyright of the driver files.

Then, you have the amount of work that it takes to write and test a driver.

Back just before XP came out, 2 hardware brands with dedicated followers went by the wayside. 3DFX and Aureal.

For 3DFX, a number of people attempted to write new drivers. The task was just too complex for hobby software work.

For Aureal, Microsoft offered a basic driver. But, ended up disabling features rather than fix bugs in the core driver. The Linux community did have a lot of developers working to create a Linux driver for the Aureal sound chips.

The question is not finding a place to download updated drivers for older hardware. The task is finding and funding software engineers willing and able to write the updated drivers.

Another thing that happens with some devices is that they end up needing new firmware and not just updated drivers to work with a new or different OS. Another major task.

Chas

by bill

It seems to me that the makers of all these devices are just sitting on their buts and leaving all of us out in the cold just to increase sales. They have known Vista was coming for years. It is all just about money!

by willcomp

During Vista beta testing, a lot of XP drivers were used by beta testers. Some won't work but many will. It's best to install XP drivers in Compatibility Mode. The only way to find out is to try or Google for information on your particular device.

Using XP drivers for an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax is probably a stretch. I'd surmise that printer and possibly scanner might work.

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