Vista says HP printer not connected when it is

I went to a friend's to make some flyers for her. While I was on her computer I noticed the preferences window came up (the ones that show after you've downloaded an updated version of Internet Explorer[in this case, IE8] and restart the computer). She told me, "We just close that window." She didn't know what it was or why it "kept coming up", but that it had been "doing that" for several months. I explained to her what it was, selected the standard settings, and finished it out. I finished her flyers, went to print them out, and nothing printed. I checked her printer off the start menu. It showed the printer there, but "offline". I put it "online", it said it was ready, still nothing printing. I tried printing a webpage, still nothing. I could not find her printer by software in her programs. I did find HP extra software to use with the printer there. When I clicked on one of those, it gave me an error message saying the printer was not connected to the computer. I checked the connections and it was. In the printers window off the start menu it showed the printer and had the correct name of the printer and looked perfectly normal (online, ready). I was going to uninstall the printer from the add/remove programs, then reinstall it. It wasn't there. She didn't have the disk for her printer anyway, although I would've gone to HP website to hopefully get that. She has Vista OS and HP 4300 series printer. We quit working on it and I was going to go back to it later. Since then, she, her husband and her girlfriend say I am the one who screwed the printer up because I "downloaded IE8". I explained to her that IE8 had already been downloaded and all I did was to select the preferences that it had asked for.
She said the printer was working fine before I "downloaded IE8" and that her girlfriend was now trying to "undo what I had done." She was in the process of uninstalling IE8 because they were sure that I had downloaded it and that it was the reason the printer wasn't working. I explained to her that having the most updated version of IE is something that you would want because certain webpages may not work right without it. I told her she already had been using it for as long as she was getting that window to set her preferences. None of them believe that as they think I downloaded it. I told her I had gone to HP's website and downloaded some updates there for her printer, but that I had not updated her browser. I had only downloaded a couple updates for the printer, and that had not fixed the problem before we quit. My next move was to find the software from the website and download that. Her girlfriend had thought of that as well and they were downloading it. I called her today to see if they figured it out, but she has not called me back. It really set me off when she told me they had to "undo what I had done" in an effort to fix the printing problem, and I want someone to confirm to me that IE8 settings have nothing to do with whether or not a printer is recognized by a PC using Vista 32-bit. Seeing what I had seen, or NOT seen on her computer (the printer software itself), and getting error messages after I clicked on the other HP software that a printer did not exist, I don't know how they were able to print before I visited them, but they say they have been. On the other hand, I have Windows7 64-bit, and it will not allow me to use my HP software for my HP printer (probably because it is 32-bit), but I am still able to print with my printer through Windows. If this is the case with Vista, then what WOULD cause the Vista OS to tell you that a printer is not attached to the PC, when at the same time you can SEE the printer where it should be in printers? Also, in device manager I updated the driver, it said "successful, but that there was no printer connected"

I hope all of the above isn't too confusing.

Please give me feedback as soon as possible.
Thank you!!!!

 

Let me put this another way. What I want to know is this:
1) Does IE8 not install until after you select the preferences for it after reboot?
2) After selecting preferences for IE8 in Vista, can this in any way affect whether or not you can print from a 4300 series HP 4 in 1 printer?

It is my belief that the answer to #1 is, that IE8 is already installed by that point. And that the answer to #2 is, absolutely not. PLEASE tell me if I am right or wrong. Thank you.

 

You're correct on both points.

I presume the printer connects via USB port, right? Did you verify that the power switch on the printer was turned on? Was it connected to a USB port on front or back of the computer? Did you try a different port?

 

Greetings, kathirteen.

Agreed with usafveteran.

There is no way of telling if the printer problems were laying in wait, regardless of whether the IE8 preferences were completed or not.
I concur with your belief that the updates for IE8 were downloaded and installed in the background - I imagine that Automatic Updates are probably at the default settings.
The HP F-series are notorious for connection problems with Vista - scour this forum (and others) and you'll find numerous references to issues.

Relax - it appears to me that you did nothing wrong, and probably everything right.

 

By coincidence we also have an HP4300 connected to Vista that showed identical symptoms a couple of days ago. I solved it eventually by clearing the unprinted docs from the print buffer, disconnecting the USB and power cables at both ends, rebooting the computer, reconnecting the cables, and trying again.

I can't see either how this can in any way be connected with IE8, but I wish you luck convincing the others!

 

Thank you both for showing me I'm not crazy!

Yes, they are using a USB connection,

Yes, it was powered on. It was able to copy and scan, and I presume fax. I saw no function to get to printing via the printer selections on the printer itself. It kept defaulting to fax. When you try to print from the computer, the printer doesn't say "printing", but stays on fax. It was not connected to a phone line for faxing, and she said they never configured the fax functionality.

It was connected to a port on the back of the computer. I tried unplugging the connections from the printer end, then reconnecting to see if that would reset it, but that didn't make any difference.

When I spoke to her on the phone, while her friend was "undoing what I had done" (in their minds, installing IE8, therefore they were rolling back to IE7) I mentioned to her about trying another port, but I might as well have been speaking Chinese because she doesn't know much about computers. We hung up shortly after that. I had checked the port when I had been there and it was using the virtual port, as expected. In my experience that is the correct port, so I didn't try changing it at that point. I was going to try other things first before doing that, but I left shortly afterwards.

I did tell her that Automatic Updates had probably downloaded and installed the IE8 update, so even though they were rolling it back to IE7, Automatic Updates will probably download it again. She still preferred to believe that I downloaded it.

Good to know that this printer connection problem is common and fixable, but she probably paid someone to fix it by now, telling them I'm sure, that they had made the mistake of letting me on their computer to screw it up!

Thanks again for confirming to me I had NOT screwed up their computer/printer, and that as you put it Caliban, it was a problem "lying in wait"
I have found that while fixing one thing on a computer, it brings to a head other things that are wrong with it too, but just were not able to come to the surface to be fixed until the other thing had been fixed first.

 

Thank you as well Earthling for your comments!

I did check the printing queue and had cleared that. I also cleared her Temporary Internet Files, and 4 GIGS of deleted files out of her recycle bin!

If I forward this thread to her, will she be able to see it even though she is not a member here?

 

Yes. :major