HP 2840 print and scan in Windows 7

March 3, 2010 by Mike
Filed under: Windows 

Question: I bought an HP Color Laserjet 2840 for almost $900 last year while I was running Windows XP PRO on my PC. I have been printing and scanning via LAN connection. In January I purchased a brand new desktop with Windows 7. The original software doesn’t work. I’m now very concerned that HP has not developed a Windows 7 x32 or x64 driver and software solution for this expensive office hardware. Where can I find the HP Color LaserJet 2840 Software for my 32 bit Windows 7 to be able to scan and print?

Answer: For Windows 7, the network scanner is not available by default and there is no sign of activity at HP to fully utilize AIO. We were told that there are currently no plans to update the software, but as usual, we all have a choice in how we are going to address this problem.

HP stated that model specific print and scan drivers are available within the operating system. This statement looks valid. There is a postscript driver included in Windows 7, but this only covers printing. HP’s own 32 bit universal drivers for Windows 7 are located here: download universal driver for HP 2840.

The scan driver can be accessed from the Microsoft Windows Fax and Scan application, or other installed scan compliant applications in your Windows 7.

After several hours we found the solution to install drivers and let the Toolbox fully work so far (push/pull scanning, faxing) using a mix of Vista and Windows 7 drivers.

Try the followings:

1. If you need the HP Toolbox download the latest full version driver for Vista:
HP Color LaserJet 2820/2840 North America/Western Europe Copy all installer files to a convenient place somewhere on the local machine. On the setup .exe-s set the Compatibility mode for all users to Vista SP2 and run the setup.exe as administrator.

You will find the following .exes: Setup.exe, Hpzstub.exe, hpzsetup.exe, hpzice.exe, autorun.exe. Installation guide is here.

2. Your Windows 7 must include a proper printer driver for HP 2840. If not, download it from the HP.

3. Install the downloaded and prepared Vista package. Run Setup.exe (in Compability mode, see step 1), and then install the Windows 7 printer driver (step 2) if you need it. Now check out the installation at Control Panel (see Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Devices and Printers). If you can’t find the HP 2840 printer there, Add Printer. Configure as Network Printer.

4. Find the HP program folder (for example C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard)

5. You must have administrator privilages and you must set the proper access rights to the Toolbox folder and its subfolders (see C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Toolbox).

As a user you must have full access here. You may need to add LOCAL SERVICE and NETWORK SERVICE. You have to change the owner of these folders when you are not allowed to make modifications (see Advanced features).

6. Check out your firewall and network connections. Let the Toolbox’s Apache Tomcat communicate with the printer. Java RE .exe-s must be added as an exception to your firewall app (especially javaw.exe). If you have special settings, look at your firewall’s filters too. The Toolbox communication ports are 5225, 5226.

Please note that, depending on the settings of your added applications running over Windows 7, you may need to change the port number of the Apache server. In this case navigate to the server.xml file (find it in the conf folder). Search for the string “8005″ and replace it with “8006″. Save the file.

Now try to use HP Toolbox and get your scanner by the Windows Fax and Scan. The WFS program is at %windir%\system32\WFS.exe.

If you can’t find your network scanner, your firewall or virus protection program blocks it or name resolution error occurred.

Test environment:

1. Desktop PC: DELL XPS 32 bit, LAN connection
2. Windows 7 Home, clean install, local static IP
3. Firewall, virus protection: Windows 7 Defender, Windows Security Essentials
4. HP 2840, LAN connection, local static IP

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If you are lost and don’t have the technical expertise, time, nor inclination to struggle with the work-around than you really must call a local computer guru. You likely have more issues: a misconfigured Windows 7 or HP2840 installation, corrupted registry, local permission mismatch, DNS (device name resolution) error, or have other firewall or networking issues (like TCP/UDP port blockings). You should be able to use debug tools like hpbpsttp.exe -debug option, command prompt, tomcat server… and play Sherlock Holmes.

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