“I was trying to scan a picture when this massage popped up here what is
says “An error occurred communicating with the scanning device. Please
ensure that the scanning device is connected properly and try again.
-JFrancisco
Work Around:
This problem may be caused by various factors. So thorough troubleshooting is needed and most probably you are going to uninstall and reinstall a lot of applications to fix this. Below is a work around for this problem. I purposely placed the workaround first as the fix demands a lot of time from you. If you have some important documents or pictures that you need to scan now then you want to try the work around first.
1. First Check the connectivity of the device. (This step is very important!)
- If a you are using a USB cable, then please make sure it is properly connected. Check in both ends. Both in the printer’s end and on your computer’s end.
- If you are connected wireless over an infrastructured network (using a router) make sure that the wireless radio is turned on and you can ping the Ip address of the scanner. Click here to know how to get Ip address of the printer.
- If you cant ping the ip address if the make sure you run the wireless setup wizard successfully. Click here to know how to run the wireless setup wizard.
2. If you have done step 1, try to scan using the built in windows scanning programs: Scanners and Camera Wizard (XP) or Windows Photo Gallery (Vista). By doing this you will ensure that the basic driver of the HP all-in-one is properly installed on your system. If you can scan and print then the basic drivers are installed properly however, there is a registry mismatch on your system that prevents you from scanning through solution center.
- If you are using windows Xp, press on START button (on the lower left portion of your screen) all programs – Accessories – Scanners and Camera Wizard. And follow the wizard’s instructions to scan your document. If it scans then you must have a registry mismatch on your software.
- If you are using Windows Vista, Follow these steps by Microsoft to scan using the windows photo gallery. If it scans then you must have a registry mismatch on your software.
3. If you are satisfied with scanning from the work around, then you may stop here. If not, then you may now proceed with the next step.
The Solution:
1. First, you need to eliminate/remove all the possible elements that may have caused this conflict on your HP software. I am going to list them down below.
- USB cable. – your USB cable may be too long or worse may be defective. The recommended USB cabe length is 6ft, try replacing your USB cable with a new one or an extra one.
- Anti-Virus or Firewall – Third party applications can also cause communication error on HP all-in-ones. Some of which are your Anti-Virus or Firewall, I do not guarantee that by removing this applications you can fix your problem. What i am saying is that it may be the cause of the problem. We could not really confirm as it involves first hand check up to see if indeed your Anti-virus is conflicting with your HP software. However, I leaving the decision up to you, whether you will continue and uninstall your anti virus or not. Anyway, you can always reinstall your antivirus after you already successfully installed your HP software.
- Registry – I recommend that you do some cleanup on your regitry by using a good Registry cleaner. I personally use the free CCleaner, but before you run CCleaner watch this tutorial video first..
2. Now, after doing everything above, restart your computer and you can now proceed with uninstalling and reinstalling your whole HP software. It is recommended that you follow the uninstallation steps properly,on the link that we provided, to ensure successful installation.
Update April 6, 2009:
Recommended Solution:
This problem has been fixed! Just install the latest version of the HP’s Software.
Windows photo gallery works fine here! Thanks..
Actually, no, it does not solve my problem. I d/l’ed the latest software, I un-installed and re-installed the software following the procedure in HP’s help section, but I still get the same message.
Wayne, have you tried installing the latest communication patch and latest software.?
I have tried this numerous times to no avail. Is there a patch for Windows XP 32 bit for the L7680? There are files on the HP website but they say they don’t apply to my system
install the latest HP software. Click this link for instructions:
http://www.out-of-warranty.com/how-to-install-latest-hp-all-in-one-software
Regards,
NIk