Why won't HP Solution Center recognise my printer any more?

Q I have an HP Photosmart C5280 all-in one printer attached to an Advent T12 desktop PC. These devices have worked well together for two years but recently I have had problems.

The HP Solution Center software, which handles the scanning, copying and image-transfer functions, has malfunctioned. When I click on this program, the window appears briefly, then disappears and is replaced by an error message: ‘No HP devices detected. HP Solution Center will now close.’

The printer itself works perfectly and so does the scanner, which I can still operate through Windows’ own scanning wizard, but this is not nearly as flexible as the specialist software supplied by HP.

I have repeatedly uninstalled and re-installed the HP software supplied on CD, and again with the latest version downloaded from the HP website.

Sometimes the program downloads and installs but I encounter the same error when accessing the HP Solution Center. At other times, the installation will stall at the 94 per cent mark. I’m desperate – can you help?
John Watson

A We have good news and bad news. The good news is that you are not alone – we have discovered that dozens of users have encountered the same problem. The bad news is that there doesn’t appear to be a simple fix.

In fact, there are numerous long (and growing) discussions about the problem on HP’s various support forums. Some people have reported success with particular strategies, while others still struggle to find an answer. For its part, HP has yet to come up with a solution.

The best advice we can offer, then, is to contact HP support to add yourself to the list of disgruntled customers (phone 0844 369 0369) – and keep an eye on HP's online support areas.