I have a new C6180 with the usual "can't scan" problem. Network connected (ethernet), been through ten re-installs with level_4 uninstalls many repeated questions with HP email tech support etc. etc. The usual story. But I notice that the "Pml Driver HPZ12" service will not stay started. I start it and it stops instantly. On a PC which works with this AIO, this stays on as it should. I have not seen this particular problem addresses and suspect it's central?
All the usual things are true - I can scan from the EWS but TWAIN in photoshop doesn't work and scanning from the Solution center/HP DOcument viewer gives the usual "can't talk to scanner" error. Connectivity is fine - I can print and and I can scan from another PC and Mac to the same AIO.
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There is no such resolution to fix this scanning issue for this perticular PS C6180 on wireless or wired printers. I dont know when hp is going to recover this problem.
Could be an Anti-Spyware or Anti-Virus software interference issue. Try disabling these then manually restarting the service.
You're right, a stopped PML driver service will definitely prevent scanning.
Otherwise, don't do Level 4 Uninstalls as this causes issues with the Microsoft .Net install. To uninstall, do a Uninstall_L3, delete all remaining HP software, then delete the Program Files\HP directory. This last step often helps with scanning issues. If you can't/prefer not to uninstall all the HP software, just uninstall the printer software and instead delete the Digital Imaging folder inside the Program Files\HP folder.
Cause: A person with administrative rights to the computer must change the user's account information to give the user either a Power user or Administrator level of access to the computer.
Try with these steps in order to resolve the issue:
1. Right-click the Start button and then click Explore.
2. Select the Windows or WinNT folder.
3. Right-click the System32 folder and then click Properties.
4. Select the Security tab. Set the access level to Full Control for the necessary user group. NOTE: If you do not see a Security tab, you do not have administrative rights to the computer.
Reactivate the PML service by following the steps below:
1. Right-click My Computer on the main screen, or in the Start menu, and then click Manage.
2. Click the Plus (+) sign next to Services and Applications, if necessary, so that Services is visible.
3. Double-click Services, then look for PML Driver (or some variation thereof) in the list on the right side of the window. If it states "disabled", right-click on it and select Properties.
I can tell you that I am full admin on all PCs so it's not a permissions problem. I did fix it on one PC by doing a level 3 uninstall and reinstall but on my main PC, this just doesn't work. I notice that on the PC which works, in Solution Centre, if I try to look at the Network settings, it opens a web page
where "mac" is the default hostname of the AIO (which defaults to a chunk of the MAC address). I tried changing this in the registry but it keeps resetting back to the original hostname every time I start Solution center.
I can't start the PML driver service even though I'm a full administrator - it just stops immediately with no error.
I'm sticking to my theory that security (antivirus, antispyware, or firewall) software on your PC is probably preventing your PML driver service from starting.
You can test this by starting msconfig (the MS Configuration Utility), hiding all Microsoft Services (check box for this at bottom of services tab), then disabling all services except for the PML driver, then disabling all startups, then rebooting.
On my working PC, these keys (slight variants in the instance numbers) are correctly set to the hostname of the AIO and it works fine. On the broken PC, these are set to the default "hostname" which is the string "HPxxxxxx" where the x's are the last part of the AIO MAC address. Now, this is what is annoying. If I set these correctly in the registry, they are automatically changed back. The first key is changed/read by hpqscnvw.exe and the latter by hpqtra08.exe. This seems to be the problem as this is used as the hostname/IP to contact. I searched through all .ini files I could find in the HP install dir but there is nothing with the incorrect string. Where are these programs getting their information from if it's not the registry?
Many thanks for the information. I followed this but I am in exactly the same situation afterwards - the printer installs fine and I can print but scanning will not work as the registry has the wrong PortID for the AIO and can't be changed as it is changed back every time you run the two HP apps I mentioned. I have no idea where these apps are getting the information. Usually, the apps will read the information from the registry but in this case, they are updating the registry every time they run and I have no idea where the information they are putting in there comes from.
I have the same problem with this printer. I am using a D-LINK Wireless router with a build in firewall. I was told by one HP tech support personnel that the issue may be related to the firewall setting in the router, however he cannot provide the necessary firewall rule.
Chris, try to isolate the source of the problem : run a USB install. Can you scan now?
* If yes, it's a networking/firewall issue. Connect a networking cable directly between the printer and the PC and rerun the install (using the Add a Device option). Can you scan now? If yes, it is a router issue, if no, it's probably a firewall or anti-spyware on your PC.
* If not, it's a software issue somewhere. Did you delete the c:\Program Files\HP folder after your uninstalls?
Patch says it is not applicable to this printer. I am able to use the printer w/ no problems via the USB cable. However, the printer will install itself and a copy of itself from within HP solution center, i.e., multiple copies of itself with maybe only one that is functional. Maybe HP will step up the effort to make a functioning piece of software. Network capability is one of the features I need.
I was having the same problem and found your thread when looking for answers. I'm not sure if you found a solution but I wanted to let you know how I solved the problem.
It seems like the PML service has trouble when it can't locate the printer on the network. Since just about everyone may be connecting through a router I think this is why this problem may be so common.
The way I solved it was to change the setup of the printer to use a manual IP address, using the one it got from my router using automatic configuration as the permanent address.
If you go into the 'hosts' file for your machine and add a line that associates the "PortID" value that is being used with the printer software with the IP address of the printer everything works fine. The line I added to mine was:
192.168.0.103 HP787FA3
Open a command prompt and make sure you can ping the value used for "PortID" on the printer software and everything should be fine.
Restart to make sure all related services and software are running as they would normally when you start your computer and test. You should be able to scan over the network and use the "Check ink levels" function.
Although I know you might be able to setup the router to avoid this problem I thought the solution above was a little easier since it didn't rely on router setup. I didn't want to have this break if I had to reset settings on my router.
That fixed it - many thanks. I have assigned the maximum points as this was the only response that helped at all. I can't think why I didn't think of this! The problem is strange - I have two PCs, one where the PortID was set correctly to the AIO's hostname automatically and another where it's set to the last few digits of the MAC address (the one that didn't work). I tried altering the registry but it seems that you can't change the PortID in the registry as it gets set back to the MAC default every time you start any HP program, which is absurd, but there you are. Putting an alias in the hosts file works perfectly.
I'm closing this as the last answer was correct. It's certainly a bug with the software which only gets the PortID right on some installs and not others and you can't change it in the registry. Hacking the hosts file is a workaround.
I cannot use the host file in order to map the PortID name and the IP because the PortID is localhost which should be always mapped to the local PC (127.0.0.1). Are there other methods to change the PortID?
Thomas - you should probably start a new topic and state your exact issue, error messages, printer type etec.
The steps Philip has done are almost never needed, though I recall were once done for much older versions of the software. As I said earlier in this thread, this issue is usually caused by interference from security software running on the same PC. In this case, Philip has for some reason declined to say whether he's running anti-virus or anti-spyware, and prefers to do things his way. However, you and other people reading this thread should not think this is normal troubleshooting for this issue.
Just to say that I have NAV 2006 and MS Windows Defender installed but I disabled NAV for the installs. I have exactly the same software on another machine which the install never had any problems with (PortID set correctly) so I had ruled out the AV and spyware software as the problem.
Just wanted to say that I, too, am having the exact same problems. I plan on having several of these on a school network, so I'm rather anxious to find a solution.
I've renamed each C6180 to a unique hostname, e.g., LAB1-HPC6180, rather than the default of (hpxxxxxx), where xxxxxx is the last 6 characters of the device's MAC address.
Everything works fine for about half the computers, the other half has the exact same symptoms as Philip.
andmalc - I have to agree that this is NOT an issue with anti-virus or other security software. I'm running the exact same images on several computers, and this doesn't fit in the pattern. Also, I have disabled on some new installs, and I still encounter the issue.
Adding the entry to the hosts file is an unfortunate hack. I'd rather get HP involved to actually FIX this issue, and to be aware of these types of issues for their future releases. I'm waiting for an HP technical supervisor to call me back as I type this.
This is supposedly getting escalated through HP. The case # is 7335453334. If this is of concern to you, too, please call them, mention the case #, and put in your "vote" to fix the issue.
I'm cautiously optimistic that something will be done about this, but will probably have to wait until the next software release to reap the benefits. (I'd be pleasantly shocked if they'd release a patch!)
My only concern is that they don't see this to be a major issue, as the tech said he's aware of very few people that change the host name on the printer. Unfortunately, it's a requirement of my network, and something simple as this should "just work". The printer half works flawlessly - I don't see why it has to be any different for the scanning half. (HP either needs to fix the driver, so it uses the same port as the printer half, or should consider adding a property sheet to the Scanning & Imaging Devices Control Panel applet to change the host name, as many other vendors do.)
The next steps for me are to run this against a few virtual machines, and see how easy it is to reproduce the issue. I'm also going to see what the drawbacks are of using the "corporate only" driver, and see if it works any better. (Less fancy GUIs and more stable functionality would win me over any day...)
Surprise, surprise. Despite all the promises, HP never did follow up with me. I just wasted another evening, but at least I finally have things mostly working to my satisfaction...
I started by playing with the installers on some clean WinXP VMWare images that I could easily revert back when needed using screenshots. I only tried twice, but wasn't able to reproduce. So I broke down and decided to nuke (reformat) the desktop. Things are now working much better after the reinstall.
Here's the unresolved, troubling part. Clearly, as both Philip and I observed, the HP processes sometimes get stuck on the insistence of using the mac-based name, after pulling it back out of some unknown location on the computer. (See his Nov. 4th reply!)
I, too, had searched (and later cleared) both my registry and file system of anything HP-related, or containing the mac-based hostname. I also followed HP's instructions to use the Level-1 through Level-4 uninstallers. Even after this, SOMETHING was persisting.
Only AFTER a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows and the HP drivers could I finally get this working anywhere near normal.
HP, please give your users a pleasant surprise - update your drivers. Reply here, and shed some light on what is going on!
Following up on Stuart Wildcat's post, I did pretty much what he did, and it fixed the problem. I was working with three computers on a network. One computer drove the printer (scanner) fine, the other two did not.
Looking at the file: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on the machine that worked, I determined that the correct line for the HP printer read "192.168.1.100 HP576910" [the IP address of the HP printer, a space, and then the shorter, eight-digit name of the HP printer, as opposed to a 14-digit name]. I then edited the messed up lines in the hosts files of the other two machines that referred to the HP printer to read the same as the computer that worked properly. It immediately solved the problem.
I would like to thank all those who contributed to helping me solve the problem.
Phil or Stuart, I just purchased a 6180 and after 2 hours on the phone with HP was told the problem was with my computer and not the scanner / printer. The fax, copier, printer all work fine over a wireless network but the scanner will not. I am not an IT person per se and wondered if there were simpler instructions for correcting this problem.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I am a small business owner with limited support options.
I would bet that your problem would be fixed by adding the line to the windows host file as described in this thread. I had the same symptoms as you - everything worked except scanning and adding the host file entry fixed everything.
And I tried *everything* else. I lost count of the times I re-installed the software on advice from HP. Never made any difference at all.
Please excuse my ignorance, I do not even know how to add a host file or where to start? Is there a step by step solution?
I installed this on a second computer and it can scan fine but it will not fax??
Paul, the "Hosts" file mentioned here is further described by Holger (on May 4th, just above your original question). It is a Windows system file that can be edited with a text editor such as notepad. It is used to forcefully resolve computer names to IP addresses without relying on DNS or other more automated services. However, I do NOT recommend making this or any other addition to the Hosts file unless there is absolutely no other alternative. It shouldn't even be necessary unless the network broadcast names can't be received (not on the same local network, etc.), but even then, there are alternatives, beyond what we want to describe here.
What error message are you getting when you do try to scan? Which methods have you tried to use to scan? For example, anything using the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) interface, such as the built-in Windows graphics programs, are not currently supported by HP for scanning over the network (requires direct USB connection). If you have another image editing program with a "TWAIN Acquire" option, that may be a better bet to try...
F.Y.I.,
If you or anyone else needs to call HP about related issues again, please direct the technician to review this thread. Hopefully someone will see the value of it, escalate it to a knowledgeable manager, and maybe even get some of these issues fixed / working more smoothly.
Thanks, here is what I have.
I installed the software on two computers, the main computer (which just happens to be a HP as well) allows me to fax and print from the computer. When I open the HP Solution Center there is no option to scan. There is only Transfer Images, Send a Fax, Make Copies and Settings. If I go under the settings I can see scan and an arrow to the right (as if there is more there) but when I click on the arrow nothing happens. When I check the properties of the Printer, and I click on configure port the actual IP address of the printer is there, no name. This I found odd because on a second computer I installed the software and can not fax but I can scan. On this second computer there is a name and no IP address.
In summary I dont get an error message because I can not even start a scan. (When I get this fixed I will start on the second computers problem which is able to scan but not fax).
PS I was able to ping the ip address for the printer.
Paul - it would be interesting to try uninstalling the HP software and reinstalling using the USB connection, just temporarily. This would be just to try to make sure that it is an issue with the network feature, and not the drivers/HP software itself.
Also, do you have any image editing software installed other than the HP software? Something like Photoshop or a related clone? Again, you could try scanning from another such application, and seeing if it's the drivers or the HP software.
Also, under your Control Panel, there should be a "Scanners and Cameras" folder. Does the scanner appear there? (Though in network mode, it really doesn't offer any functionality...)
That's all I can offer at the moment. Otherwise, get back on the phone with HP, and just explain.
I note that it has been almost a year since this problem was raised.
I have been experiencing the same problems since I purchased my printer in March 2007 and have been unable to resolve using the recommendations of this thread. I have no problem printing, but scanning just will not work over the network. After three months of correspondence with HP support, and a complete software rebuild of my DELL computer, I reverted to USB connection which works fine.
HP support has not been helpful and despite making references to this site it is obvious that they do not have access or wish to comment on this thread.
Does anyone know whether HP are working on this and when they will issue a software patch or revision to cure this problem? Is there any more information out there that will help me to resolve this?
FYI, scanning issues on the Windows systems are never-ending and it's unlikely that this will ever change. However, on the Mac and on Linux these units work pretty much just work, so you have to figure that so of the blame must rest with Windows itself.
That said, I'm surprised that you say your system is 're-built' (I guess you mean re-installed) without resolving your network scanning problem. This does raise the question of whether your router is blocking the scanning traffic.
While router problems may be affecting some users, it's important to note that I and others are also having the same issues when both the C6180 and the connecting computer are on the same subnet.
It's also troubling to note that I bought my C6180 new, less than a year ago. The latest available software that seems to be compatible with the C6180 is the PhotoSmart 7.0.1 software, last updated September of 2006 - not 2007. The software support seems to have been discontinued even before I bought this new off the shelf!
Also interestingly, a C6280 product is available. Only one product model later, the C6280 supports the PhotoSmart 9.0 software. I've tried downloading this; unfortunately, it doesn't appear to support the C6180.
I'm currently on online chat with an HP support technician.
The issue being that this product advertised being able to print AND scan over the network, either wired OR wireless.
I am still going in circles with HP support, have had nine different chat sessions and three via E-mail. But they just ask me to do the same thing over and over and over. I think HP is going to bite the bullet and "write Off" all of the C6180 customers. Does any one know of another brand of AIO that does work on a wireless network? Charles
I just received a C6180 as a gift, and had this same issue.
My setup: C6180 wired ethernet to router Laptop A wired to router Laptop B wireless to router Everything is on the same subnet.
I changed the C6180 to a more meaningful name to me, then ran into this problem. Laptop A refused to scan, though Laptop B worked just fine. After finding another thread, I added the line in the hosts file, and it worked immediately.
I don't believe UPnP provides any benefit here. I keep the service disabled, and yet I'm usually able to print/scan over the network.
At least with the types of problems I've experienced (and helped others resolve), I think Holger came the closest with his 2007-05-04 post regarding the HPNetRed.nrs file. Particularly, when doing an uninstall, even the special HP Level-* uninstalls (see andmalc's post on 2006-11-03), this file usually seems to be missed.
I purchased my C6180 on 12/29/07 and spent much of the holiday weekend fiddling with the installation trying to get the wireless scanning working. If not for this forum thread, I never would have been able to get the thing to work. Phew!!! MANY THANKS to all posters.
I'm curious if this problem exists when using Vista OS since there is a separate install disc supplied for that & maybe HP is focusing their bug-fix attention there. Anyone had these wireless problems under Vista or know if Vista has the same basic network stack as XP?
Philip I too have tried all of the HP technical solutions to no avail.
I tried the host file mod you suggested and did a test ping using both the IP address 192.168.1.65 and the printer name "HP6180" which worked. But the scanner still does not work. It prints. When I try to use another program to scan such as adobe it stalls and eventually comes up with an error message stating that another program is using the device!!
I have reinstalled several times but have not removed the HP directory or any other files. Any guidance would be appreciated.
I live in Australia and bought it new in July 2007 from office works.
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