Printer Duplexing Eliminated with Windows 7?

January 11, 2010 10:35 AM

I have an HP ColorLaserJet 2605dn printer in our small business office, and we've recently upgraded our computers to Windows 7. The HP driver update eliminates the automatic duplexing we originally bought the printer for! It does allow manual duplexing, but... what the heck??

HP support says they have "discontinued the printer series and no longer support it". That seems curious to me since they continue to sell the toner and they have loaded a Windows 7 driver for the 2605 series on their site. It appears I'm out of luck unless a brilliant MeFite out there has figured out a way to convince the driver to allow duplexing as it used to...

An aside: I've already emailed the HP's president's office and tech support asking for a corrected driver.

Have any other MeFites corrected this problem?

posted by northernlightgardener to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

This is a common problem with HP. My HP scanner doesn't work now because they are too lazy to write a properly driver for it. Of course they still have my money and chances are I won't be able to get anything back. The scanner works in Linux on another computer. So give Linux a try.
posted by abbat at 12:09 PM on January 11, 2010

You can try running a Sun VirtualBox Virtual Machine with Windows XP (or whichever last version of Windows that was supported for your printer) installed on it. I did this with my old HP scanner, and it works. It's a PITA workaround, but at least you don't need a new printer (and I don't need a new scanner).

You need VirtualBox because it allows you to access the USB ports on your real (host) machine from inside the virtual (guest) machine. Others may do the same, but I know this one works well.

But yeah, HP is known full pulling this crap, and that's why I now avoid them for any hardware.
posted by Simon Barclay at 12:19 PM on January 11, 2010

Are you using the HP Universal Print Driver or a driver specific to this model of print device? The UPD should automatically detect the duplexer in your printer, and if it does not, should provide the means to manually configure duplex-availability.

If you are not using the UPD, you ought to try it - I see it's listed as a supported download for your printer model.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 1:26 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, are you connecting to this printer over a network, or is it connected to a PC via a USB cable?

There are a number of troubleshooting steps that might be necessary to force the print driver you are using to "recognize" that your printer is duplex-capable. Please don't give up, and let us know more specifics!
posted by BigLankyBastard at 1:30 PM on January 11, 2010

Ja ... HP really have dropped the ball with their windows 7 driver support for some of their (not even so much) older products ... damn shame really.
posted by jannw at 6:18 AM on January 12, 2010

In their defense, it's not just HP - the entire peripheral industry just didn't bother to offer Vista or 7 support for older printers, scanners, and other peripheral devices. MS is also partly to blame, since due to an accelerated release schedule and more stringent certification standards, they made it very difficult for manufacturers like HP, Lexmark, and others to get their drivers written and certified in time for Vista release.
Once the manufacturers had lost Vista they saw no point in going back and offering support for 7 for that same set of devices.

Anyway, NLG, I wish you'd post again and let us know what's up. I think the issue you describe really is fixable.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 6:54 AM on January 12, 2010

Best answer: An update: Haven't heard from HP in response to my email, but did receive a 12/16/09 driver update today after signing up on the HP site for driver update email list. It appeared to be the same driver already installed, but now the automatic duplexing feature is available to install.

To access the setting, click on "Devices and Printers", "HP Color LaserJet2605/2605dn/2605dtnPS", "Customize Your Printer" and choose "Device Settings" tab. Scroll down to "Installable Options" and change "Duplex Unit" from "Uninstalled" to "Installed". Apply the settings, exit, and it should be fixed.

Thanks MeFites -- You're the best!
posted by northernlightgardener at 10:56 AM on January 16, 2010