HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One Won't scan "unable to establish two-way communication

flick1284 · 02-29-2008, 11:34 AM

I have an Hp Photosmart C3180 and whenever I hit the scan button it, nothing happens. When I try to scan from the computer hp director, it says "unable to establish two-communication" with the device. It shows the same message when I try to check the ink levels from my computer. It prints and copies just fine. Any ideas would really help. Thanks.

Ryec · 06-06-2008, 10:48 AM

I came across this similar problem and spent days trying to figure it out. I knew I was close when I tried to start the HPZ12 service and it kept failing with "unable to find the specified file". I traced it with a process monitor and found that it was looking for a registry key that was not present. Specifically:

HKLM\System\CurrentCosntrolSet\Services\Pml Driver HPZ12\Parameters

It was looking for the string:

ServiceDLL

which should be set to:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\HPZipm12.dll

(or something similar).

The unfortunate thing is that no matter how many times you install and uninstall the HP drivers, then don't reset the registry keys for the HPZ12 service. In the end, I ended up doing the following:

1. Uninstall software and reboot
2. Go through registry editor and delete the PML key (just did a search for all PML occurences)
3. Deleted the c:\program files\Hewlett-Packard directory
4. Deleted the c:\program files\HP directory
5. Deleted the c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\ contents (anything that referred to an HP printer or driver)
6. Deleted the HKLM\Software\Hewlett-Packard registry key
7. Rebooted
8. Reinstalled and everything worked.

I suggest you backup any registry keys prior to deleting them in case you make a mistake. You can use the Export feature on the right-click context menu to save each key you delete, or use some tool to make a backup of your registry prior to making these changes. Similarly, for the files, I renamed directories or created backups of their contents.

Once I reinstalled, I found that there were TONS of new registry keys added that weren't there before. So the real problem is with HPs install/uninstall. It doesn't clean up properly and any aborted or failed instalation will leave the drivers in a poor state.

Hope that helps.

Ryec.

02-29-2008, 11:34 AM	#1 (permalink)
flick1284 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1 OS: xp	HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One Won't scan "unable to establish two-way communication I have an Hp Photosmart C3180 and whenever I hit the scan button it, nothing happens. When I try to scan from the computer hp director, it says "unable to establish two-communication" with the device. It shows the same message when I try to check the ink levels from my computer. It prints and copies just fine. Any ideas would really help. Thanks.

06-06-2008, 10:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ryec Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1	Re: HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One Won't scan "unable to establish two-way communicat I came across this similar problem and spent days trying to figure it out. I knew I was close when I tried to start the HPZ12 service and it kept failing with "unable to find the specified file". I traced it with a process monitor and found that it was looking for a registry key that was not present. Specifically: HKLM\System\CurrentCosntrolSet\Services\Pml Driver HPZ12\Parameters It was looking for the string: ServiceDLL which should be set to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\HPZipm12.dll (or something similar). The unfortunate thing is that no matter how many times you install and uninstall the HP drivers, then don't reset the registry keys for the HPZ12 service. In the end, I ended up doing the following: 1. Uninstall software and reboot 2. Go through registry editor and delete the PML key (just did a search for all PML occurences) 3. Deleted the c:\program files\Hewlett-Packard directory 4. Deleted the c:\program files\HP directory 5. Deleted the c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\ contents (anything that referred to an HP printer or driver) 6. Deleted the HKLM\Software\Hewlett-Packard registry key 7. Rebooted 8. Reinstalled and everything worked. I suggest you backup any registry keys prior to deleting them in case you make a mistake. You can use the Export feature on the right-click context menu to save each key you delete, or use some tool to make a backup of your registry prior to making these changes. Similarly, for the files, I renamed directories or created backups of their contents. Once I reinstalled, I found that there were TONS of new registry keys added that weren't there before. So the real problem is with HPs install/uninstall. It doesn't clean up properly and any aborted or failed instalation will leave the drivers in a poor state. Hope that helps. Ryec.