Printing Issues with HP D145 and multiple users from G5

Question

Hi - I've a HP D145 All-In-One connected via USB to a G5 (as described below). The machine has multiple accounts on for different members of my family. The printer is directly connected to the G5 via USB connection but is shared with other Macs. Printing has become increasingly difficult, and we now have the following problems:
1. Printing will only work from the administrators account.
2. Printing periodically (daily, generally after a few hours of use) stops from the administrators account
Solutions tried:
a. Check set up for the non-administrators accounts....Looks OK for printing
b. When printing stops - I've tried repairing the permissions with the Disk Utility. This no longer works.
c. Run Printer Setup Repair (with option to repair all user accounts) - Works for the administrators account providing the computer and printer are restarted, otherwise no effect.
d. Reinstalling the software - No effect
It’s beginning to look like I need to replace this printer with one that works.
You can help me in two ways - how to solve the printer problems, or alternatively suggest a colour All-in-One printer that can work with multiple accounts and does not have the problems mentioned above.
Many thanks in advance,
Regards,
Melvyn

Answer 1

Below I've copied the fix HP proposed and some additional information that they have sent me.
1. The proposed fix that we could not make work:
Hello Melvyn,
Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.
Simply reinstalling the software will not be enough to solve the
problem. Try these steps to resolve the issue at hand:
From the Administrator account:
Double-click on the Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open Applications.
Click and drag Hewlett Packard Folder to the trash.
Close all windows.
Double-click on the Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Applications folder.
Open the Utilities folder.
Double-click on Process Viewer/Activity Monitor
If Activity Monitor does not appear:
Choose Monitor in the toolbar across the top.
Check Show Activity Monitor.
Ensure the Activity Monitor shows "All Processes", instead of "My
Processes".
Single-click and quit each of the applications starting with HP, using
the Stop Sign that says "Quit Process" beneath it.
Close Activity Monitor.
Double-click Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Library folder.
Open the Preferences folder.
Click and drag either HP AIO Preferences or Hewlett Packard Preferences
to the trash.
Remove the HP Registry file.
Go back to the Library folder.
Open the Printers folder.
Remove the HP folder
Double click Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Users folder.
Choose the User logged into.
Open the Library folder.
Open the Preferences folder.
Click and drag either HP AIO Preferences or Hewlett Packard Preferences
to the trash.
Click and drag files beginning with com.hp to the trash.
Click and drag files beginning with HP to the trash.
Double-click the Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Applications folder.
Open the Utilities folder.
Double-click Printer Setup Utility.
Delete any HP All-In-One printers listed (click the printer name to
highlight it, then click the Delete button on the printer list)
Repeat process for all HP All-In-One Printers.
Remove HP Director/Image Zone from dock by dragging to the trash.
Restart the Macintosh.
Empty the Trash.
From each user account:
Double click Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Users folder.
Choose the User logged into.
Open the Library folder.
Open the Preferences folder.
Click and drag either HP AIO Preferences or Hewlett Packard Preferences
to the trash.
Click and drag files beginning with com.hp to the trash.
Click and drag files beginning with HP to the trash.
Double-click the Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Applications folder.
Open the Utilities folder.
Double-click Printer Setup Utility.
Delete any HP All-In-One printers listed (click the printer name to
highlight it, then click the Delete button on the printer list)
Repeat process for all HP All-In-One Printers.
Remove HP Director/Image Zone from dock by dragging to the trash.
Restart the Macintosh.
Empty the Trash.
From the Administrator account:
Download and install the latest software for this product. You can
obtain this software from the following link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us⟨=en&os=219& product=64992&dlc=en&softwareitem=oj-35225-1
From each user account:
Double-click the Macintosh Hard Disk.
Open the Applications folder.
Open the Utilities folder.
Double-click Printer Setup Utility.
Click Add, ensure you are in the Default Browser.
Select the HP All-In-One Printer.
Click Add at the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Set this printer as the default.
You should now be able to print from all accounts.
Sincerely,
2. The reasons why it may not have worked:
We need to be sure that you are fully logging out of one account and
then back into the next. The fast user switching feature of the Mac OS
can create problems with our printer drivers. For this reason, fast user
switching is not supported by HP.
The other issue we may be running into would be the Mac OS itself. Over
the past few months the Mac OS has gone through several updates. When
the 10.4.4 version was released it created some issues with our existing
software. An updated version of our software has been developed which
works well with 10.4.4 and higher, but it is not available for this
printer.
It may be that as each new OS update is installed on your computers that
the issue becomes worse. If you are running the Mac OS 10.4.3 or lower
then the version 7.3.1 of our software should work fine. If it is 10.4.4
or higher there will be some issues as the new OS versions do not seem
to like the older drivers.
I would have to recommend retrying the full uninstall the Derek had
outlined. This time however, just install the downloaded 7.3.1 software
from our web site for the D145. Once it has been installed we need to
test it fully without adding the scanjet software. I am hoping that
without both version of our software installed it may work better.
This should resolve the issue. If you need further assistance, please
reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.
3. The repsonse to questions on switching and OS X 10.4.4
You are correct, since you are running the 10.4.4 I cannot guarantee
that the older software version will allow full functionality. It should
allow for printing and as long as you avoid the fast user switching,
when trying to print, it should keep working well.
I understand the convenience of fast user switching but you will have to
log completely out of one user, and then log properly into the next
before you can expect the printer to function.
I would still recommend trying the steps I had outlined as it really is
the only thing you can do that may work.
G5, 2 GHz dual processor, 2Gb RAM, 500GB Hard disk   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   Clarification of the issues from HP