Software cant find printer

Question

Gday,
Here is an interesting one for you all.
I have an Officejet 6500A all in one. Running xp pro sp3, Netgear dgn1000 router, printer is wired through ethernet connection to router. My operating system crashed and had to be reinstalled. Before the crash the printer was working fine, after the OS reinstall the HP software setup gets as far as trying to detect my printer but can never find it. I have logged into my router and the router recognises the printer and my computer in it's list of attached devices, the HP setup software allows the use of typing in the ip address and hostname of the printer after it cannot automatically find it.
Typing both of these numbers into the HP software does not find the printer. the next suggestion I got was to download and install the HP troubleshooting guide, I did that and it asked me to print a network summary page and check the network status which is ready, and active connection type is wired.
 I disabled my windows firewall according to the troubleshooter and restarted my computer, that also did not work and incidentally I checked exceptions in the firewall and all relevant HP software has been added to the exception list. I have 2 ethernet ports on my computer, the one the ethernet cable is plugged into now is on the motherboard, has a solid red led and flashing yellow led. The other ethernet port which is now disabled was installed simply to get connection to the internet and download service pack 3 which installed drivers for the motherboard port which would not work after the OS reinstall. There is another computer on the network that connects to the router wirelessly with the HP software installed, it runs the printer just fine. Any ideas?? If I have missed anything, please let me know, cheers
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Answer 1

Hi @lemarre 
I have a feeling the issue is some how related solely to the something on the one computer.
Let's first try performing a clean boot; How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state
If the issue persists, try the following;
If you want to give a quick step a try I would suggest unlocking the hidden Administrator account and installing under there. This will also help prove that whatever is causing the error is related to your user account. To do this please follow the steps below.
How to Unlock Admin Account:
Go to your Start menu and under the 'search programs and files' box type CMD
CMD will populate as a search option above, just right click on it and 'run as administrator'
Once CMD (Command Prompt) opens, type net user administrator /active:yes and hit enter
Next, close CMD and restart your computer
When your computer comes on log into the new account that should show. It will  be called Administrator and will not have a password on it.
If your computer automatically logs into your account after restart than go to your start menu click the arrow beside 'shutdown' and choose 'switch user'. Now log into the Administrator account we just unlocked
Under the Administrator account download and install the drivers: HP LaserJet Pro Series Full Solution Software and Driver
If everything installs fine, log out of this account and back into your normal user account. All the Software and Drivers for your product should show installed now on your account.
If everything works fine, you will want to Hide the Administrator account.
Go to your Start menu and under the 'search programs and files' box type CMD
CMD will populate as a search option above, just right click on it and 'run as administrator'
Once CMD (Command Prompt) opens, type net user administrator /active:no and hit enter
Next, close CMD and restart your computer
- These steps are from a post by X-23 : Source
Please let me know the outcome of your efforts. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Sunshyn2005 - I work on behalf of HP