Vista - HP LaserJet 4345 mfp PCL 6 64-bit driver

Running 64-bit Vista Business sp1 w/ a networked 4345 mfp default printer. Have installed the most current 4356-specific 64-bit driver. (Also tried the universal driver w/ the same results.)

The 4345 driver installed just fine and printing works as expected, but attempting to access printer properties (from a standard print dialog) or preferences (from the printer control panel) results in a protection fault (0xc0000005 at some function address) in either explorer.exe (if accessed via printer control panel) or or the spooler (splwow64.exe if accessed via std print dialog). The message includes "Some or all property page(s) may not be displayed" - in my case, none of them are displayed.

Really trying to be conservative and use double-sided printing, but Vista and/or the printer driver won't let me set this (or any) printer property. Has anyone else seen this? I suspect it's a driver issue, but haven't seen any other posts complaining about this. We have two machines in house running 64-bit Vista sp1, both have the problem.

thx

Looking to see if you ever resolved or received advice on this error. I am seeing the same problem, installed drivers for a HP D7160, prints OK, but cannot bring up properties in any program, getting 0xc0000005 access denied error in splwow64.exe - without access to properties, the printer is useless to me. I loaded the appropriate HP drivers for my 64 bit Vista...

Thanks

Unfortunately no - I've registered w/ HP to receive driver update notification but so far nothing.

Thanks... I contacted HP and worked with L1/L2 support (Chat sessions) on both the desktop side and printer support folks... bottom line, they took no ownership of the issue, believing fully its a Microsoft problem in the spooler program (SPLWOW64.exe), which at least at this point in my debug I tend to agree with.

Hello kkb,
If I understand correctly it sounds like you got 2 vista clients and some other computer that hosts the printer?
Raj

FYI... I retract my previous thought on this being a Microsoft issue with SPLWOW64, I picked up a Canon PRO9000 printer and connected it... without any issues, properties work just fine from anywhere. So it does appear to be a printer driver issue with HP.

Got this working after paying HP $25 for a support incident. You'll need to download the driver from

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=415204&prodNameId=415209&swEnvOID=2100&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ds-39522-3

Then do the following:
1) Execute the download to unzip into a local folder. (I removed all my previous attempts just to make sure I got the right one.)
2) Delete your existing HP 4345 printer
3) Add Printer <next>
4) Add Local Printer <next>
5) Create a new port - Standard TCP/IP Port <next>
6) Enter IP address of printer (port name will fill in), uncheck "Query the printer" <next>
7) Click Have Disk... <next>
8) Browse to unzip location, select hpc4345v.inf <next>
9) Select HP LaserJet 4345 mfp PS <next>
10) Shared or not, default or not <next>
11) Print test page (if you want)

That should do it - this worked for me.