Howdy folks. Here's the skinny.

A friend of mine recently bought two new things within about a month of eachother; first was the aformentioned HP Photosmart C6100 printer with built in WiFi, and not long after that, a shiny new laptop with Vista Home Premium on.

I had his wireless network humming with his previous XP machine and this printer before: he is an RVer, and therefore he uses a Verizon card for his broadband access, freeing up his ethernetwork for printing on-the-fly, as advertised by HP. His built-in WiFi card is set up with a static IP network through a Linkys router, with the only other node being the WiFi printer (also a static IP, natch).

Here's the problem: After I install the *ahem* NEW Vista drivers obtained from the HP site, the first few print jobs go off without a hitch. Invariably, however, I get a call within a few days, and the printer has disappeared from the Printers folder, Leaving only the standard print-to-file options in the Send To dialogue when the print command is invoked.

A perusal of the Network folder shows that the printer is located right where it should be, with the correct IP address and everything -- yet the printer no longer exists to the print subsytem. Any attempt at printer discovery also comes up empty.

If I uninstall the (bloated, ridiculously huge) HP driver software and reinstall it, it works again, even through a hard reboot of both the printer and the laptop. But 48 hours later, lo and behold, its tits-up once again.

Any ideas?

TIA,
notrab

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"You see this, Larry? This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps."