Fatal Error 2753 Installing HP Printer Drivers 3055- Solution

Have you been frustrated trying to install HP's latest printer drivers and getting the now infamous Error 2753?

Well then this article is for you!

SCENARIO:

OS:  MS Windows XP SP3 [Version 5.1.2600]
Printer: HP Laserjet 3390 (AiO) (Firmware datecode: 20070331)
Printer Connection:  Connected via Ethernet with a static IP address
HP Driver Version:  v4.0 (hp_LJ3050-3052-3055-3390-3392_Full_Solution_AMWE.exe)

Ran into same error that everyone else is experiencing. (see below)

Now Launching=X:\hpzmsi01.exe -m dot4msi  -l XXX -f X:\DIVins??.DAT
Error message received: The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2753.
X:\HPZBDI32.msi failed with return code 1603
MSIInstall() failed with 1603
Exit code=1603

Once I got past this error, everything reinstalled fine and all functionality was working great (including scanning!). After debugging HP's installation scripts for 2 days, here is the cause & solution identified for this install error.


BACKGROUND:

Microsoft Installer (MSI) error 1603 is simply a generic "A fatal error occurred during installation" -- see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368542(VS.85).aspx.  This is basically MSI telling you that something very bad has happened during the installation.  In order to get more details, you can turn on MSI debug logging by following this MS Knowledge Base article.

The MSI error code 2753 is the code for "The File '' is not marked for installation.".  This error can be triggered by many scenarios, but usually, it has to do with the actual installation script not properly checking for the existence/non-existence of an installation file and then not marking it for either installation/removal.  I know this sounds confusing, and it is.  If your curious about all the possible causes, just Google for "msi 2753 not marked for installation" and you'll see lots of results which you can peruse for your own enjoyment.

In order to identify what was causing these 2 errors, I enabled debugging for MSI via the aforementioned MS KB article

CAUSE:

Certain HP services (and associated DLL files) were somehow partially/improperly installed. (Possibly, from a previous failed install?)

The Windows services (files) were:

Pml Driver HPZ12 (C:\Windows\System32\HPZipm12.dll)
Net Driver HPZ12 (C:\Windows\System32\HPZinw12.dll)

The existence of these 2 files in the System32 directory was causing this error in my situation.  Somehow, the installation script was not identifying that these files were already installed (or improperly installed) and failing to properly set them to be installed again.

SOLUTION:

Steps:

1) Check to make sure that the 2 Windows services above are not running (or not installed).
2) Rename/delete the 2 associated service DLL files (this will only be possible once the services are stopped)
3) Run the installation again.

If all goes well, the install should now run without any issues.

Note: Should apply equally to Windows Vista & Windows 7 and HP 3055 printer.
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