I have a Photosmart C4385 which has worked for a few years. Now it does not. When powered up connected to the computer there is some blinking and some clicking, and then just the letter E appears in the LCD, at the bottom next to where it says 1 - 9 copies. If I press power off it shuts down, but immediately powers back up into the same state.
If it is not connected to the computer it comes up fine. I can make copies from it, but as soon as it is connected to the computer all other labels go off and just the E remains.
I have tried powering down and restarting the computer (MAC 10.5.8) and the printer. Also tried with other computers (Mac 10.8.1 and Linux, both of which had printed with this before), and get the same result. It is connected via USB.
I also tried reinstalling the driver, but each time I try it crashes on the last step, installing the trap handler. It says it has completed successfully, but then when I go to setup the printer does not show up, and it tells me to download the proper installer. I did download the installer from the support site, but it does exactly thte same: breaks on installing the last file and not recognizing the printer.
So what does that E mean? I have searched on the web and on this site and could not find anything. (of course searching for E turns up a lot of unrelated hits)
Thanks