HP M404dw printer consistent USB issues

Hi all, we have an HP LaserJet M404dw in one of the offices and ever since the computer there has been on Windows 11, it has been complete hell trying to find the issue.

The printer refuses to stay connected. It's directly connected by USB to a laptop. When the user disconnects the laptop for remote work and then comes back 2 days after, 3 things can happen:
1. The printer reconnects, however, when trying to print, simply nothing comes out even though the print queue goes through.
2. The printer reconnects but is then seen as a scanner, it doesn't appear as a printer and cannot be used.
3. Somehow, the printer is seen as a removable media drive, like a cell phone or an iPod.

In case 1, disconnecting, removing the dive and then reconnecting for the device discover can work. However it's also what leads to case 2. Again, same operations can work. However, case 3, which is what now happened, requires a complete removal of the device, utilities and drivers, reboot, and then reinstall.

It's now the second time I've had to fix case 3. Even worse, is that I can perfectly replicate all of these issues on another computer (a Surface Pro 4). None of these issues happened or happen on Windows 10 computers.

Considering there has been no driver update on HP's side since January, I have to blame W11 on this one, especially since it's perfectly repeatable on more than one device. I'm honestly not sure what I can do to fix this. The only other solution possible is to wire the printer through ethernet which we would like to avoid (only one eth plug in the office and we really want to avoid putting a mini switch there).

Thanks

fenrir0wulf said:

no driver update on HP's side since January

Click to expand...

There is a driver and software package dated 2/22/22 HP LaserJet Pro M404dw Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

I helped my friend who had a usb printer (HP) that acted similarly to yours: losing connection and not printing. It kept spitting out communication errors. (but it was never recognized as a scanner). We did not use HP Smart to install the printer but did as follows.

First, we reset the printer to factory default. The procedure is as follows copied from the user manual for your printer. Make sure usb is unplugged first.
Restore the factory-set defaults
Restoring the factory-set defaults returns all of the printer and network settings to the factory defaults. It will
not reset the page count, or tray size.
To restore the printer to the factory-default settings, follow these steps.
CAUTION: Restoring the factory-set defaults returns all of the settings to the factory defaults, and it also
deletes any pages that are stored in the memory.
1. On the printer control panel, press the OK button to display the Home screen.
2. Use the arrow buttons and the OK button to navigate to and open the following menus:
1. Setup
2. Printer Maintenance
3. Restore
4. Restore Factory Defaults
The printer automatically restarts.

Then we proceeded as follows:

1. turn off printer and keep usb cable unplugged.
2. delete the printer and scanner if it is showing up as one in settings-bluetooth& devices-printers and scanners-RESTART
3. Completely remove all HP software relating to printer/scanner. We used Revo Uninstaller so we could delete all the registry entries relating to the printer and there were quite a few of them. Revo is free and it's excellent for uninstalling all traces of software and driver. RESTART AGAIN.

(You can download Revo here.) Revo Uninstaller Free

4. Download the full Software Solution for the printer from the first link I mentioned above and install the software
5. Once the software installs, connect and power on the printer when the installation process advises you to do so.

Once we did all that his printer has not lost connection since, even after he regularly powers his computer off.
Maybe it will work for you.

I've had a couple of clients with older printers that had the "communication error" and partial printing of pages with Win10, it was with a printer designed for USB 2 but was plugged into a USB 3 port on the computer. Changing that fixed the problems. But that was different from the issues that occurred with some Updates.