Solved HP Officejet 5200 series: "Driver is unavailable"

My work colleagues and I share a wifi HP 5200 printer/scanner. I rarely print, but today noticed that my default printer was "save to pdf," and the printer shows up with "Driver is unavailable"



Yet at the same time, I'm able to scan on this device - so the device can be found by my computer.

My colleagues are having the same problem - they'd been able to print even last week, and now they get this.

What's the fix? From device manager, when I try to update the driver - from my computer or from the Windows Update - it tells me I have the best driver:

Have you tried to install the driver from HP? I have always installed the basic driver for my HP printers.

HP OfficeJet 5200 All-in-One Printer series

HP OfficeJet 5200 All-in-One Printer series Basic Driver - IT Professional Use only

MisterEd said:

Have you tried to install the driver from HP? I have always installed the basic driver for my HP printers.

HP OfficeJet 5200 All-in-One Printer series

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/hp-officejet-5200-all-in-one-printer-series/14095737

HP OfficeJet 5200 All-in-One Printer series Basic Driver - IT Professional Use only

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/swdetails/hp-officejet-5200-all-in-one-printer-series/14095737/swItemId/mp-243020-3

Click to expand...

I visited the link for the first option (the non-IT-Professional one). So much needless confusion, and prompts for my personal information, registration, etc.

What it all led to after about 15 minutes of running, was launching HP Smart, which I'd already had installed years ago.

This is what it told me:



Not sure how to get around that "not installed" installation status. Especially because my printer setup had been fine earlier this month.

112022 said:

I visited the link for the first option (the non-IT-Professional one). So much needless confusion, and prompts for my personal information, registration, etc.

What it all led to after about 15 minutes of running, was launching HP Smart, which I'd already had installed years ago.

This is what it told me:

View attachment 109673

Not sure how to get around that "not installed" installation status. Especially because my printer setup had been fine earlier this month.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have warned you. Even after I install the Basic Driver HP insists on also installing HP Smart. Whenever it does I just uninstall it because I simply don't need it. However, it also installs the HP Printer Assistant that I use all the time. Note I launch it from an icon placed on my desktop.

Icon on desktop launches HP Printer Assistant



HP Printer Assistant

MisterEd said:

Sorry, I should have warned you. Even after I install the Basic Driver HP insists on also installing HP Smart. Whenever it does I just uninstall it because I simply don't need it. However, it also installs the HP Printer Assistant that I use all the time. Note I launch it from an icon placed on my desktop.

Icon on desktop launches HP Printer Assistant

View attachment 109674

HP Printer Assistant

View attachment 109675

Click to expand...

Thanks so much. Downloading from https://support.hp.com/us-en/driver...-printer-series/14095737/swItemId/mp-243020-3 and installing (I said "no thanks" to all the data sharing options) did the trick. Not sure how the printer came to be lost for me in the first place, but I'm printing again.

112022 said:

Thanks so much. Downloading from https://support.hp.com/us-en/driver...-printer-series/14095737/swItemId/mp-243020-3 and installing (I said "no thanks" to all the data sharing options) did the trick. Not sure how the printer came to be lost for me in the first place, but I'm printing again.

Click to expand...

Good to see you are printing again. Make sure you install the driver on all your computers.

Note the description for the Basic Driver says "IT Professional Use only". I take IT Professional to be anyone smart enough not to install HP Smart.

The first time I ran HP Smart it did its best to get me to buy an ink subscription. That is why I uninstalled it. The HP Printer Assistant has everything I need including scanning. BTW, I just checked and HP Smart was back. HP must be paying Microsoft to include it in Windows Update. I had to uninstall it again.

One time a Windows update broke my HP printer driver. I had to wait a few weeks for HP to release an updated driver. Hopefully that doesn't happen very often.

MisterEd said:

Good to see you are printing again. Make sure you install the driver on all your computers.

The first time I ran HP Smart it did its best to get me to buy an ink subscription. That is why I uninstalled it. The HP Printer Assistant has everything I need including scanning. BTW, I just checked and HP Smart was back. HP must be paying Microsoft to include it in Windows Update. I had to uninstall it again.

One time a Windows update broke my HP printer driver. I had to wait a few weeks for HP to release an updated driver. Hopefully that doesn't happen very often.

Click to expand...

BTW, my install did not include the HP Printer Assistant - is there a painless way to get this back?

I had it for the first few years with the printer, and then a sudden need, 2-3 years ago, to basically do what I did today, pushed it off my machine. I'd liked Printer Assistant, would love it back again - but not if it means having to jump through all HP's frustrating hoops.

112022 said:

BTW, my install did not include the HP Printer Assistant - is there a painless way to get this back?

I had it for the first few years with the printer, and then a sudden need, 2-3 years ago, to basically do what I did today, pushed it off my machine. I'd liked Printer Assistant, would love it back again - but not if it means having to jump through all HP's frustrating hoops.

Click to expand...

When I installed the Basic Driver it placed a shortcut to the HP Printer Assistant on my desktop. The shortcut can also be found in the All apps list in the Start menu. Note its name is unique for every printer model.



It took a little more effort to find out where the app is that the shortcut leads to...

MisterEd said:

When I installed the Basic Driver it placed a shortcut to the HP Printer Assistant on my desktop. The shortcut can also be found in the All apps list in the Start menu. Note its name is unique for every printer model.

View attachment 109687

It took a little more effort to find out where the app is that the shortcut leads to...

View attachment 109691

Click to expand...

Helpful, but all I see in the bin subdirectory, in that part of the alphabet, is scan software.



I don't mind living without the Printer Assistant. But it's too bad it's gone. As I said, it was a casualty of the last time I had to navigate the HP thickets when the printer suddenly "went lost."

Try looking in Program Files folder instead of the Program Files (x86) one. BTW, did you find HP in the Start menu for All apps?

MisterEd said:

Try looking in Program Files folder instead of the Program Files (x86) one. BTW, did you find HP in the Start menu for All apps?

View attachment 109724

Click to expand...

Sorry! I forgot to reply. Thanks for pointing me to the non-x86 directory. For what am I looking? Below is the bin directory listing, sorted by file type, to show applications:

The HP Printer Assistant for my printer is: HP OfficeJet Pro 6970.exe. Here is the shortcut on my desktop.



You have a similar program for your printer: HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe

Try to double-click on HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe to see what it does?
If it is the HP Printer Assistant then you can create a shortcut on the desktop like this:

1, Right-click on HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe
2. Select Show more options



3. Select Send to
4. Select Desktop (create shortcut)



5. After the shortcut is created, right-click on it and select Properties.
6. Add -Start UDCDevicePage to the Target


I found out that unless you do this a web page opens which encourages you to get HP Smart!

Note if you create this shortcut it doesn't have the expected icon. Since I already had the icon I found it was at the location:
%SystemRoot%\Installer\{4FC93490-EBD6-47D2-B884-E186C4F53817}\UDC_Icon.exe

Since it will probably be at a different location for you let me know if you want to add the icon.

MisterEd said:

The HP Printer Assistant for my printer is: HP OfficeJet Pro 6970.exe. Here is the shortcut on my desktop.

View attachment 109968

You have a similar program for your printer: HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe

Try to double-click on HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe to see what it does?
If it is the HP Printer Assistant then you can create a shortcut on the desktop like this:

1, Right-click on HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe
2. Select Show more options

View attachment 109970

3. Select Send to
4. Select Desktop (create shortcut)

View attachment 109971

5. After the shortcut is created, right-click on it and select Properties.
6. Add -Start UDCDevicePage to the Target

Code:

Target:
"C:\Program Files\HP\HP OfficeJet 5200 series\Bin\HP OfficeJet 5200 series.exe" -Start UDCDevicePage

Starts in:
"C:\Program Files\HP\HP OfficeJet 5200 series\Bin\"

I found out that unless you do this a web page opens which encourages you to get HP Smart!

Note if you create this shortcut it doesn't have the expected icon. Since I already had the icon I found it was at the location:
%SystemRoot%\Installer\{4FC93490-EBD6-47D2-B884-E186C4F53817}\UDC_Icon.exe

Since it will probably be at a different location for you let me know if you want to add the icon.

Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks. I just needed to know which of those programs to send to the desktop as a shortcut. Doing so actually added the -Start UDCDevicePage to the target.




The above looks more elaborate than what I remember the utility doing 5+ years ago when I had it.

I had also found how to stop Windows or HP from installing HP Smart every month, but couldn't test that yet, since I'd already manually uninstalled it. I'll update if HP Smart comes back.

I am surprised that the shortcut to the HP Printer Assistant wasn't placed on your desktop when you installed the printer driver. It always does when I install the driver for my printer.

Like I said the HP Printer Assistant does everything I need to do. I have no need for HP Smart.

Back in 2018 my old printer broke so I had to replace it. I bought the OfficeJet Pro 6975 All-in-One Printer for only $91.87. I thought that was a real bargain since the list price was about double that. Last year to save money I bought some third-party ink. Unfortunately, the printer refused to use it and gave an error message. An online search showed that my printer must have gotten a firmware update. This firmware update blocks all non-genuine HP ink. More searching online led to a website that showed me how to downgrade the firmware for my printer. After I downgraded the firmware I was able to use the third-party ink again. The only downside of using the ink is that the HP Printer Assistant doesn't show the ink level after a week or two. Now it shows the following. That means when the ink eventually runs out I will have no warning.