Printer playing up - given up

So it's a 10 year old printer - I guess I needed a new one anyway. It's been playing up a lot recently but yesterday it was in error state. I tried various fixes, including removing the printer, going into Windows and clearing the items in spool/print. Turning it off in services first then back on again Unplugging everything. Uninstalling and reinstalling the HP app. Wasted best part of a day messing about with it. It shows it's online with wifi but not connected. Re-set up again and redownloaded drivers. Downloaded HP printer repair software (it said it wasn't connected but wifi was connected). But eventually gave up and decided to order a new up to date printer.

Shortly after ordering the new printer, windows update installed something from HP and a piece of paper I had tried to print actually printed - but then it was back in error state.

It works to do photocopies. Anyway - is it normal for a printer to just get too glitchy after 10 years and is it that it's just not up to the latest windows and apple updates? When I got it, it was geared for Windows 7! It had a few issues with Windows 10 which settled down. It had been working ok with Windows 11 until recently.

Anyway it was getting hard to find the ink cartridges and the cartridges for the new printer are half the price and easy to get so I guess the new printer will pay for itself.

I got an HP one again because 10 years is good and it's familiar.

If you like, please post what the old and new ones are.

Could be useful for some readers.

The old one is an HP Envy 5540 - prints, scans, photocopies. Has a separate photo paper tray which I never used. (for smaller photo paper). Worked without issue for about 10 years, until recently despite some glitches when Windows 10 first came out.

The new one is HP Envy Inspire 7220e. Which seems to be an identical printer basically but in a different colour and a slightly different design styling! However the touchscreen is much improved as it's larger, colour, and is tiltable so easier to see if your printer is low down in a cupboard like ours is.

Flatbed scanner and does double sided photocopying. (Both do that but the new one does the double sided copying better apparently). You just connect to wifi on the touch screen (although I think there's an app to do that with the new one) and install HP Smart app on the computer and it's easy to set up quickly. The old one had no issue printing directly from smartphones either - no apps needed or anything.

It wasn't the cheapest but it wasn't the most expensive either.

First photo is the old one and the second photo is the new one. Not keen on white myself but it is in a cupboard anyway!

They have an automatic tray thing pops out to hold the paper when printing so it doesn't fall on the floor. Nothing has ever broken on the old one or snapped off. So hopefully the new one is as well made.

The instant ink thing isn't really worth it. I tried it for a few months with the old one, and while it was convenient getting ink automatically sent out before you ran out, the monthly pricing is complicated - it's so much a month for so many pages - if you go over the number of pages you can get charges. It worked out cheaper and easier in the end to just buy the cartridges and always have a spare set. Because when it runs out of ink it just goes suddenly!

I'll report more on the new one when it arrives tomorrow. I'm thinking the new one will be more up to date in terms of security etc as well and designed to work with Windows 11.

Meanwhile - how do I get rid of this in settings? I've removed the old printer from the computer but I can't get rid of this second entry that just says driver is unavailable.

There were two entries. One for the printer (which disappeared when I removed the printer) and this second one. There is nothing to click to remove it.

powershell:


or command prompt:

list printers (run the top first command to make sure it's named like your screenshot - *use it before running the powershell command too to check name):


uninstall printer:

Thank you

Hazel123 said:

Thank you

Click to expand...

no worries. all good?

Perhaps the old printer had a failing wifi module and works via USB connection?

It just says Remove-Printer is not a recognised command or something

"Remove-Printer is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"

I put this in cmd

C:\Windows\System32>wmic printer get name
Name
OneNote (Desktop)
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Microsoft Print to PDF
Fax
Adobe PDF

The printer isn't listed. But that entry is still in settings! I've also removed the HP Smart app and restarted.

Steve C said:

Perhaps the old printer had a failing wifi module and works via USB connection?

Click to expand...

That's a possibility because when HP Smart tried to connect, it would initially connect and then disconnect again. However the printer showed up in router settings as connected. I think it's ready for recycling personally.

Ok I think I know what it is. I read this article and downloaded DriverStoreExplorer and found the driver that needs removing, as per the article. However it wouldn't let me delete it and says it may still be in use. There was also an HP driver that came with Windows Update yesterday (while I was trying to get the old printer working). So maybe I can find it in Windows updates and remove it?

DriverStoreExplorer shows 10.0.17119.1
The one downloaded by Windows update yesterday is 1.74.4065.0

This part of the article - this is exactly what I have. But it won't even delete with force deletion.

How do I remove this one installed yesterday from Windows update? That might do it maybe? Is there an alternative to system restore? It's not available to uninstall under "uninstall updates".

I'm in the market for a printer because my Canon MG3150 wont take up paper from the drawer without may helping it.

But my next printer will be a tank printer to save on ludicrous ink costs.

All my printers end up with this fault after a decade or so.

Ok I did system restore to before the Windows updates yesterday. This put the printer back in settings on it's own, without that second entry, so I was able to cleanly remove the printer and now printer settings is normal.

But - the two drivers are still installed! System restore didn't remove them. The second one is definitely a driver for the old printer. I think the first one is as well. Should I just ignore them? I did a file clean up but nothing came up for old Windows updates to be removed (like it used to), even after selecting clean up windows files.

Looked up the first one and it isn't a printer driver - something to do with HP Support Assistant (which I also opened while trying to fix the printer yesterday) so presumably that one is ok (the laptop is HP as well). The second one is definitely the printer driver.

But driver explorer shows it has gone now. So why is it in Windows updates as an installed driver?

Hazel123 said:

Ok I did system restore to before the Windows updates yesterday. This put the printer back in settings on it's own, without that second entry, so I was able to cleanly remove the printer and now printer settings is normal.

But - the two drivers are still installed! System restore didn't remove them. The second one is definitely a driver for the old printer. I think the first one is as well. Should I just ignore them? I did a file clean up but nothing came up for old Windows updates to be removed (like it used to), even after selecting clean up windows files.

View attachment 125386

Click to expand...

weird. ok take this route:

Settings > Search for "Advanced Sharing" and uncheck this box (if checked)


Command Prompt as Admin

that series of commands will clear out the .shd and .spl files from "%systemroot%\system32\spool\printers"

regedit

delete the key to the unwanted printer in the lefthand pane

Reboot

C:\Windows\System32>net stop spooler
The Print Spooler service is stopping.
The Print Spooler service was stopped successfully.


C:\Windows\System32>del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.shd /F /S /Q
Could Not Find C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers\*.shd

C:\Windows\System32>del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.spl /F /S /Q
Could Not Find C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers\*.spl

C:\Windows\System32>net start spooler
The Print Spooler service is starting.
The Print Spooler service was started successfully.

It doesn't appear listed in regedit (I tried that earlier and just checked again).

There is no sign of it on the laptop - except as an installed driver in Windows updates

Also since doing system restore I am having some app glitches - eg opening paint
Just read this article about it. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it rights itself.

So is it possible it's just showing in Windows updates as successfully installed but is actually no longer there?

I also just went to C/Windows/System32/spool/Printers and deleted everything in the Printers folder (something tried yesterday to get the printer working again) then restarted. Driver still listed in Windows updates though.