HP Envy 5540 no longer has a colour print option on Windows 10

[K-Edin]

Hi.  After working for a while, my HP Envy 5540 printer now will only print in Black and White from my Windows 10 device.  Going to printer options it doesnt have an option for Colour or B&W, as it used to have.    

For clarity:

 * Printer prints in colour fine from Windows 7 and IOS devices - so not an ink problem and not a physical print problem

 * I am not being offered a print setting to choose colour - so it isn't a simple user error on printing

 * I have tried HP Print and Scan Doctor - it printed a Black and White test page (and this didn't have any option to state this as an outcome so not helpful)

 *  I have tried using the HP Uninstall and reinstalled by "Adding Device" in Devices - no improvement.

 *  There isn't a coulur / black and white option in the HP Smart App - so thats pretty dumb also 

This seems to be a common issue with HP Envy and Windows 10, perhaps driver incompatibilities, but not finding any solutions anywhere.

HELP please ! 

[mikesimm9]

Hi - I know this won't help yet, but I have had exactly the same with the same printer and W10. Also only saw this today. I'm going to try installing old drivers and see if it changes anything

[mikesimm9]

Hi - Mike again - Well I still had my original HP envy 5540 installation CD

So I removed the printer in control panel.

Set it up again (declining the option to download new software) from the CD and the colour option has reappeared and all seems fine.

Ill just have to remember not to update the HP software

Hope it works for you

[mikesimm9]

and my W10 driver version now shows as 6.03

[K-Edin]

Thanks MikeSimm9.

So how did you find out the printer driver version - when I go into device manager and select the printer it only give much more summary information.  No driver version visible.

Also, I have tried tor reinstall from the original HP CD ROM (not used for the initial installation which worked fine), but unfortunately

 - doing a full reinstall from the disk reinstalled the HP SMart (!?) app but this didn't help and doesn't have a colour option

 - forcing a serch for new device driver to look on the CD ROM just gives message "Best driver for your device already installed"

 - repeating allowig to look at internet gave same message

So how do I check the driver evrsion that is installed to compare with your working version?  Thanks

[mikesimm9 · Accepted solution]

Hi. I downloaded a free programme called Sisoft Sandra (it’s been around for years and looks well respected). It tells you what all your PC hardware is

You can run it and click on the printer section and it lists the drivers

From memory, when I reinstalled from the cd, it suggested using the HP SMART thing but there was a little option at the bottom to ignore it and run from the cd

Also before I installed from cd I uninstalled all the HP programmes in control panel

Hope that helps

Mike

[K-Edin]

Thanks again MikeSimm9.

So again uninstalled the HP programmes, and again tried to reinstall from the original CD ROM disk - this time spotted the unobtrusive bit at the bottom where it allows you to ignore teh recommendation to do the setup online.

All reinstalled and, for the moment at least, seems to be working with colour option (and fixed scanning as well)

Fingers crossed.  Have DELETED the HP Update programme.  Thanks to the Forum for your help.

But ZERO marks to Hewlett Packard for causing the problems - why it cant get Windows 10 drivers to continue to work is a mystery.  And a sad testiment that need to use the old versions, because the online versions no longer work.  (This seems to be a fairly common problem, HP should fix the new versions)

[mikesimm9]

Hey - glad it worked for you as well. Yes very annoying that we have had to mess around to solve this. I'm just an end user like you and it seems unbelievable that this faulty driver is out there in the public domain.

I wonder if this is just us two or if there are thousands of users all thinking their colour cartridge must be faulty 🙂

[West_644]

I have recently been having the same problem inasmuch as my print menu no longer gives me colour print option.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled the HP5540 driver, to no avail.  On reading the solutions offered, it appears that reloading the driver from the original disc is the answer.  Unfortunately, my laptop (notebook) does not have the option to load a disc, only a USB key, so my set up is done via the web.  What options do I have now?  It seems that an HP updated driver is the problem.  Is there any way to return to the original HP5540 driver via the web?  

[DockieRph]

realise this post a little old. I'm in the same position as you - did you find a solution despite not having cd capability?