cannot get hp smart to print B&W

[CarolW]

I have an HP Envy 5055 - It was working fine until I had a problem with it saying I was out of paper, but I was not.

I let an HP tech take over my machine and I have not been able to print properly since then colorwise.

I have printer preference in my Win 10 device manager set to black ink only.  But when I try to print a .jpg  from snipping tool, for example, it uses HP Smart app and tries to print in color.  

I changed the HP Smart settings to grayscale, and it did not help.

If I want to print wirelessly from my tablet, I need to keep HP Smart turned on for both devices.  If I do not, I have to come to the printer with my tablet and push buttons on the printer in order to print which basically defeats the purpose of wireless printing.

So I have 2 problems - printer refusing to print in black & white even though it is set for black and white and if I turn off HP smart on PC, then I cannot print from tablet.

Any advice?

[Betty0610]

@CarolW

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Let's try to do a root uninstall and reinstall of the software:

Unplug any USB cable, if any, before doing this.

1.) In Windows, search for and open Programs and features

2.) Select your HP Printer

3.) Select Uninstall

4.) In Windows, search for and open Devices and printers

5.) In the Devices and Printers windows look for your HP printer. If you see it listed right-click on it and choose 'Delete' or 'Remove Device'

6.) Open up the run command with the "Windows key + R" key combo.

7.) Type printui.exe /s and click Ok. (Note: there is a space in between “printui.exe” and “/s”)

8.) Click on the "Drivers" tab

9.) Look for HP Printer driver. If you see it Click on it and click Remove at the bottom

10.) Select Ok

11.) Select Apply and Ok on the Print Server Properties windows

12.) Close Devices and Printers

13.) Open up the run command with the "Windows key + R" key combo

14.) Type c:/programdata and click Ok. Go to Hewlett Packard folder, remove any printer related folders & files.

15.) Restart the computer.

Uninstall and reinstall the HP Smart App.

Let me know if this helps.

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the Accepted Solution button, that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Thanks!

Have a great day!

[CarolW]

What I did was set printer preferences to B&W every time I print, then went into Printers and Devices on Win 10 and changed to B&W. 

That appears to have solved SOME of the problem.

BUT, the weird thing is ONLY .jpg's that I try to print revert to color (many of them are screen captures using snipping tool and don't need to be in color).

Also, when I print from tablet, even though I set preference to B&W, it still prints color, and since my color cartridge is empty, whatever was originally in color, does not come out at all.

I have 2 programs I use to print .jpg's - either the Canoscan PhotoStudio or the photo viewer on my Win 10 HP Slimline PC.

All I have to do now is to get jpg's to print in BW from PC and ALL documents to print BW from tablet

[Jeet_singh]

@CarolW,

Let's try to update the printer firmware - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware

Once done, restart the printer. 

If the issue persists, let's try to uninstall the printer from the root level and then reinstall it by following the steps below: 

• Press “Windows key” + “r” to get the “Run” window.
• Type "services.msc" to get Services – Go to “Print spooler” – Right-click and “Stop” the service.
• Now again open "Run" - Type “spool” and ok - Go to PRINTERS folder - delete everything in that folder.
• Go to services again - Start the print spooler.
• Now check for issue resolution.
• If the issue persists, also try clean installing the printer drivers. Here are the steps:
• First, unplug the USB cable from the printer if present.
• Go to Control panel – Programs and feature – Select all the HP Envy printer entries and uninstall them.
• Now go to Control panel – Devices and printer – Select all the printer entries and remove the device.
• Press the "windows key" + "r" to get the "Run" window open - Type "printui.exe /s" (There is a space between .exe & /) and press enter.
• Under print server properties, go to drivers - remove any entry there as well.
• Again, go to the Run window, type – “c:/programdata” – Go to Hewlett Packard folder, remove any printer related folders & files.
• Restart your computer.
• Please click here to download and install the software.
• Connect the USB cable if prompted and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Let me know the outcome!

Cheers 🙂