Can't print from Win10 until print a PDF from SmartApp

[eagctx]

Here's the situation.

Bought a M180nw printer a few months ago. Struggled mightily to get it working at all. All Windows 10 machines. Install drivers. Uninstall drivers. Many times. Found some posts that indicated to try not using the HP drivers, just use the MS drivers from Windows Update Catalog. Ultimately, that's where I've settled. BTW, many attempts of running HP Print Doctor which never helped.

However, we found that after every reboot of either the printer or of a PC that we try to print from, printing was broken again. We would get various errors on the PC, printer offline, actually don't have the errors documented anymore.

What we discovered it that the HP Smart App would print, when Windows would not. Don't work with Smart App much, so what I know is it will print a PDF file. What I've discovered is that if I print a single page of a PDF file, from Smart App, that then enables the Windows 10 PC's to print from any applications. This will last, as I said above, until either the PC or the printer is rebooted.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why this peculiar circumstance is happening? Or, how to permanently resolve it?

BTW, this is multiple PC's. Connections are both wireless AND USB. The Windows 10 PC's are varied, physical, virtual, 1909 and 2004 versions.

[Betty0610]

@eagctx

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Let's assign a manual IP:

1) Obtain the IP address of the printer – You can touch the “wireless” icon on the printer control panel to obtain the IP address.

2) Type the IP address on your web browser to obtain the printer EWS page on your computer.

3) Go to "Network" tab - General - Select "Network protocols" - Select "Enable IPv4 only" (or similar) - Apply the settings.

4) Go to the “Network” tab – Click on “Wireless (802.11) – Then click on “Network address (IPv4)

5) Click Manual IP

6) If you see a Suggest a Manual IP Address button, click Manual IP address, and the Manual IP addresses are automatically filled out for you.

7) If your page does not have a button to suggest a manual IP address, type the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway using the numbers shown in the report you printed.

Let me know if this helps.

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

Thanks!

Have a great day!

[eagctx]

The printer always has had a manual IP address.

To expand, the behavior I describe, occurs on both the desktop computer that is connected to the printer with the USB cable, AND it happens with a notebook connecting wirelessly to the printer.

More info too, I upgraded my notebook to the 2004 version on Windows 10 and tested. The behavior is still happening.

[Betty0610]

Let;s try a firmware update: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c02919168

Let me know if this helps.

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

Thanks!

Have a great day!