HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 "Driver is unavailable" after Windows Update on Windows 10 Pro x64

[Raven_Consultnc]

Hi guys, I posted about this under the following thread initially :- https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Inkjet-Printing/quot-Driver-is-Unavailable-quot-after-Windows-10-Updat...and @Dragon-Fur helped me with the issue at that time, but it appears to have happened again after a further Windows 10 update, and so I thought I would start a new thread.

Basically what has happened is this :-

• In a small office network of 2 PCs and 2 OfficeJet Pro 8710 units, both the PCs (running Windows 10 Pro x64) have done Windows Update, and rebooted
• The OfficeJet Pro 8710 units, which were already installed on both PCs, are now both showing a status of "Driver is unavailable", and none of the on-site users are able to print to either of the 8710 units, although other functionality (predominantly scanning functionality) remains unaffected
• I have uninstalled the printers, uninstalled every HP product I can find, cleared the printui.exe /s drivers screen of all HP entries, re-installed the various HP software options (including the full software set including drivers, and the HP smart application), and run as many things as possible as the system administrator, but it has not worked.

What appears to have happened, to my comparatively untrained eye, is that somehow the explicit HP drivers have been purged from the system, and only the Windows generic software drivers are left, which are insufficient to enable use of these two 8710 units as network printers.

One final consideration, which I don't consider to be particularly relevant but I'll just share it for the sake of full disclosure, is that the two 8710 units are connecting to the PCs wirelessly.

Does anybody know whether it's possible to literally just download the explicit HP drivers for the HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 ?  As in literally just the .drv files (or whatever their extension is) ?  I can get to the wizard which allows me to stipulate the "have disk" option, but I don't have the ability to pick all the various manufacturers and their varying makes and models of unit for some reason.

Any help you guys can give me would be massively appreciated =]

Thank you sooooooo much !

Raven

[Raven_Consultnc · Accepted solution]

Believe it or not, I've resolved this issue (not by myself, I wound-up accidentally realising that one of the MFPs still had 9 days of support left on it, so I gave support a call, and this is the resolve).  I am going to try and be as clear and concise as possible, to help as many of you as I can with this super annoying issue ! =]

What is causing the issue ?

Basically as far as I can tell, one or more Windows Updates has run roughshod over the HP drivers you had installed on your computer, and replaced them with a Microsoft Generic Software Driver, which isn't much use for your HP product.  Uninstalling the printer and reinstalling it in the way you normally would doesn't help; and you might not be able to do a system restore to push you back to the point you were at before this craziness started (and even if you were, you run the risk of Windows just re-applying that KB update at a later time).

How do we resolve the issue ?

We basically need to reinstall the printer, but in a different way than normal.

What do we need ?

We need to know the IP address of your printer, because that is where we are going to install it from.

What are we trying to do ?

We are trying to get your PC to a) reinstall the printer in b) a way that lets you stipulate which driver to use so that c) you can tell your computer to use the HP driver you were using previously.  In other words, the Windows Update hasn't destroyed your driver, it has merely replaced the active driver with its own generic version.

What are the steps ?

This is what worked for me :-

01) Call up your Control Panel (I use the classic control panel so Start > Type "Control Panel" and run that)

02) Go to the "Devices and Printers" Option

03) At the top of your screen click the "Add a Printer" option

04) Even if the printer appears in the list, choose the "The printer that I want isn't listed" option at the bottom

05) Check the "Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname" radio button

06) Change the "Device type" dropdown to "TCP/IP Device"

07) Enter the printer's IP address into the "Hostname or IP address" box

08) Deselect the "Query the printer and automatically select the driver to use" option

09) Click next

10) On this next screen you're going to need to tell it that you are using an HP driver (on the left hand side), and that it's the make and model of your printer (on the right hand side) - this information should match the driver you had installed previously

11)  Choose to run a test print (and whether to make this your default printer), and BAM!  You should be all good ! =D

Hope that helps you guys !

Peace out.

Raven.