HP Officejet 6978 printer. Windows 11 PC. No Driver Available

[Baudin]

Printer was working fine until a few days ago, now it is showing No Driver Available. I have literally spent 2 days uninstalling and reinstalling the software. No luck. I have dug deep and uninstalled the old drivers from the Print Utility app in Windows, i have run the HP driver diag. It tells me there is not a driver installed.  If i run the Full Web Pack form HP, it will process all the way thru to the "opening a web page", bring up a blank half screen and sit there until i kill it. The Scanner portion and Fax portion is installed, but not the Print Driver. Interestingly enough, HP Smart sees it. And HP Instant Ink sees it.

I have also tried HP Universal Drivers. Prints garbage.

HELP!!

[Bernard42 · Accepted solution]

             Hello Baudin,

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to assist you.

I see that you are facing an issue with your Printer.

If the printer is working fine after uninstalling and reinstalling the HP smart app.

Request you not to make any changes and continue using the printer until you face any other issues.

Also, update the printer firmware by clicking on this link  to keep the printer up to date.

Please click "Accepted Solution" if you think my post solved your problem,

this will help others find the solution.

Click “Congratulations / Thumbs Up” at the bottom right to say “Thank you” for my help!

Take care of yourself and have a good day.

           Regards,

[Baudin]

I have done this a few times over the course of the last 3  or 4 days, but tried it again this morning. Uninstalled ALL HP programs from the Control panel and the APP panel. Reboot Computer. Reinstalled HP SMART from the Microsoft Store. Added printer. Same issue. I received a "no driver available" message.

Uninstalled HP SMART AGAIN, Rebooted Computer. Added Printer. This time it worked!!!

Printing should NOT be a 5 day ordeal!

I suspect that this was caused by a Windows Update.

[Bernard42]

  @Baudin,

Very glad it worked. The problem is :

You must completely uninstall your printer,

delete all occurrences linked to its name in Program and Program(x86)

and above all, do not forget to restart the printer and the PC.

Have a nice evening.