HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus no drivers available

[1NathanB]

Recently my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus All in One quite working. After trying a multitude of things, I finally tried to uninstall and reinstall. As I try to reinstall, the HP website tells me that they cannot find a list of drivers for my device. Windows also tells me that drivers are not available. Is this going to be a permanent problem or are there drivers out there? My original disk was for Windows 8.1, so it does me no good. I am running windows 10, 64 bit now.

[Bob_Headrick]

I do see the US English page for the drivers shows things as not available, I will report this.  In  the meantime, the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus driver is available for download from HP here:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/COL40120/bi-108858-4/OJ8600_1316.exe

[1NathanB]

Thank you for this reply! I was able to locate this page with the drivers, but sadly I am now having another issue. I am so frustrated! Now I keep getting an error message anytime I try to uninstall or install that says, "A caller of DrivePackageInstall must be a member of the administrators group to install driver package." I do not understand as I am the administrator of my computer. I even tried an online solution I found of creating a new administrator account, but I could not install from that account either--I got the same erroe message. Very frustrated!

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

The troubleshooting steps in the post here may resolve the permissions error on the driver.  

If this does not resolve the issue please open a cmd.exe issue and type WINVER.  What is the windows version reported?  

[1NathanB]

Thank you! This did solve the permission error. Sadly, re-installing did not resolve my original issue. I am back to square one. For some reason my computer and printer are not able to communicate. My computer tells me the printer is not connected. Anytime I try to re-connect I end up back at the beginning with Windows telling me the drivers are not available.

[1NathanB]

I did manage to connect for limited functionality with a USB cable. I don't understand why I can't get it to work over the network anymore.

[Bob_Headrick]

Is your network connection wireless or wired?  Has anything changed (like a new router)?  I would suggest the following:  disconnect the USB cable, then power the printer off and back on again.  Next go to the front panel and from the home screen go the the right to Setup, Network.  If you are using Wireless make sure this is set to ON and that Wireless Direct is set to OFF.  Scroll down to View Network Settings, then select wither View Wireless or View Wired as appropriate for your situation.  Note the IP address reported for the printer.

Next, on your PC enter the IP address found above in your browser.  This should bring up the Embedded Web Server (EWS) for the printer, which will look something like this: [Note- there may be a warning the page is unsafe, select OK to continue.  This message is because some browsers are now enforcing https protocol which is not supported by the Officejet Pro 8600 series.  If you are using Chrome you will need to select Advanced, then Continue (unsafe).  This sounds foreboding, but it is really not a problem,]

If you get to the EWS it means the printer is connected to the same network as your PC and they can communicate properly.  If you do not get to the EWS please give some details of what error message you are getting.

, 

Is your network connection wireless or wired?  Has anything changed (like a new router)?  I would suggest the following:  disconnect the USB cable, then power the printer off and back on again.  Next go to the front panel and from the home screen go the the right to Setup, Network.  If you are using Wireless make sure this is set to ON and that Wireless Direct is set to OFF.  Scroll down to View Network Settings, then select wither View Wireless or View Wired as appropriate for your situation.  Note the IP address reported for the printer.

Next, on your PC enter the IP address found above in your browser.  This should bring up the Embedded Web Server (EWS) for the printer, which will look something like this: [Note- there may be a warning the page is unsafe, select OK to continue.  This message is because some browsers are now enforcing https protocol which is not supported by the Officejet Pro 8600 series.  If you are using Chrome you will need to select Advanced, then Continue (unsafe).  This sounds foreboding, but it is really not a problem,]

If you get to the EWS it means the printer is connected to the network properly and the PC and printer can communicate.  If the EWS does not open please report any error messages you see.

Next go to Control Panel, Devices and Printers, right-click on the HP Officejet Pro 8600, Printer properties, Ports, Add Port, Standard TCP/IP Port, New Port, Next, type in the IP address of the printer, Next, Finish, Close, Apply.

At this point you should be in business.  If there are any issues please provide details of which step fails and any error messages you see.

[1NathanB]

Thanks again for the reply. I walked through your steps and all went well at first. The webpage shows the printer as connected to the network. So, I proceeded to add a port as you outlined. All worked until I got to "next" after typing in the IP address of the printer. At that point it began searching for the IP address, but was not able to find it. I got a message that said, "Additional port information required. The device could not be identified."

[1NathanB]

Also, the Network is wireless.

[Bob_Headrick]

What version of Windows 10 are you using?  Open a cmd.exe prompt and type Winver and then please copy the build information and post it here.  Also - is your computer connected to the router with a wired or wirelesss connection?  Do you have any firewall installed?

Running the diagnostics at https://support.hp.com/us-en/topic/printscandoctor may help.  Download and run the HP Print and Scan Doctor.