HP Photosmart C7280 has to have software constantly reinstalled

[David1644]

Couple months ago my Photosmart C7280 began giving error messages when I tried to print wirelessly from my HP laptop running Windows 10. Prior to then, I had been printing wirelessly from the laptop and also other people were printing wirelessly from other computers and devices. After trying HP Solutions several times, I ended up downloading HP Print and Scan Doctor and after installation,  Doctor told me that complete software had not been installed. So, using Doctor, I installed the software and the printer worked...One time. Now, each and everytime I try to print, I end up having to reinstall the software using Doctor (because I don't know what else to do) multiple times daily every time I need to print anything. Does anyone know a fix for this?

Thanks

[MKazi]

@David1644

Welcome to HP Support Forums.

Thanks for reaching out to us. MKazi is at your service. 

I understand that you have to reinstall your HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-One Printer every time you wish to print otherwise the printer does not print.

I appreciate your efforts in troubleshooting the issue and have certainly done a good job.

Let us uninstall the printer drivers from the root level and then reinstall them by following the below steps:

• 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 Officejet 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.

Once the installation is complete, you may try to print. This should stabilize the printer's connection. 

In case the issue persists then let us assign a static IP address to the printer. We will need to know the printer's IP address first. Please attempt the following steps:

• The printer must be connected to the wireless network for us to obtain the printer's IP address. Please follow the steps from page number 49 from the user guide to view the IP address of the printer.
• Type the IP address on your web browser to obtain the printer EWS page on your computer.
• Go to "Network" tab - General - Select "Network protocols" - Select "Enable IPv4 only" (or similar) - Apply the settings.
• Go to the “Network” tab – Click on “Wireless (802.11) – Then click on “Network address (IPv4)
• Click on the radio button which says “Manual IP” and then click “Suggest a manual IP address” to give a manual IP address to your printer.
• Click on radio button which says “Manual DNS Server” and under manual preferred type 8.8.8.8 and under manual alternate type 8.8.4.4 (This is Google DNS server address)

Then you may add a TCP/IP port:
 

• Search Windows for devices, and then select “Devices and Printers” in the list of results.  
• Right-click the name of your printer, and then select “Printer Properties”. 
•  The Properties window opens. 
• Click the “Ports” tab, and then click “Add Port”. 
• Select “Standard TCP/IP Port”, and then click “New Port”. 
• Type the printer’s IP address that you wrote down earlier, and then click “Next”. 
• Select the new “Standard TCP/IP Port” from the list, and then click “OK”. 
• Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the setup. Now try printing. 
  
  Now, you may try to print and check the results. 

I sincerely hope this information helps. Please feel free to keep me posted for further assistance.

Good luck !

If you would like to thank us for the efforts to help you, feel free to mark this post as "Accept as solution". That’ll help everyone find the solution and help the community to grow.

[David1644]

Thanks so much for your prompt response, MKazi. Really appreciate it. Gives me hope knowing help is readily available for us printer-challenged old folks.

I tried your suggestion for deleting files and folders and reinstalling software. After installation, I tried printing and am having same problem as before.

I started working on the IP address part of your solution and ran into a problem...at the EWS page for my printer the option button to "Suggest a manual IP address" is not there. So I didn't do the suggested Static IP address assignment. I was afraid I may really foul something up. Also didn't do the add TCP/IP Port part. I tried to send image of my printer EWS page but file was too big and I'm not savvy enough to know how to make it smaller.

There are a couple of things that I have not mentioned previously, which came to mind as I was going through these exercises and reading some of the Windows Help manual that you linked.

One thing is that when I run into the print error, sometimes I unplug the printer and plug back in after about 5 seconds and sometimes the printer will go to working. I accidently discovered that when my printer would not turn off when I pressed the On/Off button so I unplugged it and when I plugged it back in, it started printing. I've done that several times now and it works about half the time, but not always.

Thing 2 is that I noticed in the printer dialogue box that the numbers in the "Pages" column shows a larger number before the forward slash than after the slash and that's how I know that the error message is on the way. For instance, when I am printing just one page it may show "3/1" or "17/1" in the "Pages" column.

Just mentioning those 2 things in case they provide you clues as to what may be causing my problem.

Thanks again for your promptness. Hope you can come up with more suggestions for this fix.

Update: After I finished typing the above reply, I tried to print page 1 of your response in my email and saw that the printer dialogue box was showing the printer as being offline, even though it was turned on. I pressed the on/off button to see if restarting it would resolve the offline problem and the printer screen said that it was shutting down but, after several minutes it did not shut down so I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it printed the page. After that happened, then I tested again by printing one page of this reply and it printed without me unplugging the computer.

[MKazi · Accepted solution]

@David1644

You're most welcome and thank you so much for your kind words.

You've been fabulous to work with considering your valuable patience and technical knowledge. 

By looking at the results and the symptoms you descried, I suggest you to reset the printer. The steps for the reset have been sent to you via a private message.

Hope this does the trick. Let me know.

Good luck! 🙂

[David1644]

The printer reset solution worked.

My printer is FIXED!!!

Hallelujah and Praise the LORD!!!

Thanks you so much MKazi for hanging in there with my ignorance.

[MKazi]

@David1644

Great news! 🙂

I'm glad that the issue is fixed and appreciate your hard work and patience. 

Happy printing!