Officejet Pro 8730 not installing network driver

[Peasantmk2]

A client of mine has an Officejet  Pro 8730 that is connected by ethernet cable to his router. He has a desktop computer cabled to the router, and a laptop that connects wirelessly (both Windows 10 Home)

He recently had a problem that it would not print, and it turned out to be that the print spooler was stopped. Once restarted, it would stop again. I eventually tracked this down to the driver/software for the Officejet 8730 (uninstalling the printer and removing it meant that all other printers worked, and the print spooler did not stop).

We now have a problem in that we cannot get the printer to reinstall. We select connect through ethernet, the installation finds the printer, and then it gets stuck at 'installing network device'.

I can log on to the printer's own config page, and the printer is seen by the HP App. It reports the printer is not installed.

I have tried restarting the laptop, restarting the printer, completely uninstalling the HP drivers, but we are no further forward. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[prabaa · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The following steps might help you to resolve your printer issue.

1. Open Devices and Printers by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then, on the Start menu, clicking Devices and Printers.

2. Click Add a printer.
In the Add Printer wizard, click Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.

3. In the list of available printers, select the one you want to use, and then click Next. (If your computer is connected to a network, only printers listed in Active Directory for your domain are displayed in the list.)

4.If prompted, install the printer driver on your computer by clicking Install driver. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

5 Complete the additional steps in the wizard, and then click Finish.

Now you can start printing... :


Happy Printing.

[Peasantmk2]

Hi Prabaa,

Many thanks for your post. Things now working as they should.

[jowill31]

Have a related problem but not quite the same.

I have three computers on the same Network sharing a common printer (HP Office jet 8730 All-In-One). The three computers are a Dell XPS 9100, Apple Macbook (very old) Laptop and a Dell XPS 8930. All three systems functioned perfectly until last week on the wireless Network. The Dell XPS 8930 ceased to function... in devices and printers, I now see "Driver is Unavailable" even though I've made no changes to any of the systems. I keep current with updates as they are published and the Network is functioning fine. 

The system includes Windows 10 Pro version 10.0.18362, Dell XPS 8930, I9 9900 CPU, Bios V 3.1. I have tried the process you mentioned in previous post but still getting Driver unavailable.

What am I missing

[Peasantmk2]

Your problem sounds very similar to mine. Basically what I ended up doing was completely removing the driver and software. I then restarted the PC, and reinstalled the software. It got stuck at the point where it was installing the network software. I then just followed the instructions in the post by Prabaa above. The printer was found, and I didn't have to install any other software. After that all seems to have worked.

[jowill31]

Thanks... I'll give it a whirl and hope it works,,,

[jowill31]

Didn't work... The software, even the Network software, appear to have loaded without a hitch. When I reviewed the printer, I still get the message "Driver is Unavailable". I am certain there is a simple fix to this, just haven't figured out if the issue is with something that I am/am not doing or this is an issue unknown to HP or Microsoft.

Thanks again for the feedback...

[Peasantmk2]

Did you remove the printer after uninstalling the software? From what I remember that was another block I hit. If you try to remove the printer (Control Panel - Devices and Printers - right click on printer - select 'Remove') without uninstalling the software first the remove fails. I think the final process I went through was:

1. Uninstall software/drivers

2. Remove device from devices and printers

3. Restart PC

4. Reinstall printer. You could try this without reinstalling the software first. If that doesn't work, then go through the process again, but install the software before trying to install the printer.

[jowill31]

1. Uninstall software/drivers: Yes

2. Remove device from devices and printers: Yes

3. Restart PC: Yes

4. Reinstall printer. You could try this without reinstalling the software first. If that doesn't work, then go through the process again, but install the software before trying to install the printer. Yes

The good news is that for the first time, the application and apparently the driver loaded without the "Driver is Unavailable" message. Unfortunately, I get an error message when trying to print, or error code 0x80070002. I see the file in the print queue but no output from printer. Will contact HP directly...

Thanks for your patience and assistance...

[mlachlan2909]

I have the same problem...

IT is definitely the driver for the 8730, since the 8600 series Driver worked immediately to install.....

HP should definitely revise the driver !