Unable to print color for officejet 3831, unable to download new drivers

[Mokolon]

I have an Officejet 3831.  I know, it's old.  It's also out of warranty.  That's not the problem.

I'm running Windows 10x64 Pro, and found that my printer would not offer the option to print in color.

Researching, I found advice to reinstall the drivers.

So I uninstalled all the HP software and drivers.

But when I ran the printer setup software again it fails to install drivers.

Navigating to the HP site to manually obtain the drivers I find that I cannot download the drivers any longer.

The page for the driver download for my product:

I checked every operating system in the list, NONE of them resolve to a download link.

Does anyone know how to get around this issue?

HP does not seem to have any method of contacting them unless you have a product that is in-warranty.

It is my belief that I should not require a warranty to download the drivers for a product I purchased, and there should be a method of telling their webmaster that the download page does not work.

Thanks for whomever might be able to help.

-Bill

[ShlomiL]

Hi Bill,

Please click the Start menu and then the gear icon (Settings), there select Update and Security.

Click the Check for Updates button, then click on View Optional Updates when shown.

Expend the Drivers category there and look for any HP update, install any such update and complete it, then restart the computer and check if you may see any difference.

Please let me know the results,

Shlomi

[ferRX]

Hi @Mokolon ,

Try to install the next driver:

• >> Officejet 3831 - basic driver - Windows

* Click on YES button  to say thanks, 

* Click on the button Accepted Solution if the question is answered.

Best regards, 

ferRX.

[Mokolon]

No HP updates available in the list of optional updates in the drivers category.

[Mokolon]

Thanks for the link.

Downloaded this driver and installed it.

I removed and re-added my printer and chose the new HP driver that showed up in the list.

But still no color options appear when I print.  Only greyscale.

[ferRX · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mokolon ,

Ok, then try to add the printer with steps from next message:

• > Solution > Officejet 3830 not printing in color

* Click on YES button  to say thanks, 

* Click on the button Accepted Solution if the question is answered.

Best regards, 

ferRX.

[Mokolon]

FerRX,

Thank you very much for that pointer.

The solution you pointed me to did NOT work exactly as presented.  My printer is wirelessly connected. That might have made a difference.  I put in the IP address in as specified and it would not connect.

However, a slight variation of this procedure DID work.

On my printers touch screen when I asked it to show the network settings, there was a little button to print the network config.  I used that.

1. Print the printers network config
2. Remove the printer from Windows
3. Add printer to windows
4. Pick the "The printer that I want isn't listed" link even though it is.
5. Find the entry for the URL(s) for Embedded Web Server from the printed HP Network Configuration Page
6. Enter that value into the "select shared printer by name" box

The confirmation box shows that is is using the correct driver, and color printing now works from my machine!

-Bill