Unable to set the printer up

[Underhoove]

I'm going completely insane here with my printer. Please help me!

So, here is my tale of woe:

I bought an HP OfficeJet Pro 8620 a few years ago but haven't used it for the last couple of years. I've been trying to set it up again, re-enrol Instant Ink etc and just get it working. I've been trying to get the printer working since January and it's become the most complicated and frustrating experience I've ever had with a piece of tech.

At first, the issue was being unable to connect to Web Services. I posted about that here:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Wireless-Networking-Internet/Web-Services-Cannot-Be-Enabled/m-...

And got a fairly quick response with a link to download a firmware update. I was able to update the firmware and Web Services seemed to be working. I thought that would be the end of my troubles. Of course it wasn't, how naïve of me.

Thinking I was golden, I tried to re-enrol with Instant Ink and the instructions asked me to do the following:

So I pressed the ePrint button. After checking registration status for ages, it then said:

I now get a little yellow exclamation on my ePrint icon, until I turn the printer off and on again. Then I press ePrint again and the same happens.

All this I mentioned in the other post I linked to, but no one has come back to help me so I'm posting it again with some further details, in the hope I can get some help.

So, after hours more searching, I found that I needed to download a setup thing on my computer:

So I ran this, and I was presented with a '1 - Prepare, 2 - Connect, 3 - Activate' screen. Step 1 completed fine, Step 2 turned up, I selected the set up a printer option and all seemed to be setting up OK. It even gave me a nice green tick next to ePrint Setup. That finished, and then it got to Step 3 - Activate. At which point, I got the following:

OK, nothing wrong with my internet connection on my computer, my printer is happily connected to my wifi but fine, I copied the link to clipboard and pasted it my browser, expecting to see some sort of Activation site. No. I get presented with this screen again:

Which gets me to download the same piece of set up software I'd already downloaded which takes me through the same sorry process all over again with the same end result. I'm now stuck in some sort of hellish neverending cycle of despair with no apparent way out.

Words can not express how much I utterly hate this whole set up thing. How can something that should be so simple is yet so unnecessarily awkward, user unfriendly, and terrifyingly awful? I mean, there seems to be a number of separate pieces of HP software on my computer. HP Smart, HP Print and Scan Doctor, HP Support Assistant, etc. None of which are any help, I'm told to go to HP Connected, which doesn't seem to be a thing now as it's 123HP or something, plus HP Smart on the web, which is the same as the app. I don't know what's real anymore. Honestly it's a complete mess.

Sorry for the rant but the number of hours I've spent trying to figure it out is incredible, I'm sure I've missed several of my children's birthdays by now. It feels like thousands of other people on the net have the same or similar issues but all with slightly different solutions, none of which seem to help me with mine. Trying to wade through it all is like trying to get through a swimming pool full of custard.

So, please, can someone somewhere help me? I'm on my knees begging! I'm sure whatever the fix is, it's probably really obvious and straightforward but I've become solution blind at this point. I just want the big, black, plastic brick in the corner to just...work!

[Kumar0307]

@Underhoove, Welcome to the HP Support Community! I’m here to help.

I understand you are not able to install the printer on the Win PC. I also see that you have not had a good experience installing or setting up the printer.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused. Let us try these steps:

First, we have to connect the printer to a wireless network.

On the printer screen, go to Setup > Network Setup > Restore network settings

Go back to Network > Wireless > Wireless setup wizard and select your network.

• Make sure the printer and the PC are connected to the same wireless network. Either 2.4 or 5GHz network.
• If you have a Dual-band router and both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks share the same name/SSID, the printer will not be able to connect to the network. In this case, contact your Internet service provider to assign different names to both networks.

Once the printer is connected, use the HP Smart app to print and scan from the computer

Download this app from the Microsoft Store.

Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click on the YES button to reply that the response was helpful and/or to say “Thank You”.

Have a great day!