printer will not interface with windows 10 suddenly

[Theresa11]

After recent avast and ccleaner scans my printer stopped working with the windows 10 computer I hooked it up to.  I had thought that when I changed over to W10 from W7 that I would have to download or copy new information but the printer seemed to work just fine plug and play.  It just worked.  I did not have avast on the system yet.  I was urged to get it, so I did. 

Not blaming anything, maybe I did something.  But I tried the method perscribed by hp, which was to just download the entire OS for that printer.  There was no response at all, as if it never happened, and yet no printer function either.  the computer finds the printer, the printer says its drivers are fine, but no marriage and no printer functionality. 

Been reading some back chatter on this forum saying this is happening to many here.  don't know what to believe.  can someone help me.  I am a secretary and need the things to function correctly.  thinking of getting a new printer to see if that is going to help.  costly fix. 

HELP?

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @Theresa11,

Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips! I understand you are having issues installing your HP Photosmart printer on Windows 10. Don't worry as I have a few suggestions which should help you resolve this issue.

To provide you with an accurate solution. I'll need a few more details:

How is the printer connected? USB/Ethernet/Wireless

Are you able to make a copy from the printer?

Have you tried to uninstall and reinstall the printer drivers?

In the meantime, let's try these steps here: 

Perform a Hard reset on the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Let’s first try and make a “photocopy” to determine whether the issue is with the printer or not. Place a document on the scanner glass and choose “Copy” option. If the printer is making a good copy, then the printer hardware is fine.

If the copy comes out fine, I would suggest this could be a possible an issue with the drivers. I would suggest here is to uninstall and reinstall the printer software.

First, unplug the USB cable from the printer if present.

Go to Control panel – Programs and feature – Select all the HP Photosmart 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.

Go to Run again, type “%temp%” and press enter to get the temporary files. Delete all the files here. Skip the items which cannot be deleted.

Restart your computer.

Now click http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/printers/dj3630/DJ3630__Basicx64_1107.exe to install the software.

Connect the USB cable if prompted and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Let me know if those steps worked for you.

If they did, that’s awesome!

Give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons,

That’ll help us and others see that we’ve got the answers!

Good Luck.

[Theresa11]

Dear Jeet, I did everything you suggested, twice, before you suggested it.  Having gone to other forums both on hp and microsoft, Result to date is that I can print from the machine but not interface with any windows software, like libre office writer or pdf.  I must eventually use those to print.  my next experiment is to hook the printer back into my W7 laptop to see if functionality is viable on that device.  I suspect it will be.  I suspect from inference upon reading some of the forum chatter on windows that some other printers not related to hp are also experiencing similar issues on W10.  Lots of smoke....must be a fire somewhere, yes?  will let you know what happens.  Cannot work on it today. 

[Theresa11]

More information:  I tried the experiment i mentioned about seeing if things worked fine with my laptop.  They did, it printed perfectly.  While I was about that my W10 computer was online and seemed to want to find the printer and start uninstalling the software I had so carefully just installed the day before as per your suggestion.  At one point in the process there was an opportunity to let HP know what was wrong, and it then downloaded a diagnostic tool that wanted to install W8 hp software for that device.  OK..... I obeyed instructions as best I could, but buttons would not work, so there was an issue or two.  No matter, at one point it suggested I change ports for my usb.  I gave it a shot.  suddenly everything worked.  Hmmm.  I did get some more work done, a few jobs that had backed up on me due to this mess. 

Edison tried many times to get that light bulb to work.  Probably overthought it.  but only by experimenting and failing many times do we finally get it right.  That being all that counts, well, we will just see what the next day holds.

Thank you for your time and energy helping me with my little mess.  Blessings

[Jeet_singh · Accepted solution]

Hi @Theresa11,

Thank you for the update,
I appreciate your time and efforts, 

I'm glad to hear you found the solution you were looking for.
Thanks for taking the time to let the community know about the solution.

You've been great to work with and it has been a genuine pleasure interacting with you.
I hope both you and your product works great and remain healthy for a long time 😉 

To simply say thanks for my efforts to assist you, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos.
And mark my post as Accepted Solution to help others find a similar solution as you have.

Take care now and do have a fabulous week ahead. 🙂
Regards,