Dead in the Water

[SaltLakeHiker]

I'm a fairly sophisticated computer user and have spent at least six hours trying to resolve this. I just can't get this printer to work. (There is not enough room here to detail all of the things I've tried.)

I disconnected the printer and uninstalled every possibly related bit of software and I put it aside (long enough for several reboots). Then I reconnected the printer and downloaded the basic driver software from the HP website and tried to install it. The installer took a long time and then stopped with an error.

Clicking on the Details button shows I'm missing a file.

This file does not in fact exist, although I highly doubt this is the main issue behind all the problems I'm having.

The HP website has several articles on troubleshooting this error. They are apparently old and in reference to Windows XP and contain instructions that could never apply to Windows 10.

It seems extreme to go out and buy a new printer over this but I'm absolutely dead in the water. I can't even print my invoices to PDF without an active printer! Would sure love some suggestion that can move me forward one step.

Additional Information

I did find an ntprint.inf file in my C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ntprint.inf_amd64_19a3fe50fa9a21b6 directory so I copied this file into the expected folder. But I get exactly the same error message, and so I the error is clearly bogus and this dialog box does not reveal what the real issue is.

[SaltLakeHiker]

Spent two hours on the phone with support. Finally, we installed the driver for another printer (8600, I think) and it worked. We were never able to explain why the correct driver (OfficeJet 6960) wouldn't work.